Tensley Brandon remembers only bits and pieces of the accident that took basketball away from him. Just one day before Thanksgiving in 1998 on a back road in Charlotte, NC, his promising basketball career was gone and doctors did not think he would make it.

Brandon was an 1lth-grader at Independence High School in Charlotte and on the varsity basketball team. Basketball was the only reason he went to Independence rather than his local high school. He was the small forward and point guard for the team. He hadn’t won any championships yet, but was looking forward to it. The high school junior was popular, independent and had decent grades.

On Nov. 25, 1998, Brandon headed to basketball practice. He had not fully recovered from being sick with something like the flu but did not want to miss practice that early Wednesday morning. He was one of the youngest varsity players and felt he needed to get to practice on time.He drove his ’98 Mazda 626 down a back road in Charlotte to save time.

“It was very curvy,” said Brandon.

Brandon admitted he was going a little over the speed limit because he was already running late. He doesn’t remember what the weather was like or if he had on his seat belt. He does remember losing control of the car going around a curve and then he blacked out. His car was totaled and he was in a coma.

“He hit a tree in a yard. The car was split in two and Tensley was pinned inside, ” said Celia Brandon-Phelan, Brandon’s mother.”I think a man saw my accident and called for assistance,” said Tensley Brandon.

First responders to the scene thought he was already dead. He was rushed to the hospital where doctors were unsure if they could help him.”My mom left as soon as she heard. My mom probably thought she’d lose me too, ” said Brandon.

His stepfather came quickly also. An only child, Brandon was raised by his mother and stepfather. His dad passed away while he was in the second grade. Occasionally, he thinks about him but has never asked his mother what happened.

“I just don’t want to bring up any bad memories,” said Brandon.He thinks his father’s death had something to do with internal bleeding.Brandon’s family was told that many people who had been in an accident as bad as his don’t make it.

Local ministers came to console the family and pray for his recovery. The newspapers in Charlotte followed the accident of the promising varsity player closely and Independence High School missed one of its best students.

“He was unconscious for a while. In order to save his life they had to amputate his leg or he would die, ‘ said Brandon –Phelan. “He’s a miracle child.”

After the accident happened, Brandon’s mother stayed at the hospital. All day she’d sit beside him or be near by. Her time with him began to drop down to half days with Tensley rather than full days and then just checking in with him.

“In order to handle Tensley and work I had to release it to God,” she said.

She returned to work and asked her co-workers not to speak about him in front of her. She answered occasional questions but steered clear of in depth conversations on her son’s health. Almost six months after the accident, doctors had nearly given up on reviving Brandon. But shocking everyone, he woke up.

“I wasn’t there right when he woke up, ” said Brandon-Phelan.Doctors called her and let her know he was out of his coma. “He woke up and said he wanted his mother,” she said.

Tensley Brandon was not completely out of the woods. He had suffered some serious injuries in his accident. A bad head injury cost him his short-term memory and erased most, if not all, of the accident from his mind. He had to have a tracheotomy and numerous IVs to sustain him while he was in his coma. His throat and left hand carry the scars.

When he woke up, he realized he would never play basketball, as he knew it, again. His mother said that for a while, he wouldn’t look at basketball at all.

“It was very hard for me to realize that I couldn’t play anymore,” said Brandon. “But you can’t linger on the past.”

Brandon had been playing basketball all his life. He’d started out at recreational leagues. Local community centers like the YMCA would have teams and Brandon was more than willing to play. Then he moved up to the Amateur Athletic Union. It was the most competitive until he reached middle and high school. Now every part of his body had to have some form of physical therapy and he spoke with a therapist about not being able to play anymore.

“He had to learn how to talk, walk and eat all over again,” said his mother. “He had to relearn what he had already learned.”

Despite the hardships he was facing, Brandon said he never thought about giving up. He never stayed back in high school and he graduated on time with his friends at Independence High School.

“People thought I would never go to college,” said Brandon… But he wanted to go.

He did all the necessary work. SAT’s, college applications, transcripts, and all the things high school seniors were doing so was he. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Winston-Salem State University were both considered by him and his parents. They literally walked the campuses to see which one would be best for him.

“A &T was the most accommodating. Winston-Salem had too many hills,” said his mother.

Brandon and his mother took the next step and met with Peggy Oliphant, director of A & T’s Veteran and Disability Support Services, in the summer of 2000. They brought Tensley’s paper work and discussed the possibilities. Still suffering from mobility and memory problems several options were available.

Extension time and separate rooms for tests, a transcriber, note-taker and supplemental instructions for assignments and projects were all offered to Brandon. A & T was looking better and better. That Fall, Tensley moved into the Aggie Suites.

“We just wanted to get him here, acclimated and learning to his capabilities,” said Oliphant. “He was very dependent on me for everything, now I hardly see him. He would call me and ask ‘Well Ms. Oliphant what should I do about this or that.'”

When Brandon first arrived he chose Journalism and Mass Communications as his major. His concentration has, since, become print journalism. He took 12 hours but became frustrated with himself for not remembering everything.

“His short term memory keeps him at six to nine hours but he has a G.P.A. of 3.4 and received an invitation to the Golden Key Honor Society,” said Oliphant.

Each semester Oliphant and Brandon sit down together and look over his curriculum to get his schedule done. They look at the type of work necessary and the kind of material covered to determine how many hours he’ll take. His name and schedule are put on the list of students who have signed up for Oliphant’s program “Note-Taking for the Disabled”.

The program was started in 2003 on a volunteer basis. In 2004, the program was able to pay its 40 note-takers in 50 classes. This year there are 55 note-takers in more than 60 classes.

Now, Tensley Brandon is getting along well. He celebrated his 22nd birthday, is in junior standing with North Carolina A & T, has no plans on ever playing wheelchair basketball but has begun to watch the sport again and… he’s taking driving lessons. He does not know when he will graduate but is sure his time is coming.

“We made a choice, that no matter how long it took, he would finish college,” said Brandon’s mother.

• Shevaun J. Lassiter