Gators football player Desmond Watson has a younger brother with cerebral palsy. During her freshman year at UF, soccer player Fran Faraci was diagnosed with ADHD and a reading comprehension disorder. Women’s basketball assistant coach Julian Assibey, a native of Ghana in West Africa, discovered he had dyslexia as an adult.
The trio has pushed past limitations and boundaries to find success, a message that Kelley Catenacci and Chelsea Iobst of the Otis Hawkins Center for Academic and Personal Excellence strive to teach in their daily interactions with UF student-athletes.
Catenacci is director of learning services at the Hawkins Center, and Iobst is an assistant director. They have spent October raising awareness on campus and social media that people with learning disabilities can overcome them with the appropriate resources and proper outlook.
“It promotes conversation about a topic that has a little bit of a stigma to it,” Catenacci said. “Oftentimes, those types of disabilities tend to be more invisible. So, if we are able to educate people and have a conversation about how it might impact people, I think we can create a space that is a little bit more welcoming and inclusive for people, whether it’s at a college campus, in an office building or the larger society.”
The Hawkins Center has displayed signs and held various events to raise awareness among UF’s student-athletes. On Tuesday, a conversation titled “Disability and Student-Athletes” was scheduled. The panel featured UF’s Disability Resource Center representatives, the College of Education and the Hawkins Center Learning Services.
“We spend a lot of time with students trying to help them identify with their disability because it really brings so much weight off of them,” Iobst said. “To hear it and to see it gives them a sense of relief.”
Disability Awareness lobby time was filled with increasing Awareness, fostering Acceptance and focused on being an Advocate. #disabilityawarenessmonth #differentnotless pic.twitter.com/EOuuc0PkMH
— Gators Learning Services (@GatorsLearn) October 4, 2022
When it comes to the types of disabilities that Catenacci and Iobst often help students overcome, one hurdle rises higher than the rest.
“The biggest stigma, I think, for people who have learning disabilities is that they’re not smart or that they’re not capable of doing something,” Catenacci said. “It’s not who you are. It’s what you have.”
The list of factors contributing to difficulty learning before a diagnosis is long: teaching style, class structure, physical environment and distractions.
UF football player Chief Borders has watched friends, family members and teammates struggle with academics until diagnosed with a learning disability. He is an active supporter of the cause because he has witnessed success stories.
“Some people don’t get it the first time,” Borders said. “That’s perfectly OK. I just feel when people are there to help, it just makes everything a lot easier. It makes you feel like you’re not alone.”
The playbook for success in teaching those with disabilities starts with awareness. Once there is a diagnosis, a plan of attack can be created, leading to life changes.
Assibey can relate.
“One of the things I really love about this awareness month is that it talks about all kinds of disabilities,” Assibey said. “It allows you to feel normal, and what is normal, knowing that people are in the fight with you.”
To help raise awareness, Watson, Faraci and Assibey shared their personal stories and why they want to serve as advocates of Disability Awareness Month:
DESMOND WATSON
A promising player on Florida’s defensive line, Watson has garnered attention this season for cracking the regular rotation and earning his first career start.
Watson wears No. 21, an unusual number for a defensive tackle. But there’s a story behind why he gave up the No. 99 he used to wear.
“He wore 21,” Watson said. “He comes to most of my games. Whenever he sees me in uniform with No. 21 on, he lights up a lot. He really, really likes that.”
According to Watson, his younger brother, Dyson McNeal, suffered a devastating stroke and subsequent brain damage when Dyson was only 5 years old. Dyson was already showing signs of being the best player in the family. That’s saying something since their older brother, Darrian McNeal, starred at quarterback for Armwood High near Tampa and is a former receiver at Oregon.
“It happened out of nowhere,” Watson said. “My older brother had just went to college. My mom was getting ready to go to his first spring game, actually, and she had to come back from the airport. [Dyson] was in the hospital for months.”
Watson was in eighth grade at the time. Meanwhile, Dyson made it home from the hospital but was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, which has left him physically impaired. Watson discovered in an instant how life could change.
“There’s a lot of stuff we’re still getting used to,” he said. “It was definitely rough when it happened, but I feel like we adjusted pretty well. He’s still happy. He can’t walk, he can’t talk and stuff like that, but he can communicate with us through facial expressions and body language.”
Dyson is now 11 and remains an inspiration to his big brother, who has learned about disabilities you can see, such as his Dyson’s, and those you cannot.
