A glimpse of hope: Teen with eye condition qualifies for AAU wrestling tournament
A Winterset teen beat the odds and qualified for the Iowa AAU Wrestling Tournament next weekend at Wells Fargo Arena.
"It's been my dream since I started," said Kasen Cochran.
The 14-year-old's dream was almost denied when he was diagnosed with a genetic condition called X-link Juvenile Retno Skeesis. It will eventually rob Kasen of his sight.
Doctors told him he couldn't compete in contact sports, saying a simple eye poke could leave him blind.
"It sucked," Kasen said.
A trip to see a doctor in Iowa City gave him a glimpse of hope.
"That doctor was amazing and just said, 'He's a kid. It should be up to him to what he wants to do and if the risk is worth it,'" said Mindy Cochran, Kasen's mother.
For Kasen, wrestling is worth it. That meant finding proper eye protection.
"We tried a lot of them," Mindy Cochran said. "We went to the eye doctor and purchased goggles. We tried every sports goggle we could find."
His mother did some research and came across another wrestler with the same condition. The wrestler informed the Cochrans about the best googles.
Headgear keeps the goggles in place, preventing other wrestlers from grabbing or pulling on the goggle straps.
"He was no longer being looked at by all those kids as goggles and disability," Mindy Cochran said. "It was a wrestler working his tail off to make that podium."
She's proud of her son who wouldn't let a disability hold him back.
"His biggest quote going through this whole thing: (He) went to (the) University of Iowa and said that he was only fighting to see. A lot of the kids were fighting to live. So his was not so bad," Mindy Cochran said.