Hamlin School, Rivals Rally For Student

HAYTI, SD - Family comes together when tragedy strikes and so does a community. This season at Hamlin High School, a t-shirt is bringing everyone together for their classmate, Tyler Taschner, who can't take the basetball floor.

"He's a role model to everybody's kid," said Hamlin coach Brad Noem. "I've got three boys and they look up to him. They've looked up to him forever and now everybody wants to step up and help him."

Number ten belongs to the Hamlin High School senior. He's one of Coach Noem's best players.  And this year, his number is in the stands and on the sidelines, but not on the basketball court.

"[We'll] play the season for him, and remember when we go out and play that he can't do it again; do it for him." said Taschner's teammate Dylan Brugman.

Brugman and Taschner's friendship began before either were old enough to play on the court. It's hard to find a friend who knows more about what Taschner is going through at a Colorado recovery center since the hunting accident that left him unable to move from the waist down.

"He's good' he's getting better and learning how to be independent in a wheel chair. He's doing things on his own," Brugman said. 

And as the community continues to find ways to rally around the Taschner family, a T-shirt has become the new must-have item for an entire town that believes miracles can happen.

"They had to stop making the shirts for awhile because they were getting so backed up with so many orders in, he couldn't keep up with his others," said Noem. 

"They've sold 900 of them I've heard," Brugman said. "And they get $8 for the family for them."

Even the opposing team is supporting Taschner. The Deuel Cardinals bought 100 shirts. Everyone is wearing them, including Nathan Lundberg, who himself is injured this year.

"I respect him as an athlete," Lundberg said. "So we really appreciate him and Hamlin and thought we'd better do this for them."

Those are the gestures that will be remembered long after the clock runs out, proving that a community can be anyone, and that home-court advantage isn't always about who shoots the final basket, but about everyone --friend and foe-- who are always in your court.

Taschner's friends hope he will be back in South Dakota by mid-January. 

Tyler Taschner's Caring Bridge website