Blake: After accident, homecoming cuts through the mixed emotions of Western Harnett's Ian Bristow

By J. Mike Blake, HighSchoolOT Contributor

Sorting through mixed emotions is as much of a part of high school life as are worksheets and yearbooks.

For Western Harnett senior Ian Bristow, that ambivalence was ever-present on homecoming.

As a junior, it was Bristow's athleticism that was apparent. He played on the varsity basketball, football, and baseball teams.

But he suffered paralysis from the chest down following an accident that occurred right after his last junior year exam. On nearby Docs Road, while heading to where his mother works at Overhills Elementary, he overcorrected his truck and flipped six times.

The mixed feelings are there when he's on the sideline for the Eagles, using a camouflaged all-terrain wheelchair and taking caution to be behind the play no matter who has the ball.

He wouldn't want to be anywhere else — well, save for the times when it tears at him on the inside.

Often, those competing feelings exist at the same time.

"Honestly, I kind of accepted who I am now and what I've gone through as like part of me, so the worst part of it now is really football. Coming out to practice, watching everybody play, and I'm not out there, that's probably the hardest part right now," Bristow said. "I don't know — it's like a love-hate relationship."

And who can blame him for feeling that way?

Who can blame him when his first reaction to winning homecoming king — it was announced at the midday pep rally rather than at halftime — was more ambivalence, wondering why he was voted the winner by his peers, what their motive was and how it meant he should react?

"He was a little bummed with it to start with because he thought he got pity votes 'Just because I'm the kid in the wheelchair,'" said assistant coach Stephen Hales.

"But if anybody knew Ian before the accident, he would've won it hands-down anyways."

This was important perspective to keep.

When it comes to the topic of Bristow those around him have no mixed emotions whatsoever.

It was true during those months of ICU and rehab, where he had visitors like head coach Zach Tenuta coming by all the time. For a school with a large, rural district like Western Harnett's, it can be hard to rally a school community around a common cause — but not for Bristow.

"It was just insane how much love we got while I was in the hospital," he said.

Bristow patrols the sidelines with a coach's headset over his ears, not out of obligation, but because Tenuta wants his presence around for the rest of the players and staff to benefit from.

"Everybody loves him in the building," Hales said. "One way or another, he deserved (homecoming king)."

Having his homecoming king honors announced so far ahead of the game gave Bristow some time to put aside the bitter part of "bittersweet" and accept the good news as just that: good.

He was all smiles as he wore his homecoming king crown that night, the ambivalence melted away by the warmth of feeling loved.