Fremont pair connect through their love of basketball

One afternoon at the Fremont Family YMCA, Justin Kulwicki was warming up to play basketball.

A member of the Midland Lutheran College men’s team, Kulwicki regularly practiced at the Y. His routine was to shoot close to the basket then pop shots from the side. In the middle of his warm up he was interrupted.

“This bomb came out of nowhere,” Kulwicki said. “This kid had come in and started hitting it off the backboard, trying to make it into the hoop.”

There were plenty of baskets not being used, but this “kid” was irritating, wrecking his routine, Kulwicki said.

“I shot a couple of more times and he kept hitting the backboard,” he said.

“I did not,” Wyatt Spalding interrupted. “I made it once.”

Kulwicki continued: “I set my ball down and tied my shoes and told the kid that if he moved in closer to the basket, I’d rebound for him. After five or 10 minutes of rebounding for him, he just left. When I came back a few weeks later, I saw that he was shooting by himself, so I put on my shoes and after his next shot, I said, ‘My name is Justin’ and he said his name was Wyatt. We talked about some of his health challenges.”

Wyatt has cerebral palsy, said his mother, Mary Jo Spalding.

“He was born with a disconnected esophagus and he does not process growth hormones right,” she said. “Wyatt is also pre-diabetic so he’s a high-maintenance kid.”

Kulwicki rebounded for him for a little while then told him to come with him to where his gear was stowed.

“I wrote my name and phone number on his hand so that he could take it back and show it to his mom and dad. Later I got a call from Mary Jo,” he said.

“I remember Wyatt telling me about a Midland kid that he had met,” she said. “I just didn’t think anything would come of it — that a Midland kid would have time for Wyatt.”

When Spalding called Kulwicki, she was unsure of what the call would entail. Previous to contacting him, Spalding had called a couple of people she knew at Midland to find out what “kind of kid” Kulwicki was.

“Justin had told Wyatt that he was on the basketball team and I got a good report from coaches and other people I contacted,” Spalding said. “Then Justin came to the house to meet Rick (her husband) and I. The two began going to each other’s houses and hanging out, playing video games, watching television and becoming friends. The friendship has made such a difference in Wyatt’s life,” Spalding said.

It’s an easy friendship.

“It’s not too much to take a couple of hours out of your day to hang out with someone who truly benefits from that friendship,” Kulwicki said. “For me, it’s weird. I see Wyatt out there on the court playing basketball, see how much he loves the game and I never stop because he never stops. If I could give him my legs for a day, he’d be an amazing player.”

Kulwicki stopped for a moment, gave Wyatt the eye and told him to run a lap. Wyatt took off running from one end of the gym to the other.

“When my dad found out that I was doing this, he asked me why,” Kulwicki added. “I told him that I was so lucky to have the healthy body that I have and to have had all the athletic opportunities. I’m grateful and don’t want to take it for granted.”

Things have not been easy for Kulwicki either. He believes he was not blessed with a lot of athletic abilities.

“People told me that I’d never play college basketball, but here I am playing basketball at Midland,” he said. “Wyatt’s doing that, too — proving people wrong about what he can do.”

For Wyatt, it’s about the fun.

“We shoot hoops together and play Play Station 2. We pick on each other all the time,” Wyatt said. “When my friends go and do something I can’t do, I hang out with Justin. Sometimes we go to movies.”

During the summer Kulwicki tutored Wyatt in math. They would hit the books for 30 to 45 minutes, then the rest of the time play games or shoot hoops to prepare Wyatt for eighth grade.

Kulwicki is a farm kid from Ravenna, and when he dad became ill last year, he quit school to go home and farm. This delayed his education, but for Wyatt, it means that he will have his friend around for a few more basketball seasons.

Kulwicki has found a family in Fremont as well.

“Mary Jo will call me on random nights and ask me to come over for dinner,” he said. “If she doesn’t answer her cell phone, (“She never does,” interjects Wyatt) I can just show up at the door. I’m an adopted member of the Spalding family.”