ORANGE PARK, Fla. – Patric Young knew when he was younger that he had words inside that he wanted to get out. A book was perfect.
All Young needed was the message.
It was something that escaped Young until the trials and turbulence of the past year and a half allowed him to find it.
on June 29, 2022 in Nebraska, just days before his wedding. The accident left Young paralyzed from the waist down. For an elite athlete, ESPN basketball analyst and a soon-to-be newlywed and stepfather, it was humiliating, humbling and life-altering.
“You know, as optimistic and as positive as a person can be, everyone has a breaking point. I cried out to God,” Young said. “I cried out for help because I knew this is beyond my physical, mental, emotional, spiritual humanity that I could not lift myself and snap my fingers and get out of this situation. And because I did that, accepting my weakness helped me to be truthful.”
A player known for his athleticism and power on the court when he played at Providence and later at the University of Florida, Young has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. He’s fought off multiple post-accident surgeries and infections that have nearly killed him, and battled through physical therapy to try and regain the ability to walk. That hasn’t happened yet, but Young, 32, remains steadfast in his belief that he’ll rise from his wheelchair when his battle is complete. Within that journey, Young found words and the message that he would have never been able to years ago.
He turned those words into the book, “. Always gracious, effervescent and authentic dating back to his days at Paxon and Providence, Young’s hard pivot in life hasn’t cost him any of those attributes. If anything, he’s got an even greater platform now to deliver his words.
“This accident gave me so much clarity on exactly what that message was going to be,” Young said. “How easy it’s been to go up on a stage to speak is because I’m talking all about things I’m living.”
This week, Young was the guest at the Clay County Gator Club, a date that came nearly a year after he was supposed to speak there. Young spent more than four months at UF Health battling through one infection after another.
A 6-9 center and three-year starter at Florida, Young went to three straight Elite Eight games and played in a Final Four game. He was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. Since his accident, Young needed help with things like going to the bathroom and changing clothes. It would have been easy for Young to isolate and wall off from the outside world. But that’s just not how Young operates.
When Young accepted that he was going to be limited physically — a brutal, pride-swallowing and emotionally sapping realization — he was able to fully open up and flip his personal tragedy into one of positivity. His SEC basketball analyst skills come off in routine conversation, but Young is extremely open and vulnerable about his battle.
“Accepting my weakness helped me to be truthful. I’ll say it like this; you can’t get to where you want to go to if you don’t know where you’re starting. Just like a GPS,” Young said. “You cannot know how you’re going to get to your destination if you can’t be real about where you are. And when I could be real about where I was, I was able to start healing and being vulnerable and being transparent and truthful and honest with myself.”
Young’s mission over the past year and a half has been multifaceted. He’s spoken countless times to sports teams and school crowds. Even for non-athletes, Young’s message resonates.
“There’s a lot of people that are going to listen to this, that are going to say, ‘Yeah, I’m still in the middle of my struggle,’ and I don’t know when it’s going to end. For those that are listening, you might be in the middle of something that’s very difficult and hard. And my heart is with you,” Young said. “But if you can control just focusing on the small wins, you’re not where you were yesterday, and where you are today is so much further than you used to be. And just wait and think where you’re going to be years from from tomorrow.”