Gene Frenette: Former UF hoops star, author Patric Young stays positive through medical ordeals
Once 38 teenagers from the Ponte Vedra High lacrosse team assembled in the school’s media center Monday to listen to the man speaking from a wheelchair, there was no sign in their eyes or body language of wondering when this after-school session would be over.
Sharks’ coach Chris Polanski’s kids were attentive, focused, practically hanging on the speaker’s every word.
That’s because Patric Young has a voice, a smile and engaging presence that compels people to gravitate to him.
More from Gene: Jaguars, Josh Allen will have to find common ground on monster long-term contract
It’s a skill he had long before a horrific one-vehicle accident on June 29, 2022 — while delivering farm equipment for an irrigation company on a rural Nebraska road — left the former University of Florida and Providence High basketball star paralyzed, changing the trajectory of his life forever.
Young has endured one medical ordeal after another since his work truck overturned into a ditch. It turns out severely damaging the T-7 and T-8 vertebrae in his spine, enough to require an 8 ½-hour surgery at a South Dakota hospital, was just the beginning of a journey that will likely define him more than his well-respected basketball career.
After more than a dozen infection-related operations (and more to come), unexpected setbacks and relentless battles of summoning the mental fortitude to stay positive through so much calamity, Young manages to come across as energized and reborn.
A basketball life that took him to the professional level in six different foreign countries, preceded by a 1,307-point career at Florida, is gone. Walking again might also be a long shot.
But Young’s resolve to provide hope for people with spinal cord injuries, to inspire young athletes needing encouragement or anybody in distress has emboldened him.
He recently wrote a detailed, provocative account of his medical journey (the last two chapters written in August and September during a 128-day stay at Jacksonville's UF Shands Hospital to treat infections and recovery), resulting in a book titled: “Sit To Rise.”
The 32-year-old Young credits his strong Christian faith, along with family support from parents Robert and Bennita Young, sister Sara, wife Whitney and 11-year-old stepdaughter Kyla, for uplifting him through unimaginably trying circumstances.
He gives major props to all the dedicated health-care professionals in Colorado, South Dakota and Jacksonville for their encouragement. In his 132-page book, Young holds nothing back.
Besides numerous attempts to inspire people facing adverse circumstances, the book features interesting medical anecdotes, plus a couple jarring admissions from Young’s past at Florida and post-college that make his story even more compelling.
Young opened himself up to being vulnerable in ways that will surprise readers (more on that later), but also felt it necessary to make his message more authentic.
“Thankfully, there’s a God who specializes in transforming our darkest days into purposeful pillars,” Young wrote. “I have committed the rest of my life to shining my light. The light that cannot be dwindled by life’s circumstances.”
At 6-foot-9, between his authoritative tone and gracious presence, Young connects as a motivational speaker with all types of audiences. Whether it’s 2,500 at a corporate bank engagement in Oklahoma or a small group in his hometown, they listen intently.
Ponte Vedra High senior goalkeeper Jack Pelot, bound for Penn of the Ivy League in the fall, was enthralled by Young’s talk to the Sharks, saying: “It’s all up top, in his mind. He went from playing basketball at a high college level to being in a wheelchair. It’s so sad what happened, but it’s crazy how positive his perspective is.”
Persevering through the pain
Since Young first went public about his accident and recovery to the Times-Union in August 2022, stating his intention to use his life as a paraplegic to positively influence others, he hasn’t wavered from that promise.
Despite needing plenty of medical care and still waiting to achieve his goal of totally independent living, Young stays busy with his job as a basketball analyst for SEC Network and remains in demand as a motivational speaker.
Be it a corporation paying him big dollars or a free speech to church groups and schools, Young is lifting people up and selling his book ($6.29 on Kindle, $16.29 soft cover, $26.29 hard cover) since Streamline Publishing released it in November.
But his life has seen more than a few bad turns since the initial surgery, which kept him in hospitals in South Dakota and Denver for nearly two months before returning to Jacksonville.
Last spring, he noticed a wound in his groin area about the size of a dime, which required a five-day treatment at Baptist South and additional cleanups.
The antibiotics he was on didn’t eradicate the problem and he was admitted back to Baptist on May 29, then transferred to UF Health the next day with a fever that hit 105 degrees.
It ended up being the start of an infection train that kept Young hospitalized for 128 days, challenging him in ways more difficult than his first long-term stay because he had expectations of continued gradual improvement.
Once again, Young found himself fighting the demons of negativity as two weeks in a hospital turned into two months, three months, four months.
“I could have died if it hadn’t been treated, just the danger of it becoming septic,” said Patric. “I thought it was going to be a few surgeries to clean it up, get on some antibiotics, but it went on way longer than I could have ever imagined.
