This is the last of six profiles on recipients of the 2016 Courage To Come Back Awards, presented by Coast Mental Health to six outstanding people who have overcome great obstacles only to give back to their communities. Their inspiring comebacks will be celebrated at a gala dinner at the Vancouver Convention Centre West on Thursday.
There was no warning when Coltyn Liu’s young life changed forever in a split second in the most mundane of settings, the food court at a local mall.
His mother let go of her son’s hand to pay for some drinks and he was struck by a wheeled metal crate being pushed by a vendor and sent flying.
Coltyn, then just two, suffered a brain injury that left him unable to walk or talk, facing years of therapy and a host of secondary injuries. The prognosis from medical specialist after specialist was that he would never again be able to function normally.
But Coltyn had different plans. He is now a 16-year-old elite volleyball player being wooed by U.S. and Canadian universities, and the 2016 recipient of the Courage To Come Back Award in the youth category.
He got there by perservering through a “lot of pain, struggles and difficulties, and doctor appointments and therapy,” he said. “It was really hard because of all the challenges.”
Colton at first was “a screaming, crying, violent boy” who could only “slither around on his belly, lashing out in pain,” wrote his older sister, Parys, in her nomination letter.
Coltyn was diagnosed with 12 disorders that stemmed from the injury, including the blackening of his limbs, speech regression, excruciating pain, seizures, a cracked spine and a hypersensitivity to sounds and stimuli, making it difficult for him to attend school.
When he did, he was picked on and bullied by classmates and so was eventually homeschooled. The family struggled as a single-parent home and his mother, Kathleen Shiels, needed to visit food banks and collect pop bottles to get by.
But through it all, Coltyn continued his physiotherapy and Parys recalled him yelling “me do!” when he was attempting a task or exercise.
He eventually got strong enough to play volleyball, which he fell in love with and showed promise for when he was 12, despite being shorter and younger than other players.
Now 6-foot-4 and still growing, Coltyn has excelled as player and a leader on the Apex Volleyball Club team, for which he’s the captain. Last summer he was one of four B.C. players to join the Team Canada Selects, made up of the top 16- and 17-year-olds from across Canada, and the team won a silver medal at the Western Canada Games in the under-18 category, said coach Ken Li.
At age 15, he was being identified by university and colleges as a possible recruit, rare for a volleyball player, said Li. And he hopes to play for Team Canada in the Olympics one day.
Volleyball B.C. named him the Provincial Athlete of Excellence this year and he was named all-star by his club and by his team at his school, Van Tech, which he has led to several city championships while maintaining an A average.
He also spends time and energy developing and carrying out the 16 projects for the K.A.R.E. (Kids Actions Really Energize) Power organization he and his family created to help the homeless and to counter bullying, to name two of the projects.
“It’s a good feeling to be able to help others,” he said.
And even though Coltyn has been through a lot of hardships, he’s philosophical about his trauma and how it’s formed him.
“Of course there were negatives but there were positives, too, I found,” he said.
And under the K.A.R.E. umbrella, Coltyn’s dream is to help raise funds for Volleyball B.C. to provide a scholarship for deserving players who can’t afford to play for elite teams.
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