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Seventh grader looking to next year to get on the field

Sports reporter

It was just starting to feel like fall Thursday as the final Marion Middle School seventh grade football game was underway.

The Wildcats weren't moving the ball very well, and Justin Barr wanted a touchdown.

"Let's go guys," he yelled. "You can do it."

The smell of the autumn air on this football night was refreshing, but so was Justin's attitude.

You see, he had to deal with more than just the team losing, because instead of getting in the game and scoring a touchdown, all he could do was cheer from the sidelines.

He was now in his sixth week of being in a wheelchair, and although he spun around on the track like he was a break dancer straight out of 1985, he was anxious to be walking again.

By Friday he was.

Still, playing football was still out of the question.

Battling injuries

"Why couldn't this have been Friday," Justin asked his mom Caroline Kelley at the doctor's office? "Then I could have at least played one game."

It was Tuesday, Sept. 4, and the MMS Wildcats were preparing to play at Hesston two days later. Justin was to see his first action of the season in the team's second game.

That was, until this visit to the doctor.

Caroline felt bad for her son, but said he had to go with the flow. His only option was to have surgery and be in a wheelchair for six weeks because of a problem with the growth plates on both hips, stemming from radiation treatment of cancer when he was three.

"They were mush from the radiation," Kelley said.

Being hurt or sick was nothing new to 12-year-old Justin.

After having been diagnosed with cancer at three, he broke his arm in the second grade, has had two different bouts with pneumonia, and a battle with an appendicitis.

Now the growth plates in both hips had been deteriorating from the radiation, and Justin was told he was not allowed to participate in any team sports this year.

"About next year," Caroline said, "[The doctor] said, 'We'll see.'"

"You gotta do what you gotta do"

Justin was back at school 36 hours after the surgery, but was tired from using the elevator all day to go to his different classes.

"It was hard to get used to," he said.

Flash ahead to Thursday, and the way he maneuvered the chair and his positive attitude, you would have thought he had been in a chair his whole life.

Caroline said their motto has been: "You gotta do what you gotta do," during this whole process.

Then that meant cheering on his favorite Wildcat sports teams for now instead of playing.

Justin's favorite sport is soccer, and while MMS does not have a team, he is okay with cheering on the football team, and is thinking about managing the wrestling team in the spring.

Not out of the woods

When Caroline and Justin visited his doctor Friday, he was scheduled to be out of the chair the next Tuesday. Caroline was hoping he could possibly get out a little early, just in time for a school dance the next day.

"He was so compliant with the doctor's orders," she said. "He understands this is serious."

The doctor told him no break dancing at the dance.

It was a great step for Justin to be out of the chair, but he still has plenty to worry about.

Caroline said while Justin is cancer free, problems like he had with the growth plates can always occur.

Being in the wheelchair wasn't that big of a deal, considering it helped him get back to normal.

It was the fact if they had not caught the growth plate problem when they did, it could have been disastrous.

"We're never out of the woods," she said.

But for now Justin is adjusting to getting back to normal, even if his legs are a little sore and weak from nearly 40 days of staying off them.

"I felt relieved because I didn't have to be in a wheelchair any longer than I had to," he said.

And while sports are still out of the question, Justin will focus on other things such as his favorite subject: art.

"I like to draw," he said. — "Anything."

He doesn't feel quite the same about math.

"I don't like it. But I'm good at it," he said with a laugh.

And laughing is all the seventh grader can do after what he has been through.

"I just told him I think God is just trying to tell you that He wants you to be a doctor for little kids because you've been through it all," Caroline said.

Justin said he hadn't thought about what he wanted to be yet, and Caroline agreed thinking about becoming a doctor right now might be too much to ask.

"Let's just get through language arts," she said with a laugh.

Justin nodded in agreement, and then asked if he could find his friends before the game started.

He hopped off the back of his mom's pickup and walked toward the stadium, albeit with a slight limp.

It didn't matter. He was doing what he had to do: going with the flow.

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