“All I kept thinking was, ‘I got to get out of here.’“
Nobody saw how the mental grind wore on Patric like his mother, a retired nurse who was at his bedside every one of those 128 days and observing all the treatments.
Bennita, after working in various capacities in an emergency room (University Medical Center), pediatric ICU at Wolfson and serving as an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) coordinator at UF Shands in her career, embraces the role of being a calming influence in her only son’s life.
“You have to find that strength within,” said Bennita. “Yes, Patric has friends and family supporting him, but I think he’s turned the corner because of a pool of inner strength that he didn’t know he had.
“He’s never been angry about the situation, but in any kind of a loss, you lose a part of yourself and there’s a grieving process. You have to remind yourself, ‘this is not who I am, this is where I am, so what do I have to do to get to the next step?’ That mental toughness for Patric had to kick in.”
Temporary living arrangements
Getting out of the hospital in early October was not entirely exhilarating for Patric because of one sobering reality: he needed almost round-the-clock, professional medical care to treat his wounds.
That included rotating his 6-foot-9 body at times and other unpleasant duties to ensure some quality of life.
He made the hard decision to move back into his parents’ Northside home. For now, Patric lives apart from Whitney (she works remotely for a health department in her native Nebraska) and Kyla in Baymeadows until his medical hardship relents enough to reunite with his wife and stepdaughter.
“I would have had to go to an assisted living place if not for my parents,” said Young.
By watching how the hospital nurses treated her son’s wounds every day for a four-month period, Bennita learned how to properly treat Patric. Robert, a former USFL player with the Jacksonville Bulls, could provide the physical strength needed for the chore of moving Patric.
“Obviously, it’s not an ideal situation,” said Patric. “It’s a period of non-normalcy. My parents are retired and spending a lot of time taking care of their 32-year-old son. I kind of felt like a burden at some point for my parents.
“I’m missing out on certain parts of [married] life. It makes me cherish the moments when I’m with everybody. The best-case scenario for me medically was to take this option. I wasn’t strong enough on my own to rotate my body. The quality of life for Whitney and Kyla would not have been good.”
The good news is Patric doesn’t need the 18 hours of daily care that was initially required when he first left the hospital. It’s down to about four hours.
He began driving his 2022 Silverado truck last month because it contains a special gear shift. It controls both the vehicle’s speed and brakes, allowing Young to operate it without using his foot.
But maybe the biggest breakthrough for Patric, who has lived with the terrible inconvenience since the accident of not being able to control his bowel movements, was acquiring a colostomy bag (8 inches x 6 inches) three weeks ago that can be well hidden in his stomach area.
“The colostomy bag has made my life so much easier,” said Patric. “It’s an absolute game-changer.”
It brings him a step closer to the primary goal of returning to independent living and being with Whitney and Kyla, but Young still has some medical hurdles to climb.
He will need more surgery to try and permanently address the wounds, which will require a muscle transplant from his stomach into the wound, then a skin graft to cover it up. Surgery is scheduled for April 9 at UF Shands, but Young hopes it can happen sooner, possibly in Gainesville.
“It’s not Patric’s dream to stay with us forever,” said Bennita. “We just can’t put a timeline on it. Those wounds have to heal.”
The good wife
Few parts of Young’s life the past few years are as complex as his relationship with the former Whitney Abbott, whom he first met in 2011 at a since-demolished Gainesville bar when they were attending Florida.
No sooner did they start going out as friends when Whitney found out she had become pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's child. It put an obvious kink in the relationship, though the pair remained cordial. Whitney gave birth to Kyla, then finished school with help of her late grandmother from Nebraska coming to Gainesville to help care for her granddaughter.
While the pair stayed in touch after graduation, Patric and Whitney also went through a three-year period from 2018 until May, 2021, without any communication.
Though always smitten by Whitney, the lengthy separation led to this one-liner in Patric’s book: “If you had told me in 2018 that Whitney Lee Abbott was going to be my wife, I would have told you [that] you had better odds on the Jaguars winning the Super Bowl.”
After his pro basketball career ended, Patric reached back out to her on Facebook and the two started a whirlwind courtship. Seven months later, Whitney said yes to his proposal on their trip to Paris.
Plans for an elaborate wedding on July 9, 2022, in Omaha with 200 guests were in the works. Everything was on schedule, until Young overturned the truck in the ditch just 10 days before the nuptials.
It moved Patric to tears that Whitney married him anyway on July 7 without any hesitation. Not in a church, but in a garden area outside Avery McKennan hospital in South Dakota, with about 10 immediate family members attending.
As he waited at the hospital for Whitney to arrive for the short wedding ceremony, Young said in his book, “I just cried, and cried, and cried.”
