Et cetera : Cody\'s Story: VS kicker had to overcome eye tumor, serious accident to play

Number 1 fan: Older sister Ashley cheered for Cody from the stands, and helped him recover.

Cody Sojka's VS football photo.

Ashley Sojka made this shirt to show support for Cody during the 2012 VS football season.

Although blind in one eye and despite crushing both hips in '10, Cody Sojka played football.

The one play that Vinton-Shellsburg football players will remember most from the 2012 season – the play they are already talking about – ended with no points being scored.

It was Homecoming. The Vikings had just scored one of their six touchdowns against Independence, and lined up for the extra point kick. But the snap was bad; the ball rolled toward kicker Cody Sojka. Cody picked up the ball, spun away from one Mustang defender and tried to score, but was tackled before he could get to the goal line.

From the stands, Cody’s mom, Rhonda, cringed as she saw him try to carry the ball for the first time ever in a game.

From the sidelines, Cody’s teammates applauded his effort to carry the ball. They applauded because they know what Cody has survived, and the years of challenges he has had to overcome in order to play football.

The accident

On the first day of summer vacation in 2010, Cody was nearly killed when the car he was riding in flipped on a gravel road near Palo. Partially ejected, Cody was dragged under the car, crushing both hips, breaking several other bones and severely wounding his left arm.

Cody’s father, Jeff, said his son’s hips and other bones were so severely broken that doctors were not able to place him in a cast. He spent the next twelve weeks in a hospital bed in his home.

But, Cody’s mom says she is not surprised at Cody’s determination or the hard work in physical therapy that enabled him to recover well enough to kick a football 50 yards in his very first season.

The tumor

Rhonda had seen that same determination in her son 15 years earlier, when Cody lost his right eye.

Cody was two years old when his parents noticed swelling and discoloration in Cody’s right eye. At first, the suspected it was just a black eye sustained by rough-housing with an older sibling. But soon they learned that a tumor had surrounded Cody’s optic nerve and had already robbed him of most of the sight in his right eye.

The tumor was benign; surgeons at Iowa City were able to remove it. But a few years later, the right eye began to change colors.

“That’s because the eye was dying,” explains Rhonda. The tumor had cut off the blood flow to that eye. Cody spent Christmas vacation in fifth grade recovering from surgery to remove that eye, and in preparation for his first prosthetic eye.

The recruiter

“I will play football this year,” Cody said to Viking Coach Jim Womochil this summer. “But first I have to get a new eye.”

Despite his severe injuries and his partial blindness, Cody had played soccer for the 2012 Vikings, earning Honorable Mention All-Conference honors for his efforts as a sweeper (the player who works with the goalie to prevent the other team from scoring). He had tried to play basketball the previous winter, but discovered that he had not yet recovered well enough.

Viking co-captain Chris Merchant was trying to recruit other athletes to join the football team. He had played football with Cody years earlier on a youth team, and had seen the way he could kick a soccer ball. The Vikings needed numbers – more players – and they needed a kicker. Cody told Chris he would think about it.

Soon, he was having the same conversation with Coach Womochil.

Cody left that first meeting with his coach with a kicking tee. He had never really seriously tried to kick a football before. Soon he was learning how well – and how far – he could make it go. In practice, Cody has kicked the ball through the uprights from 45 yards. He actually also made a 50-yarder during one practice session, but said he had tried and failed eight times before hitting one from that distance.

While Cody’s mom was not surprised at Cody’s determination during his recovery, she did not realize how well his son was performing in football.

“I was surprised at how far he can kick,” says Rhonda.

Cody played kicker the entire year for the Vikings, kicking off and attempting field goals and points after touchdowns. He scored 22 of the Vikings’ 198 points this season, hitting 19 of 27 extra point attempts and one of four field goals. Those numbers place him among the top four or five kickers in the district.

Both his partial blindness and his damaged hips presented obstacles throughout the season, Cody says.

Learning to line up so he could see the ball was his first challenge, one that took some trial and error.

The pain from the accident also stayed with him throughout the season. At one point in the season, the way he had to twist his hips to kick caused a significant mis-alignment which required chiropractic treatment.

And before each game, Cody spent much time with teammate Mikia Stegner-Key, in pre-game warm-ups. Stegner-Key had to quit playing because of an illness, but joined the team on the sidelines each week, and became Cody’s stretching partner.

“He stretched me before each game, until I felt like Jell-o,” recalls Cody.

Cody says he wishes now he had tried football sooner.

“It was fun,” he said. “I already miss it.”

The humor

Before each game Chris Merchant would place eye black under the eyes of teammates; Cody liked to joke with Chris about putting eye black just under his good eye. However, fearing a negative reaction from a referee, they never did.

Growing up with Cody, and playing football, soccer and other sports with him, has made his teammates so familiar with him and his limited vision that they don’t even think about it.

Chris says he did not consider how Cody might inspire the school by playing football despite his vision and accident-related health issues.

“We just needed numbers, and we needed a kicker,” says the co-captain.

The recovery

Cody sat at his kitchen on Saturday, sharing his thoughts and listening once again as has mother repeated the stories she has already told countless times to friends and relatives. Cody’s older sister, Ashley, joined the conversation mingling jokes about her brother’s scars with memories of the horror she felt seeing him after the accident.

And although she still teases Cody like most big sisters do, Ashley went to VS football games wearing a shirt she had made which identifies her as his No. 1 fan.

Ashley recalled on Saturday how she had asked to go see Cody immediately after the accident. She recalls “crying like a baby” after leaving his room that night.

Cody returned home a few days later, but his recovery was just beginning.

The family had recently moved into their new house near the Cedar River; four feet of water destroyed the home where they had lived for nearly a decade before June of 2008.

After the accident, Cody was bed-ridden for eight weeks. When he needed something, especially at night, he would blow a crow call to get the attention of his parents, or Ashley, who was often the first to hear it. After several weeks, Cody was able to get up and move around in a wheelchair, and a few weeks after that, on crutches.

Cody has recovered as fully as possible. He still can see and feel pieces of glass in his significantly scarred left arm. He still has pain in his hips, especially when the weather is cold. And every few years, has he continues to grow, he will receive a new prosthetic eye. And since the tumor, he has undergone regular tests to make sure it has not returned.

The future

Cody’s next athletic project is his senior year on the Viking soccer team, where plans to be the sweeper and back-up goalie. His college plans begin at Kirkwood as he begins studying to be a radiologist; he hopes to eventually attend a small college and will try to walk-on as a kicker, or maybe play soccer. Or both.

The advice

Like most teenage boys, Cody does not have a lot to say. But when asked if he has any advice for those who are facing the kind of challenges he has overcome, Cody says: “Keep your head up. Get involved in sports.”

See the video of Cody's Life Flight story below

[VIDEO]