By Moses Leos III.
For some high school athletes, aspirations of fame and fortune are normal. Others, like Hayden Cagle, have a higher goal in mind.
He participates in sports for his younger brothers, who cannot.
Cagle’s brothers, five-year-old Camron and 14-year-old Conley, were born with various medical conditions. Both boys are deaf; Conley is blind in one eye, Camron has autism.
Their conditions were so severe, each stayed in Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICU) and Intensive Care Units (ICU) in San Antonio hospitals for two years of their lives.
A multi-sport athlete, Hays senior Hayden Cagle (center) plays sports not for the notoriety, but for his brothers, Conley (left) and Camron (right), who have faced numerous medical conditions since birth. (Courtesy photo) |
The Cagle family moved down from Dallas to San Antonio to support Camron and Conley.
Cagle attended private school when both of his brothers were in the ICU. When his brother Conley was ill, he lived with an aunt in the San Antonio area.
After Camron was born, Hayden and his family spent time in San Antonio at the Ronald McDonald House, a nonprofit organization that houses families caring for sick children.
It was a tough transition for Cagle, who was only a child at the time. Cagle said he and his family could only see his brothers during certain visitation times.
While he and his family supported his brothers, Hayden attempted to live as normal life as possible. He tried to make as many friends as he could. However, living in the Ronald McDonald house proved difficult, based on its location in downtown San Antonio.
“It was hard living at the Ronald McDonald House,” Cagle said. “There really wasn’t a whole lot to do.”
He turned to sports for an outlet. He began playing baseball and basketball in youth leagues and then started playing football in seventh grade.
According to Cagle, it was all to release the anxiety of his brothers’ situations. He understood they could not play sports – a fact that will remain for the rest of their lives. It has fueled him as he has risen through the ranks.
“They are the reason I want to get better and go further,” Cagle said. “Whenever I don’t feel like working out, I remember they don’t have the ability to do that. That helps me a lot.”
Today, the Cagle family lives under one roof in Plum Creek, with Camron and Conley out of the hospital. The Cagles do their best to take care of them.
The youngest, Camron, is confined to a wheelchair and has a tracheotomy tube in his throat. Conley’s ailments prevent him from walking properly, as his balance is disrupted. The family has the assistance of an at-home nurse, who is with the family 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Communication is one of the largest challenges for the family. Conley has a cochlear implant that helps him communicate. He also uses American Sign Language, a language Hayden picked up over time. Camron still cannot communicate.
Despite a continued struggle, Cagle is thankful his brothers are back home. The day the Cagles finally exited the hospital as a family was the day he felt whole.
“There was a sense that we were a family for the first time,” Cagle said. “We were not all spread out.”
It was a “big deal” for both of his brothers to see him play in his final year on the high school gridiron.
Now that Cagle is almost done with school, he looks toward his future.
He said he wants to continue playing sports at the collegiate level. Going pro is a very far off goal.
But sports are secondary to his primary focus: taking care of his brothers.
“It would be nice to go pro, but that is not all that significant,” Cagle said. “I want to have a nice job and be successful, so I can help take care of my brothers.”
