Dylan Wescott | Growing the Competition

The trophy can go to anyone. Every other Sunday, QLI clients gather for the chance to claim it. For some, it’s their first attempt at playing the sport. The exact mechanics of it are simple to acquire through practice. Someone will prove the victor, if only for a short while, until the next tournament. On these afternoons, Dylan Wescott sits comfortably and confidently, staring down the jack and court. He gives the boccia ball a push, and it lands. Win or lose, Dylan’s competitive edge never subsides, never decreases.

Back home in Rock Falls, Illinois, competition is what he lived for. Basketball and golf fueled the fire for him, which came home to roost in his high school track and field team. Simply put, Dylan smiles when considering just what it was that gave him joy, that enhanced his days. “Sports,” he says. But not solely for the competitive atmosphere, but in the way it connects—an engaging atmosphere, the ability to contribute to the team. But at the end of the day, no matter if the game is won or lost, Dylan, in every aspect of his life, looks out for others, no matter the circumstances. Above all else, he is “…caring. I’ve always tried to be there for people—my friends, my family—everyone.”

In the spring of 2025, he was amid his final season, with graduation soon on the horizon. “I was in the triple jump event,” Dylan remembers, “doing a warm-up—running through the sand pit, which wasn’t filled enough. My foot didn’t stick the landing well, and my momentum swung my body into a wall that was just beyond the pit.” Dylan struck the wall, breaking his neck and sustaining a spinal cord injury.

With credit to Dylan, he does not shy away from what he felt at the time. “I thought my life was over,” he admits. What came after the injury, then, was crucial to redevelop and bring Dylan back. He had that competitive energy and spirit, but it took some time for it to come out and be recalled.

By the time Dylan arrived at QLI in April 2025, he had reached a high level of acceptance, and through that came a sharp focus to begin improving in his recovery, maximizing independence in his daily routines. For the first couple of months of his program, the full vision and implementation of his program were limited by one simple but constricting restriction. Dylan was ordered by his neurosurgeon to don a hard cervical collar to protect his spine for a few more weeks. Nevertheless, the team set out on a pace to work closely with strengthening hand dexterity and later preparing the way to practice transfers to and from his wheelchair. These exercises and repetitions started to bear fruit more significantly after Dylan was cleared from his cervical collar restriction in the summer of 2025.

Part of the progression of his recovery began to take root after Dylan connected with life path specialist Kevin Houston. “One of the most desired end goals for individuals with spinal cord injuries is to walk independently again,” notes Kevin. The goal is concrete and may be achievable for many, but tangible progress in that regard is variable from individual to individual. So, while we chipped away at the significant and lofty goals, life continued and started to flourish in new and unexpected ways. “Without taking away from the broader goals,” Kevin says, “we can do something in the interim.”

That interim proved to be a part of the core of Dylan’s program at QLI, a process that began when at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago, Dylan was introduced to the sport boccia, an ability-inclusive version of bocce, in which each ball can placed at the top of a curbed ramp, and an individual in a chair or wheelchair can push the ball from the seated position, where it travels down the ramp and then lands on the court, aiming to get as close to the jack (similar to a white cue ball in pool) as possible.

Recovery following injury has the potential to be isolating. However, if an optimal team meets that individual, the journey can take on a meaningful dynamic, restoring purpose. For Dylan, boccia aligns completely with his interests, but also provides a chance for his agency to return. Boccia was not established at QLI when Dylan arrived, and the team did not shunt this for a time later down the line. Rather, everyone recognized the physical and mental benefits it carried. Strength development through physical therapy and increased hand dexterity through occupational therapy meant that Dylan’s development in boccia ball could stand as a very real part of his clinical program and a sign of his development overall. “Early on,” Kevin recalls, “Dylan needed assistance in picking up the boccia ball, setting it on the ramp, adjusting, and pushing it. Now, he can do all those things.”

Boccia became a sort of microcosm for the progress Dylan has made. Because of that progress, when he sets up behind the boccia ramp, he does so from a manual wheelchair. Occupational therapist Sara Waid remembers the change that came over Dylan after he transitioned from a more cumbersome power wheelchair to fully using the manual chair. “He looked brighter, taller, and more confident. Being in that chair has allowed Dylan to begin the repetitions of doing things more naturally than before.” Through the collaboration with the QLI team, boccia has allowed for the return of Dylan’s agency, as he discovers further ways to find meaning, purpose, and whatever it might be that he is ultimately called to do with his life.

Within no time, a semi-weekly boccia tournament for QLI was devised, with twice-weekly practices. Interest grew. The sport is an inherently community-driven experience but also furthers opportunity for clients to put physical training and programming into a fun context. But what was the true core? Dylan, through organizing the boccia ball tournaments, not only grew in his comfortability in who he was, but also in who he could become—a connector, someone who can unify a broader group. “It’s a fun game,” Dylan reflects, “and I can get wholly involved in it.” In the spring of 2025, he was a senior in high school–still at the cusp of discovering himself. The clear ability to make connections and the infectious competitive attitude could allow Dylan to tap into what gave him joy.

The journey began with the question of what can be found fulfilling in his life ahead. The trajectory for what the rest of 2025 and beyond will hold for Dylan is simply bright. Dylan not only has the progress that can be added upon after he returns home, but through his interests, a community of competition has arisen at QLI that will last long after he returns home. Through his earnest capability, Dylan has left a growing legacy in his wake.