Inspirational leader

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Naugatuck assistant coach’s comeback motivates others

Naugatuck High School boys basketball team volunteer assistant coach, Marcus Melchionno slaps hands with Jami Dwy, a member of the girls basketball team during practice in Naugatuck Feb. 5. With them are Abby Jang, center, Michelle Cordova and Tyler Waters. Melchionno, who sustained a traumatic brain injury in a car crash in 2008, has been an inspiration to the Greyhounds. –REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
Naugatuck High School boys basketball team volunteer assistant coach, Marcus Melchionno slaps hands with Jami Dwy, a member of the girls basketball team during practice in Naugatuck Feb. 5. With them are Abby Jang, center, Michelle Cordova and Tyler Waters. Melchionno, who sustained a traumatic brain injury in a car crash in 2008, has been an inspiration to the Greyhounds. –REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

NAUGATUCK — To Marcus Melchionno, TBI stands for “To Be Inspired.”

The 24-year-old Naugatuck resident and former high school basketball player refuses to use the traumatic brain injury (TBI) label as a crutch.

More than six years removed from a nearly fatal car accident on Route 8 in Watertown that left him in a coma for five weeks, he is adjusting to life the best he can while trying to motivate others.

While he doesn’t remember what actually happened on July 24, 2008, he said, “Things happen. What happened to me was a freak thing. But I tell people that they can come back.”

That’s the attitude he is trying to instill in members of the Naugatuck High boys basketball team as a volunteer assistant coach. His is a story of perseverance and survival, a comeback from years in a wheelchair, several operations and more years of rehabilitation therapy.

He now walks slowly, but without the use of a cane or a walker. He lost mobility and strength in his left limbs and talks more slowly than he once did. But being back at the Edward Mariano Gymnasium where he played as a teen means the world to him — and to the Greyhounds.

“Every day Marcus walks into the gym, he lights up the room and picks us up,” Naugatuck senior captain Jason Bradley said. “He helps make us realize all of the joys in life and that we shouldn’t take anything for granted.”

Melchionno gives out a handshake to every player each day, a small gesture that senior Jarron Chapman takes seriously.

“I’ve known him for only a couple of months, but I feel like Marcus is a part of my family,” Chapman said. “It’s an honor for me to be with him on this team. He asks if he inspires us. We all say yes, not because we have to but because it’s being truthful.”

Chapman said Melchionno doesn’t hold anything back when trying to encourage him.

“He pushes me mentally and physically, and is always screaming for me to hustle,” Chapman said. “He wants the best for me.”

There’s a ritual near the end of every practice. If Melchionno converts a one-handed foul shot, practice officially ends. For every shot he may miss, the team is required to run an up-and-down sprint, but that’s fine with them.

“We’ll run all day for Marcus,” Bradley said. “When he makes a shot, you’ll see the biggest smile anyone could ever have. We smile, too, because we know he loves to be out on the court with us.”

Last fall at a football game, Melchionno had a chance meeting with Naugatuck High boys basketball coach Mike Wilson.

Melchionno gave Wilson his inspirational definition of TBI.

“That rocked my world,” said Wilson of Melchionno’s determination. “Noting the nature of his injuries and to have such a 360-degree turn in his life in itself is touching and inspiring. It definitely inspired me.”

Wilson and Melchionno kept in contact before basketball practice opened after Thanksgiving.

“Marcus asked to be a part of the program, and he showed the commitment,” Wilson said. “Every day he would text me and ask what time practice was.”

Melchionno hasn’t missed a practice or a game this season.

“I’ve seen on social media posts from Marcus that said if his friends saw him now, they’d say, ‘Wow,’ seeing how hard he is working to be walking and bettering himself,” noted Warren Buerkle, a former high school teammate and friend since childhood. “Marcus would always be practicing at the Naugatuck YMCA, even after the season was over, to try to better himself, and that’s what he is trying to do now.”

At a recent game against Sacred Heart, former Naugatuck and Keene State standout Anthony Mariano sat with Melchionno in the stands and revisited their high school days.

“It was great to see how much he has improved,” Mariano said. “He may not be able to still play, but he has the same passion for the game. When he played, it didn’t matter what his role was as long as he was around the game. I think this was a wake-up call for a lot of guys, and it has motivated them to make the most out of every opportunity. Everyone respects him.”

Melchionno has the same exuberance now that he had as a kid, according to former coach, Kevin Wesche.

“Marcus was very energetic and enthusiastic,” Wesche said. “He was an individual who loved the sport and loved the camaraderie and being with the other kids. He may not have been the best player and the best athlete, but he was one of the hardest-working kids to have on the court.”

Wesche said Melchionno fit in with everyone and was the ultimate teammate, loudly cheering for his teammates on the bench or giving a spark to the team off the bench.

Melchionno is continuing in that role, either by Wilson’s side on the bench or from the bleachers right behind the team bench.

Watching practice from the bleachers recently, Melchionno’s mother, Tina, and brother, Christopher, 14, were thrilled to seeing Marcus enjoy himself.

“I am very proud of my brother,” said Christopher, a Naugatuck freshman.

Tina Melchionno is thrilled to see her older son enjoy each day and thinks back to that dreadful night in 2008.

He remained in Hartford Hospital for three months, then at Gaylord Rehabilitation Center in Wallingford for three months before returning to his home in Naugatuck. He was confined to a wheelchair for several years, but that is behind him now.

After some time, Melchionno was able to put aside his walker and cane. He now walks without any aids.

“He is pretty much a miracle,” Tina said. “That’s why God kept him here. He has a lot to offer people, and that is to inspire people and to bring a positive outlook to others.”

In the days and months after the accident, Tina said she and her husband, Augustus, were told that Marcus likely would never walk again, but Tina never put any limitations on her son.

He bounced back from a slight fracture in his neck, a puncture in his lung, a spine injury and bleeding on the brain. He also lost the peripheral vision in his eyes and lost mobility and strength in his left limbs.

He had surgeries to repair the tendons in his left leg behind his knee, lengthen his Achilles tendon and straighten his toes. For a few years, Melchionno had in-home physical therapy with Dan Parlato at least three times a week.

“Dan (Parlato) is the greatest man who ever lived,” Tina said. “He got Marcus on the right track. He focused on his strengths, not his weaknesses. It was steady progress, but not all of a sudden. He never said that Marcus would be perfect. But our goal was for him to walk without any limitations. Marcus proved everyone wrong. … We are so thankful for that and for all of the support that the Naugatuck community has given us from day one.”