Photo of Shea at his second training camp at the Olympic Training Center, Chula Vista, CA - April 2014.
Shea Cassidy, a talented former Pateadores’ U15-U19 player, is representing the United States with the U.S Paralympic National Soccer Team at the 9th Annual Football 7-a-side International Trophy “Ciutat de Barcelona” in Barcelona, Spain. Shea’s path to the Paralympic National Team is the result of years of overcoming-the-odds, and his ongoing love of the game of soccer.
Four years ago, a near-fatal skateboarding accident left Shea in a coma with a traumatic brain injury. Doctors’ prognoses at the time stated that there was a high probability that Shea would never walk and talk again. However, with a month in the Neuro-ICU at UC Irvine Medical Center, another month living in a rehabilitation hospital, and three more months in outpatient therapy, Shea began the difficult physical and mental process of learning to do things all over again.
Today, after years of hard work, Shea has mostly overcome his disabilities, and barely meets the minimum standard to be considered a paralypian. Shea was selected for the team by Head coach Stuart Sharp, after Shea attended soccer camps at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.
Live streaming the games live from Barcelona Spain.
http://www.fecpcinternational.org/
Follow them on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/parasoccer
US Soccer
http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/04/22/13/05/140422-pnt-april-otc-camp
Left: Photo of Shea when he was on Wade Fraser's BU19 Premier team in 2009.
Right: Photo of Shea on September 20, 2010 at Healthbridge Children's Rehabilitation hospital, 4 weeks and 2 days after his skateboarding accident.