WHITWELL, Tenn. - Brendyn Gartyn never thought of himself as an example.
Shucks, he's 15 going on 50 just like many other teenagers. He doesn't know whether his favorite food is pizza or tacos, his breakfast of choice remains Fruity Pebbles or Fruit Loops and his favorite dessert is homemade banana pudding.
Unlike many peers, though, Brendyn has climbed mountains and fought more battles than many of them will see in a lifetime, and where others walk, jog or sprint he limps along with a somewhat twisted gait.
He was born at 26 weeks weighing 2 pounds, 7 ounces with pinhole-size bleeds in his brain, which led to a six-month stay in an ICU for infants. He's worn leg braces and had surgery and is looking at more trips to the operating room, the first in a couple of months.
Brendyn Gartyn has cerebral palsy, and doctors told his mother Sabrina that he likely would never walk.
Yet here he is, an A and B student who plays football for the Whitwell Tigers with a zealot's fervor.
"He's a good kid, man, and I love him. Yep, he's a neat little dude," first-year Whitwell coach Tracy Malone said.
As a 5-foot-2, 104-pound freshman defensive lineman, Gartyn isn't much to look at as football players go. Yet he is an inspiration with the heart of a lion.
"When I got here I was talking to the middle school coaches about what's coming up. They're going down the roster and get to Brendyn and say, 'Well, Coach, he has cerebral palsy, but if you could take his heart and put it in every other player it would be unbelievable.' I didn't think much about it - OK, whatever, it's just another player," Malone recalled. "And he starts coming to workouts and never misses a day and you see what he has to overcome every day. Every day. He never complains, never says a word; just shows up and practices."
And forget about cutting him any slack. He's one of the guys, one of 43 Tigers football players.
"They bust his chops and he busts right back. He's one of us. Coaches pick at him and he picks right back. There is no special treatment," Malone said. "Everything we do, he does. When we're tackling, then he's tackling. When we're blocking, then he's blocking, and when we're running, he's doing that, too."
If anybody cuts Gartyn any slack on the football field, Malone and his staff aren't above ripping into the offenders. And that's the way Gartyn wants it.
"I hate it when somebody tries to go easy on me. Go hard or go home," he said. "I'm not looking for a fight so much as respect. I see the way people sometimes look at me, and I've heard things that are said about me.
"If somebody asks me what happened to me, I tell them I have CP. Sometimes I explain it, but I usually do what my mom said and tell them to Google it."
It's for sure sympathy is the last thing he's looking for, even though he did admit to emotions he rarely shares.
"Yeah, sometimes I feel like I got shafted when I was born, and I hate it. It sucks. I just want to be regular," he said before quickly adding, "but I deal with it."
Malone struggled to maintain a proper perspective.
"Brendyn's situation is one where as a coach - and as a dad - it makes you really, really understand that every kid has challenges. Every kid has to overcome something every day, some more than others. But this kid, well, he never has an excuse for anything. He just goes and gets it done."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.