{"id":6760,"date":"2025-01-29T18:58:40","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T23:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teamimpact.org\/?p=6760"},"modified":"2025-01-30T15:31:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T20:31:38","slug":"the-clarke-family-detroit-mercy-mens-soccer-because-all-means-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamimpact.org\/about\/blog\/the-clarke-family-detroit-mercy-mens-soccer-because-all-means-all\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clarke Family & Detroit Mercy Men\u2019s Soccer: Because \u201cAll Means All.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Kara Clarke thinks of her son Adam, she thinks of passion. \u201cAdam is very passionate. He can definitely be a funny guy. He likes to make people laugh,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has no filter. What he is thinking, you definitely know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when Adam was six months old, long before he could speak his mind, his parents began to notice some unusual behaviors that looked an awful lot like seizures. They went to the hospital for what ended up being Adam\u2019s first of many EEGs\u2014a visit Kara remembers as overwhelmingly hot and uncomfortable. \u201cIt was just a 20-minute EEG, but they didn\u2019t find anything,\u201d she recalled. On this day, Adam, who is now 17 years old, began his long and unique medical journey. \u201cTo this day, they\u2019ve never really captured anything on film,\u201d Kara said. \u201cThey\u2019ve had EEGs come back that were irregular, that indicate there\u2019s definitely something going on, just by trial and error. \u2018Medical Roulette\u2019 is what we call it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years of Medical Roulette resulted in more seizures, many drug trials, and countless appointments and hospital visits for Adam and his family. Eventually, Adam ended up with three diagnoses\u2014epilepsy, autism, and asthma\u2014but the strive to get answers to what is causing his many symptoms is ongoing. Adam often struggles to breathe, especially in colder weather. He can get down on himself when he isn\u2019t feeling well or when one of his drug trials doesn\u2019t seem to be working. It can be very worrisome for Adam. \u201cIt takes an emotional toll,\u201d Kara said. \u201cHe has really struggled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during one of these times that Kara learned about Team IMPACT through Kathy Prout, whose son Larry was matched with the University of Michigan football team. Kara was immediately excited and interested in applying for her family. She thought this program may be perfect for her empathetic, passionate son who loves all things sports, trains, and team. After doing a little more research, she filled out the form online, and in the summer of 2022, Kara got the call informing her that Adam would be joining the Detroit Mercy men\u2019s soccer team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAt first, we were like, \u2018What are these guys going to want with him?\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cAdam\u2019s going into high school, and these are college guys.\u201d As soon as Adam was matched, his new teammates followed up with introductory emails, expressing their excitement and making plans to meet together in person. But even in the car on the way to campus for the first time, Kara and her husband, Brent, held in their quiet hesitations. Those hesitations melted away the second they set foot on campus, Kara recalled. As they pulled onto campus and found their way to the meeting spot, they were greeted by a wave of \u201cHey, Adam!\u201ds from the entire soccer team, and \u201cour expectations went right out the door,\u201d Kara said. \u201cAnything we could have possibly thought of or dreamt of was just gone. They blew away any expectation we could have had. Every single player walked over, either fist-bumped or high-fived Adam. Every single player introduced themselves to me and Brent, shook our hands, welcomed us to the team.\u201d They met the coaching staff, who greeted them with open arms that made them immediately feel like family. \u201cIt was just like, \u2018Oh my gosh,\u2019\u201d Kara recalled, \u201cand it wasn\u2019t just like that the first day. It was like that every single day since.<\/strong> Every time we got there\u2026it just blew our minds away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam, who is typically only outgoing around those he is most comfortable with, immediately fell into being exactly himself with the team. In time, he was giving speeches for teammates\u2019 birthdays, pumping them up before games, breaking down huddles, and reviewing local restaurants, all with his Detroit Mercy teammates by his side. And it wasn\u2019t only Kara and Brent who noticed a change in Adam, but the players\u2019 parents who also noticed changes in their sons as well. \u201cIt was really cool, because almost every parent was like, \u2018Adam is family,\u2019\u201d Kara said. \u201cThat was just amazing to us. Seeing his love of sports, his confidence, his outgoingness. His independence when he is with people now like, \u2018Man, I\u2019m good. I don\u2019t need you. I\u2019m good!\u2019 I can stand back and say, \u2018You go do your thing! I\u2019m over here, you go!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kara remembers a time when Adam went with his teammates to a women\u2019s soccer game on campus. While at the game, Kara noticed Adam was sitting with the guys watching the game together but not talking very much. \u201cSocial interaction is one of his biggest deficits,\u201d Kara said, so she was concerned Adam was having an off day with the team. On the way home, she asked him if he had talked to the guys and he said, \u201cNo, not really.\u201d Kara began offering advice on conversation topics and questions Adam could ask his teammates or ways he could engage with them before she rephrased the question. \u201cDo you feel like you need<\/em> to talk when you\u2019re with them?\u201d she asked. \u201cNo, because they\u2019re my friends<\/strong>,\u201d Adam said. Kara pushed, trying to better understand what Adam meant by that. \u201cI don\u2019t have<\/em> to talk to them. I\u2019m with<\/em> them. And when we need to talk, we need to talk,\u201d Adam said, \u201cbut they\u2019re my friends and I\u2019m comfortable with them, so I don\u2019t feel like I have to force a conversation, because I know we\u2019re cool<\/strong>.\u201d To Kara, this felt monumental. Her son was surrounded by people who made him feel comfortable enough to be himself without feeling pressure to be anything else. \u201cI took that as he\u2019s got a level of comfort with them where just being with them is enough,<\/strong>\u201d she said. \u201cTo me, that meant more than I could ever put into words. It was huge. I thought, \u2018Wow, mission accomplished.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kara hopes all kids can feel the comfort Adam feels with his team and all athletes can learn to create a welcoming environment like the Detroit Mercy soccer team. \u201cI hope they\u2019ve learned that patience is important. I hope they\u2019ve learned being inclusive,\u201d Kara said. \u201c\u2019All means all,<\/strong>\u2019 I like to say, and I hope they\u2019ve learned that. I hope they take that to heart and take a moment if they see someone who seems different to give them a minute before they make a judgement. Stick up for somebody if they see someone being mistreated. You never know what\u2019s going on with other people. It sounds so basic, but it is often that basic stuff that people are missing in today\u2019s world. With some of the things Adam has gone through, these are the things people like him need. He feels that when he\u2019s with the team.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the Detroit Mercy soccer team, Adam now plays soccer, too, on a unified team at school. \u201cWhen he\u2019s playing soccer, he imitates everything he seems from those guys,\u201d Kara said. When he is playing goalie, Adam likes to grab the ball and drop immediately to the ground, just like Detroit Mercy\u2019s goalie, Quinn. Adam wears number 21, because his buddy Jackson, who Adam nominated as a 2024 Teammate of the Year<\/a>, wears number 21. His teammates have taught him so much about the game that Kara sometimes worries Adam may know too<\/em> much about the rules of soccer. She remembers a soccer game when Adam was playing goalie and the ref called a goal against him that Adam did not think was a goal. Adam got mad\u2014so mad that Kara made her way to the field to try to calm him down, with a plan to use Detroit Mercy soccer as an example of how to act on the field. \u201cHe took his jersey off and threw it on the ground, and I said, \u2018Adam! What would you tell Casey or Luke if they started acting like this?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cHe stopped and looked and was like, \u2018I would tell them to get their act together.\u2019 \u2018So get your act together!\u2019\u201d Kara remembered telling him. Soon enough, Adam calmed down, and from afar and without even knowing it, his teammates helped him keep his cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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