Alex Welch, Lawrence North wrestling manager with cerebral palsy, inspires and pushes teammates. Matt Kryger/IndyStar
INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Welch was born 15 years ago Thursday. He was premature by 15 weeks and weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces. Doctors told Antoinette and Corey Welch that their only child might never be able to see, hear or walk.
“He beat a lot of the odds,” Antoinette Welch said this week.
Alex Welch, who has cerebral palsy, continues to beat the odds. Now a freshman at Lawrence North, Welch has been welcomed to the wrestling team. He rides the bus to meets, attends every practice and takes part in conditioning workouts as the wrestlers take turns pushing his wheelchair around the outdoor track.
“Faster, faster!” Welch yells while timing each lap with a stopwatch.
“Smiling the whole time,” Lawrence North coach Jason Stewart said.
Last week, before a match against rival Lawrence Central, the Wildcats paid back Alex for his commitment to the team. In the weeks leading up to the meet, Alex asked his mother if he could do extra physical therapy.
“He usually doesn’t like physical therapy,” Antoinette said. “But I still didn’t know what they had planned. It was a total surprise.”
When Antoinette arrived at Lawrence Central, Alex was with the team, wearing a warmup suit. Underneath, Alex was wearing a wrestling singlet. His good friend, fellow freshman Max Allen, pushed his wheelchair out for introductions for the 128-pound class.
A few minutes later, wearing freshman teammate Brody Smith’s wrestling shoes, Alex walked to the middle of the mat. He was helped on each side by assistant coaches Jason Smith and Nick Smith. Alex held out his right hand to the official, who raised it skyward and declared him the winner of the forfeited match as the crowd erupted in applause.
“It meant the world for him,” Brody Smith said. “He has overcome a lot in his life with his disability. In eighth grade, he wasn’t walking that much. But now sometimes in the hallways you will see him walking or see him walking at lunch. I think we’re inspiring him and he’s inspiring us. He gives us a good vibe in the wrestling room.”
Alex’s position as a manager is a role he takes seriously. So much so that he has told his parents to schedule any potential surgeries dealing with his cerebral palsy for the summer and not during wrestling season. He makes frequent trips to Shriners Hospital in Chicago for treatment for the neurological disorder that affects movement and coordination.
“He will have a few more surgeries over the years but he has told me that it can’t be during the season,” Antoinette said. “He would rather give up his summer than miss wrestling season. I told him that I would try to keep that promise for him.”
Antoinette worried about Alex making the transition from middle school to high school. He first became part of the wrestling team last year as an eighth grader at Fall Creek Valley Middle School. He was quiet and shy at first, but quickly developed a rapport with the team.
Max Allen, a freshman who wrestles in the 106-pound class, said it is impossible not to be engaged by Alex’s bright smile and personality.
“He’s happy all of the time,” Allen said. “The week of the LC meet, he kept saying he couldn’t wait to get there and wrestle. He’s with us every meet. If we have to meet at the school at 6 in the morning, he’s there to ride the bus with us.”
Alex is quick to say he is a manager and not a coach, but he does mimic the coaches during drills. That back-and-forth has developed a bond between the wrestlers and Alex. When Smith won his weight class at the freshman Marion County meet last week, the first person he texted was Alex.
“Brody brought home the championship,” Alex told his parents at dinner that night.
Antoinette was in tears as she watched Alex walk to the middle of the mat last week. Bigger than the actual moment was the fact that Alex had found his place on a team that loves him.
“We tell our guys all the time that there is so much more to learn than just wrestling moves,” Stewart said. “They brought him in and treated him just the same as everybody else. That is phenomenal. Things like that are why I do this job. That’s worth a million dollars.”
It’s worth more than that to Alex. He credits teammates such as Brody and Max for teaching him to be a good teammate. But it is clear the team is learning just as much from him.
At the end of practice, Alex sits in his wheelchair in the middle of the team. The first time, he breaks down the team on “One, two, three, state champs!” The second time, on his own, Alex switches it to, “One, two, three, family!”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.