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Former Ohio high school football star shows what you can make out of life and love

Posted at 10:54 AM, Jul 29, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-29 10:54:40-04

WADSWORTH, Ohio - Kory Wiita just finished taking the bar exam yesterday, and is getting married Saturday. Which one is he more nervous about?

"The wedding," he told Fox 8. "I can take the bar exam again if need be, but I don't want to forget any of my vows."

Taking the bar and getting married would seem like a lot for anyone to tackle in a week.

But those milestones show just how remarkable a person Kory has become since a football injury paralyzed him eight years ago.

Kory, who played for Highland High School, said he had a first rough year after his accident, but then "kind of accepted that whether I was happy of whether I was sad", he was going to be living in a wheelchair.

But that fact does not define him - or confine him.

In the last six years, Kory has graduated from college and, just last spring, from the Case Western Law School.

He has interned for NASA, the Cleveland Browns, and the Federal Public Defenders Office.

His fiance, Kayla Heichel, says simply, "Kory's amazing."

The couple went to the same high school, though they didn't know each other (at 22, Kayla is three years younger then Kory).

But she called him for advice a few years later after being in a serious car accident.

"We just click," she says.

Kory hopes to practice law in Medina County, "to give back to all the people who really stood behind me."

Kayla, a theater graduate from Baldwin-Wallace, hopes to one day perform at Playhouse Square.

Kory says he has daily nerve pain, and keeping busy and moving forward helps him battle the discomfort.  "I feel good about where I'm at," Kory says.

Then he adds, he'll feel better after Saturday.

After he remembers his vows.  And marries Kayla