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Paralympian Emt shares importance of choices with local students
CLOVERDALE — On March 24, 1995, Steve Emt had everything going for him.
A standout athlete his whole life, Emt was a recent UConn grad, having spent 1992-94 as a walk-on for the Huskies men’s basketball team. After graduation, it got even better.
“I got a great job, working for an environmental company — saving the world,” Emt told an assembly at Cloverdale High School on Tuesday.
Everything changed that night, though, when Emt was involved in a single vehicle crash when he blacked out while driving after a night of drinking.
He awoke two days later in the hospital to the news that he was paralyzed from the waist down, the victim of his own choices.
Quite mobile in his wheelchair after 29 years of practice, Emt still cuts quite the different figure than he would have as a six-foot-five 25-year-old.
“I’m paralyzed for the rest of my life from the waist down,” Emt told the students. “I cannot move my legs. I cannot feel my legs.”
Emt was in Putnam County to visit three high schools over the course of two days, with South Putnam and North Putnam also on the agenda. All told, more than 1,000 students and staff members in Putnam County heard Emt’s message.
All of this came to be thanks to South Putnam senior Danae Cline, who is a member of both the Putnam County PIE Coalition and the IHSAA Student Advisory Council.
As part of the advisory council, Cline attended a leadership conference at which Emt was the keynote speaker. She was able to meet him afterward and returned to Putnam County, telling PIE coordinator Linda Merkel that they had to bring Emt to Putnam County.
After meeting with leaders from the four county schools, three were able to work it in their schedule, and Emt spent two days in Putnam County this week, courtesy of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
Speaking as part of the Choices Matter program, Emt highlighted some of the choices — both bad and good — that have made a difference in his life.
Chief among these was, of course, that fateful night in 1995. Setting the scene, Emt explained that his alma mater was in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament, so he met friends at a local bar. The bar owner recognized Emt as a former UConn player and told him that his group would drink for free that night.
“They put me up on this pedestal just because I wa better at basketball than anyone else in this room,” Emt said. “And that was wrong.”
Over the course of the night, things got a bit out of control. At one point, Emt got into an altercation with another bar patron, injuring the man to the point of needing medical attention.
At that point, he was told to leave the bar.
“I remember getting into my brand new pickup truck,” Emt said. “And I don’t remember anything after that.”
What apparently happened was Emt passing out while driving more than 90 mph down the highway. The truck left the highway and rolled for 75 yards before coming to rest, Emt having been thrown from the wreckage after being tossed around inside the truck.
His body suffered massive internal bleeding and a severed spinal cord.
When Emt woke after two days in a coma, he first remembers his surgeon telling him sternly he would never walk again. Then he remembers his mother, already a widow, coming over in tears. One of those tears fell on Steve’s face. Though paralyzed and still heavily drugged, Emt felt the tear on his face.
“I felt that,” Emt said. “I’ve never felt anything more profoundly in my life.”
While his turnaround wasn’t instantaneous, Emt eventually made another impactful choice about what the rest of his life would look like. He spent several days pushing away those who loved him and even thinking about self harm before forging another path.
“Do I want to be the jerk that I’ve been for the last few days, or do I want to go back to the guy I was?” Emt asked.
No, not the guy who got behind the wheel that night, but the guy who filled up the room, who was a natural leader, who was going to save the world?
Based on that decision and others, Emt later wrote the book “You D.E.C.I.D.E.,” which is based on a six-step plan to excell in life and become your own hero: Determine, Educate, Create, Implement, Don’t Ever Give Up and Evaluate.
“You are in charge of your life,” Emt told the students. “It’s not what happens to you in life. It’s what you do with what happens to you.”
Making that choice to be in charge, Emt’s last 29 years look much different than what he likely foresaw immediately after the crash. A big brother relationship with a troubled teen led him to leave his environmental job and become a teacher. Later, opportunities through teaching led him to become a motivational speaker by telling his story in unflinching detail to audiences of all ages around the country.
The latest chapter, a journey he’s been on for a decade or so now, has Steve as a paralympian — the top-ranked paralympian curler in the U.S. and No. 4 in the world. He competed in the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and the 2022 games in Beijing, China, with plans to be in the Milano Cortina games in Italy in 2026.
While his goal has long been to win a paralympic medal, he says earning a sportsmanship award at one world competition was much more humbling and meangful than the other experience could be.
“That silver plate far outweighs — far outweights — any medal I could win,” Emt said. “Because I did it the right way.”
Perhaps Emt’s most impactful message was telling students to make the simple choice to be kind. He said you never know what someone else may be going through, so treating them well could make a huge impact.
“A simple smile could make someone else’s day,” Emt said. “You could save a life.”
Emt then modeled that behavior for the students. As the end of the presentation neared, he shared his contact information, such as website, social media and email address, but also his personal phone number.
“If you have anything going on in your life and you feel you have no one to talk to — text me, give me a call,” Emt said.
It all went back to what he had already told the students.
“You have people in your life who care about you and love you ... and I’m one of them.”