COOPERSVILLE, Mich. — The clock counted down in the Coopersville Middle School gym: Six, five four. Ty Van Den Brink dribbed to the elbow— three, two— and tossed up a shot. The final buzzer sounded, the ball went in.
"I didn't really expect it, but it happened," said Van Den Brink. "[My teammates] were pretty happy."
The eighth grader's shot didn't win the game against the Grandville Bulldogs, the Coopersville Broncos actually lost that Wednesday afternoon, but the final shot remains a big moment for Van Den Brink, diagnosed with multiple epiphyseal displasia, a bone disorder.
"It's kind of normal," Van Den Brink said. "Your bones don't grow as much.”
Before graduating this spring, Van Den Brink will have underwent at least nine surgeries related to the disorder, many of them done to lengthen his arms and legs, which require a months-long recovery.
"It's really hard to make the decision to have your child have surgery," said Julie Van Den Brink, Ty's mom. "We felt this was in [his] best interests."
The family has seen their fair share of the hospital as Ty's dad, Joe, and older brother, Travis, have the same condition.
"These surgeries are not fun," Joe Van Den Brink said. "It's something we have, dwarfism. It's not something we are."
While dad knows the pain caused by screws and a metal device that— over the course of several weeks— pulls the bone apart, persuading it to grow and lengthen, he also knows his sons are capable.
"The effort has to be the same," Joe said. "The outcome might not always be the same, but I never let them slack off."
For Ty, his effort earned him a spot on the basketball team in both seventh and eighth grade, despite cuts.
"They gave him a try because he worked harder than some of the other boys," Joe said. "Busting at the buttons with pride on that one."
Following a leg-lengthening this spring, Ty spent months recuperating at a Florida hospital.
"In May, I could hardly walk," Ty said. "Now I can run down the court."
And run he does, completing full-court sprints in practice, hitting a buzzer beater during the regular season.
"It's just fun to be on the team," said Ty, who awaits a humerus-lengthening surgery later this month. "Just because you get put through tough times, doesn't mean you can't come back from it."
