West Burlington, IA-The doctors told Nicole Morris she would never walk again.  With multiple surgeries and countless hours of physical therapy, Nicole proved them wrong. Nicole Morris is a 2018 Gold Medal Honor Student Wapello High School graduate and a native of Wapello, Iowa.  As an early child, Nicole had the chicken pox.  While getting the virus, the disease spread to the back of her neck and paralyzed her entire body. When the attack happened, Nicole's mother took her to the closest hospital. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong. The original diagnosis was that Nicole might have broken her arm and was sent home. That night Nicole cried all night and ran a 101 fever. Her mother took her Iowa City the next morning. From there Nicole was rushed to Shriner's Children Hospital in Chicago, where they diagnosed her with Transverse Myelitis. Transverse Myelitis is an inflammation of both sides of one section of the spinal cord. At the time, this disease was very rare and new to most doctors. Nicole was paralyzed for only 2 weeks from the shoulders down. After those 2 weeks, the doctor said whatever Nicole would learn in the next 6 months would be all she was ever going to learn. Nicole began to start walking but was walking on her toes. The doctors did Botox injections in her heals to see if that would lower them, but the injections didn't work. The doctors then tried heel cord releases on both legs, which was located behind her calves. This surgery helped solve that problem, but then her leg muscles started to stiffen so she couldn't lift her knees up. The doctors then had to do hamstring releases behind both knees to loosen her muscles. At this point her right knee was starting to turn in as well which resulted in having the femur bone rotated in her right leg turning her knee back out. Nicole had a metal plate and 4 screws put in her leg for 2 years. After all of the operations (6 in total), Nicole had to use various kinds of walking equipment including a behind walker, arm crutches, knee braces, leg braces that went in her shoes, and a wheelchair. Nicole has learned how to handle many challenges but some things she still can't control like her leg muscle spasms, falling because she can't get her balance, and some days are just bad walking days.

Nicole Morris, a freshman art major at SCC, made her decision to come to Southeastern after attending the SCC West Burlington campus for an English class research project her senior year.  It was at the Welcome Back Day orientation event hosted by SCC prior to the first day of school, when Nicole was approached to become a member of the Sport Shooting team.  Nicole had never been involved in sports. Middle school is when it really hit Nicole that she was never going to participate in sports.  It was something that was just not an option given her experience with Transverse Myelitis. She decided to talk with the coaches and attended a practice.  Nicole followed the team to one of the events to get a taste of what it was really like.  She fell in love. Nicole began to practice with the team and was able to participate in one of the teams competitive events.  Each practice Nicole began to improve her shooting scores. Due to balance and standing for a long periods of time, Nicole shoots from a wheelchair. Her first competitive score she shot 54 out of 100.  Her goal is to improve her shooting in the 90's scoring range.  Head Sport Shooting Coach Tim Weaver said "Nicole has been a pleasure to have on the team.  The team has welcomed Nicole on to the team and does not treat her any different than anyone else.  We will take any trap shooters who want to try. The group this year is like a family."  Nicole had this to say about her teammates, "My teammates have impressed me, they have not treated me any differently and make me feel welcome."  Nicole plans to graduate from SCC and transfer to a four year school to finish her degree in art.  Her career goal is to become an artist in glass.  Nicole would love the opportunity to complete in sport shooting at the four year level.  The SCC Sport Shooting team competes in both the fall and spring.  The team practices at the Montrose Gun Club located in Montrose, IA.  Visit www.sccblackhawks.com to learn more about the program. 

For more information, please contact Head Sport Shooting Coach, Tim Weaver at 319-208-5111, tweaver@scciowa.edu.

For more news or to learn more about Southeastern Community College Athletics, visit; www.sccblackhawks.com