Hinckley Football Player Earns Award For Courage

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - When you're a high school football player, what more can you ask for than a girlfriend who likes sports even more than you do?

The only thing Josh Benson and Kelly McFarland like more than sports is each other.

"We're just both really down to earth, I guess," Kelly said.

They started dating right around the time he started fall football practice in August. They'd been going steady for a week when they started going down a road that nearly killed them.

It was the perfect fall day for a ride on a four-wheeler, and Josh and Kelly were heading down a dirt road near Hinckley. They were driving around 30 miles per hours when something went wrong. The right front tire locked up, pulling the four-wheeler hard toward the ditch.

Sensing they were about to crash, Josh twisted back in his seat and pushed Kelly off to safety.

It was the last thing he had the chance to do, as he crashed moments later. The four-wheeler landed on top of him, but he didn't feel pain.

Or his legs.

He'd broken his spine, and was paralyzed from the waist down.

"They told me I will never walk again," he said.

Eight months later, this is the first time Josh and Kelly have come back to the scene of the accident.

"You just pushed me off," Kelly remembered.

Kelly knows what might have happened to her, if not for his selfless act.

"I'm glad he did, but I wish he would've got off himself," she said.

Josh said he's never entertained the thought, that if in that moment he'd been thinking of himself instead of Kelly, he wouldn't be the one in the wheelchair.

"I'm glad I did," he said, "but I have no idea why."

He doesn't want credit, calling it a reflex rather than some heroic effort.

But his dad doesn't see it that way.

"It's something he'd do," his father said. "He's my hero."

Kelly had to drive by the place once, a while back, but she couldn't bear to look.

"I looked the other way," she said. "I don't want to remember anything about that day."

It's a little easier now -- now that the hero is learning to walk again.

Twice a week, Josh and his dad drive down to Golden Valley for physical therapy. The hour-long sessions are rigorous and demanding.

"They say I've got up to two years to get stuff back if I am determined to walk," Josh said.

It's a slow-going, one-step-at-a-time mentality that kind of reminds him of football practice, knowing the payoff won't come immediately, but later down the road. But he's doing it.

"I think he's a trooper," Kelly said. "If it was me that was in this spot, I'd probably still be laying in that ditch. I wouldn't have the courage to get up and go. It's just incredible what he does."

The Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation will present Josh Benson with the Courage Award at its annual banquet on Sunday night.

A pair of benefit funds have been set up to help Josh with his medical expenses, at TCF Bank and the Hinckley Woodlands National Bank.
Money can be directed to the Josh Benson Benefit Fund.