A Stillwater eighth grader recovering from a spinal injury has turned his love of soccer into a global challenge. Austin Utley led a Guinness World Record attempt at the Bethany Children's Center in Oklahoma, putting his favourite sport at the heart of an effort that reached far beyond his own community.
The goal was the record for the most people juggling a soccer ball at once, and it was reached. Organisers say 511 people juggled the ball for 10 seconds at the same time across 43 cities around the world, setting a new Guinness World Record, with part of the attempt taking place right there in Oklahoma City.
The chance to take part came through Austin's family, who brought the opportunity to the team working with him. From there, the idea grew into a project that the entire therapy team took on together, determined to find a way for him to be involved.
That was not straightforward. Because of his injury, Austin does not have active movement in his muscles, so the staff had to think carefully about how he could physically take part in a ball-juggling record at all.
The answer was a custom solution built in-house. Everybody jumped in to make a ramp so that he could kick the ball back and forth from leg to leg. As his therapist put it after emailing to say it could be done, the whole group was ready to make it happen, with the center's communications and marketing teams and all of his therapists getting involved.
At the centre of it all was something simple. Soccer is important to Austin, and that was reason enough for the people around him to make sure the moment could happen for him, turning his recovery and his passion into a small part of a worldwide record.