Malik Spellman appeared destined for basketball greatness.
The Wheeler High School junior, just 5-foot-7, could dunk, and many coaches believed the point guard had the potential to earn a Division I scholarship, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Now, the 17-year-old’s parents are unsure he’ll even be able to go to college.
RELATED: Crosswalk where students hit was studied, but no improvements made
Spellman and another teenager were taken to a hospital with serious injuries after being struck by a car in a crosswalk in March just outside the Cobb County school.
Wheeler officials said the school was donating old weight room equipment and the teens were getting ready to load a weight rack before they were hit.
MORE: Crosswalk where car hit Cobb teens is not safe, neighbors say
They were crossing Holt Road using the crosswalk just after 7 p.m., AJC.com previously reported. As the boys carried the equipment across the road, a woman driving a black Mercedes-Benz SLK350 northbound struck them with her car, police said.
“When I got to him, he was completely knocked out. His eyes were glazed over. He looked like he was dead,” Spellman’s father, Marquis Wright, said.
Wright is a teacher and assistant varsity coach at Wheeler. He told Channel 2 they are still shaken by the incident.
“To hit someone that’s directly in front of your vehicle at that rate of speed without tapping your brakes, you had to be doing something wrong,” Wright said.
RELATED: Woman accused of hitting Cobb teens with car in crosswalk cited, will appear in court
Police said Nancy Valentine, 73, was driving the Mercedes. She was cited for failure to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk and failure to use due regard to avoid pedestrians. Valentine is not formally charged in connection with the crash, but she will have to appear in court before a judge.
It does little to keep Spellman’s parents from worrying about his future. They told Channel 2 they “poured everything” they had into him and made sacrifices for his dream.
He is now at home recovering.
“Just feels like in a lot of ways he got slighted,” Wright said. “I just want to get back what he lost. That’s the main thing because he worked so hard for it.”
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