Little League: All Heart

Steve Virgen

Winter has retreated and spring is here. It is Saturday, which can

only mean one thing for 5-year-old Kendall Bradley: T-ball.

The Devil Rays are batting and Kendall can hardly contain herself.

After Adam Bernacchi gets on base, Kendall eagerly takes her spot in the

batter’s box and with the help of Coach Jeff Arehart, she swings at the

ball. Veronica Ebergenyi guides her to first base. They use a faster pace

when running to second, then on to third where Kendall’s smile gets

wider. When they cross home plate, the fans cheer. She’s almost laughing

with excitement.

“I had so much fun you wouldn’t even believe it,” she would later say.

“I ran super-duper double looper fast.”

Most children have wild imaginations, but Kendall is really in her own

little world. Her imagination is incomparable to most.

Kendall is blind.

She can only notice when there is light or darkness. But, her impaired

vision does not stop her from playing the sport she loves. T-ball just

gives her more trust in her mind power, there is not much that can stop

her.

A reason for being

Kendall was born four months premature.

“I’m just thankful she’s here,” Chrissy Bradley says of her daughter.

“She’s very special. She was born and she’s here for a reason. She

touches everybody’s heart.”

Chrissy and her husband, Brent, never lost hope when doctors told them

Kendall wouldn’t survive. But, she overcame the odds.

Chrissy Bradley was airlifted from Hoag Hospital to Long Beach

Memorial Hospital, because Hoag didn’t have the facilities for such a

small baby. Upon arriving in Long Beach, Chrissy’s water broke and she

later delivered Kendall.

After the birth, Kendall had heart surgery to close a heart valve.

With a body so tiny -- she weighed 1 pound, 8 ounces -- just one minor

slip could have meant her life.

“That was probably the scariest time for us,” Chrissy Bradley said.

“She was so little. Her head was the size of an orange.”

Kendall was on a respirator for eight weeks because her lungs were

underdeveloped and she spent nearly three months in an incubator. She

also went through four eye surgeries because she was born with a retina

disease.

Most babies born at 24 weeks don’t live because their vital organs,

including heart and lungs, aren’t fully developed. Often if they do

survive they have cerebral palsy or are mentally retarded.

In Kendall’s case, it was blindness. In five years, eye surgery in

Boston may bring her minimal sight.

For now, Kendall is among sighted children at Killybrooke Elementary

School, where she displays her effervescent character.

School days

For Brent and Chrissy Bradley, the decision to put Kendall in a public

school was difficult. They weren’t totally sure a public-school education

would be best for their daughter.

The results, however, have proved otherwise.

“She has adapted real well,” Brent Bradley says.

After developing knowledge at the Blind Children’s Learning Center in

Santa Ana, the Bradleys decided Kendall was ready for public school. They

wanted the experience to challenge her. They wanted her to be treated as

a “normal kid.”

“She has lots of friends,” Chrissy Bradley says. “Kids really love

playing with her. She’s treated like a normal kid. It’s hard though.”

The Blind Children’s Learning Center prepares blind children to join

the sighted in public schools, but nothing could really prepare Kendall

for her new experience.

Kendall is still developing strength in her arms and legs. When she

first arrived at Killybrooke, running and playing with the rest of the

children was not easy.

But, Kendall has overcome that obstacle.

“She has come through,” Kendall’s kindergarten teacher, Tina

Reinemann, said. “She’s jogging and hopping and doing all of those

things. She’s over there hanging on bars like the rest of the kids.”

Reinemann, who has been at Killybrooke for 28 years, says Kendall is

the first totally blind child at the school that most visually

impaired children in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District attend.

Some visually impaired children remain at the Blind Children’s

Learning Center or go to other special schools.

Kendall’s presence has provided a helpful experience for the other

students, Reinemann said.

Kendall has also learned the alphabet.

“(And) she knows the children’s names from just hearing their voices,”

Reinemann said.

Aside from the auditory classwork, she has had to learn Braille.

Tina Bernardo, the district’s vision specialist, teaches Braille to

Kendall each day for about 20 minutes.

Two years ago, Bernardo met Kendall and has noticed a great

improvement in her social skills.

“She has gotten a lot better in playing with the kids,” Bernardo said.

“(The children) help with her lunch. They’re not overly helpful for her.

We don’t want them to be. We also want her to be independent.”

Kendall’s education is also enhanced at the Blind Children’s Learning

Center, where she visits an occupational therapist.

In addition, Kendall has a special aide in the Killybrooke classroom

and an adaptive physical education teacher.

Her love for sports, especially baseball, has become motivation for

strengthening her body.

It seems sports will always be a part of Kendall’s life because the

team concept provides her a necessity. She enjoys being with people and

she’s not shy. Her mother says, she loves to be the center of attention.

Devil Rays MVP

Kendall plays catcher for the Devil Rays and her primary duty is to

place the ball on the tee. Arehart helps her and has also been teaching

her to throw and swing the bat so she can connect with the ball on the

tee.

Last week, Kendall received some extra help when she practiced with a

beeper ball. The special ball provides a loud chirping noise and it has

aided her in throwing.

She is also learning the location of the bases. When she stands on

home plate as a catcher, she knows second base is directly in front of

her.

Earlier in the season, Arehart directed a special drill so Kendall’s

teammates could identify with her playing experience.

He blindfolded each player and made them run to each base with the

help of a teammate. He also told the children to swing at the ball while

blindfolded.

“We made them realize how brave they had to be to run without seeing,”

Arehart said. “They now have an understanding of what the real world is

like. The kids don’t really acknowledge her as handicapped. Initially,

they did. They now know that one player has a sight problem, that she can

only see light and dark.”

Arehart also said Kendall’s bravery serves as an example: Don’t be

afraid of the ball.

As the Devil Rays are learning valuable lessons from Kendall, she is

also receiving some treasured training.

“It’s just the whole thing,” Brent Bradley said of the T-ball

experience. “Putting on the uniform and being a part of the team. That’s

for her. When she first got the uniform, it was hard for her to take it

off. She wanted to sleep in it. She would wear it all day if she could.”

Imagine

While most children have seen the Disney movie “Tarzan,” Kendall

paints a picture all her own after listening to the audio version more

than once.

As her teammates leave Costa Mesa High, Kendall holds on to her

father’s hand as the family walks to its car. Upon Chrissy’s request, she

recites, word for word, the narrative from Tarzan.

“One stormy night off the coast of Africa,” she says lowering her

tone. “A ship caught fire and started to sink. A man on the ship lowered

a lifeboat holding his wife and baby boy.”

She raises her tone and emphasizes as she continues.

“Then he jumped in the water and swam to the lifeboat, took the oar

and began rowing. When the man and his family reached land the next

morning, they found a dense jungle, picked out a large tree and built a

home. Deep within the jungle lived another family, a family of apes led

by their fierce leader, Kerchak.”

And she continues. She knows almost the entire story. With each

sentence, she provides excitement as if she has lived the experience. And

if you listen closely, you learn even more than the moral of the Tarzan

story. You learn Kendall is intelligent. Her future is secure because of

her will to be among the sighted. Yet she remains unique.