“I feel like his situation really helped me understand other people’s disabilities,” Watson said. “I feel like many people may look at how he looks, I guess you could say, with him having cerebral palsy. He can’t really function his limbs or talk. People might look at him and think that he can’t understand or has a learning disability, but he can read a room. He knows what people are saying. He still has the same attitude he had before. He is smart. He jokes around a lot in his own way. He can communicate with us. We know what he is trying to say.”
FRANCESCA FARACI
A goalkeeper for the Gators women’s soccer team, Faraci made the usual adjustments to college when she left her Park Ridge, Ill., home for UF.
The transition can be overwhelming. When Faraci was a freshman, former Gators coach Becky Burleigh noticed she seemed to have trouble focusing at practice.
“I would need a visual representation multiple times,” Faraci said. “Also, just anxiety with random things that normally wouldn’t cause anxiety. It wasn’t through my grades. It was through soccer my coach noticed it.”
When Faraci returned home after the season, she went to get tested for ADHD and other learning disabilities. She said she was diagnosed with ADHD, ADD and a reading comprehension disorder.
When she returned to school, Faraci used techniques she learned to help remove the obstacles in her way.
“I found out that I had those, and moving from there, I was granted my accommodations and ever since, my grades have been almost stellar perfect,” she said. “I just think I’m a kid with a learning disability that these barriers are really difficult to deal with, but I found a way around them and a way to deal with them without using medication. It has made me a more dedicated person.
“Just the simple diagnosis and working with the tutors at Hawkins, or working with other people, has helped me become a way better student. I have really shown improvement, and it shows that it makes a difference.”
Faraci is a big note-taker in class and writes her schedule in a daily planner, usually several days ahead. She also sets regular reminders and timers on her smartphone. Oh, and forget about procrastinating.
“I’m no longer putting things to the side and waiting until the end,” she said. “A lot of the work I can complete by myself and know what I have to do.”
Faraci is a journalism major with visions of attending law school one day. She recently took the LSAT and realized her score might not be as high as she would like, but that she has the skills to become a success because of her awareness and willingness to work.
Faraci’s diagnosis three years ago prompted her to help others with learning disabilities to find their way.
“I want people to know that learning disabilities are literally just an opportunity to grow,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to get better. It’s an opportunity to show that just because something doesn’t come naturally to you doesn’t mean it can’t come naturally to you in the future. I’m very open about it. I think that’s the best thing you can do. This is an opportunity for me to get better and prove people wrong.”
JULIAN ASSIBEY
He moved to California from Africa when he was 10. The pronounced cultural shift offered a challenge, as did the language.
Julian Assibey, in his third season as an assistant women’s basketball coach at UF, heard the same message over and over growing up. Since English was his second language, his reading struggles were understandable.
But Assibey remembered that reading always presented a challenge, even as a kid in Africa.
“I felt dumb and stupid for a long time,” Assibey said.
He isolated himself. He tried to figure out things on his own. Perhaps his saving grace was an ability to escape into athletics, where Assibey excelled and felt normal.
Finally, in a previous coaching stop, a professor announced plans to test those in the school’s athletic department for learning disabilities. Assibey participated in the study.
The conclusion: he had dyslexia.
“As you’re growing up and you’re figuring out how to get through this life with this thing, and thinking you’re not very smart, when there’s actually a diagnosis as to what that is [offers relief],” Assibey said. “It’s not that you are not trying or not putting in the effort. It’s just that your brain doesn’t compute like normal people. It brought things into perspective for me.”
The diagnosis lifted a burden off Assibey’s shoulders. He instantly became an advocate for those with learning disabilities. He sought ways to overcome the challenges he faced for years without the proper help.
Assibey relies on a reading app to help him get through reading emails more quickly. He also uses an app to rehearse the scouting reports he presents to the players.
Assibey said in retrospect, from what he now knows about dyslexia, there were clues he was on the spectrum. He didn’t speak until he was about 2. More than anything, he is thankful he was diagnosed and made aware of the tools available to help him and others like him.
“There’s a lot of help out there. Ask for it,” he said. “You can still accomplish what you want to with this disorder. There are just so many disabilities out there that people are not aware of. I just want to give encouragement. It’s OK. We can work through it, you can succeed, and you can do big things if you have a disability.
“I had great teachers who tried their best to help me. I just wish we had tested me earlier for dyslexia.”