He got emotional thinking about Whitney not getting a church wedding or walking down the aisle in a dress as once planned. Young vowed then to make it up to his wife and give her that moment one day.
“For me, it was the first time I really felt the realness of my injuries and what happened,” Patric told the T-U. “Just overwhelmed with emotion at that time, kind of disbelief that life is where it was at that time. I’m just so thankful my wife stood beside me and is taking on life with me.”
So far, it’s been a different life than the couple envisioned. Young’s disability and persistent infections aren’t allowing him to have the independent life he hopes to achieve in the coming months.
Coming clean about his former self
Throughout his 599 days as a paraplegic, Young has evolved into a quintessential thinker.
His book and public speaking reveals a great empathy for others, while also challenging his audience to search for ways of self-improvement. Young talked a lot with the Sharks’ lacrosse team about accountability and encouraging them to stay motivated every day, so as to not let their teammates down.
Young made his point by relating a story how he felt he “almost wasted” his freshman year at Florida because he had unrealistic expectations. He went so far as to consider telling two-time national championship coach Billy Donovan how he should coach him.
He told the Sharks’ players Donovan and assistant coach Rob Lanier had to call him into the office, telling Young he would be better off transferring “if he wasn’t going to be more coachable.”
That kind of message seemed to resonate with the lacrosse players. Part of what makes Young such an effective speaker and author is a willingness to share his own foibles.
His book is chock-full of introspection, recognizing flaws where he learned life lessons to pass on to others. Even when the truth is embarrassing, Young believes he could not evolve in his faith by hiding past warts.
He looks back at some of his time at UF with sadness and regret, acknowledging he spent too much time engaging in “womanizing, drinking alcohol and partying without limitations” and “it destroyed my witness as a follower of Christ.”
He described himself as “somewhat of a fraud,” adding that teammates and friends “saw a far different side of me than who I truly was.”
Young takes his brutal honesty a step further in the book, writing he had long struggled with an addiction to pornography until midway through 2021. He made that admission to Whitney when they started dating, then sought help from a six-month program called “Deep Clean” run by a former addict, Sathiya Sam, to rid himself of the habit.
It was a startling revelation for an athlete with such a wholesome image, and Young wrestled whether to put that in the book.
“From my own personal struggle, that [addiction] had no place in my life,” said Young. “How many men struggle with this sin in private? It was hard to open up and share those things.
“But if I wanted to experience freedom and love, I had to share it. I just know many people will read that and connect to it, maybe encourage them to take steps to remedy it.”
Living a purpose-driven life
The final chapter in Young’s book, titled “Crawl to Walk,” was a journal he put together on Sept. 12, 2023 over halfway through his 128-day stint in the hospital.
He presents it as a mindset for recovery, in whatever form that might take as time goes on. While Young is still determined to walk again, he realizes that what matters most is taking full advantage of every day.
Young treasures interaction with people, especially those who need help or encouragement. He wants to be a vehicle for positive change in as many lives as possible, and if that means sharing tough moments from his own life, so be it.
“Patric is probably one of the most spiritually strong people I’ve seen at any age deal with what he’s had to deal with,” said Jimmy Martin, his basketball coach at Providence. “I would have to ask myself this question: ‘Could I make it through that kind of stuff and still have a positive outlook?’ “
What resonates most from Young is gratitude for not just his own family, but the dozens of health-care professionals like Bennita who have helped him rise above his physical limitations.
As he wrote in the book: “I would much rather have a paralyzed body than a paralyzed mind.”
He sees whatever pain and suffering he endures not so much as an obstacle, but a test of faith that can lead to greater perseverance, even if God doesn’t allow him to walk again.
“The healing I long for could be years away or something I do not experience on this side of eternity,” Young wrote. “It is not for me to ruminate on what He will decide to do in my life, but for my faith and belief in His goodness to lead me to action.”
Seven pages later, Young added: “If I were to linger on the things that I can’t do, I would be miserable and think there’s no way I could live my fullest life.”
Young, who is making his first plane trip alone since the accident to a speaking engagement Tuesday in Chicago, is living that full life, even if it’s not quite the one he would have imagined a couple years ago.
But through a ton of darkness, there have been so many points of light. He has a powerful message for people who need encouragement, who want to rise above their own circumstances.
In 2022, Young spoke at Johnson & Johnson Institute in Jacksonville. A man who heard him that day returned to listen to him again last year, then came up to Young with his own message after the presentation.
“He told me he was on the verge of suicide and that I saved his life,” Young said. “That alone let me know what I’m striving to do has an impact.”
Sitting in a wheelchair, Patric Young has never stood taller.
Young’s book can be purchased on Amazon or for multiple copies, go to his website at PatricYoung.com
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: UF hoops star, author Patric Young inspires people despite medical challenges
