School finds special help for student who lost arm


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SYRACUSE — On the playground, Pat Handrahan often spends his time helping 7-year-old Grant Goodsell learn how to catch and throw a baseball.

"You're getting better at getting the ball out of your mitt," Handrahan yelled out in encouragement during a recent practice session.

Each of them lost their left arm fairly early in life. Grant had been adjusting mostly on his own situation over the past year and a half, after his arm was removed to keep a cancerous tumor from spreading.

"The doctor kept saying, 'He'll never know anything different, he's only 6,’” Grant's mother, Jennifer Goodsell, explained. "It was still hard."

While working recess duty at Joseph Cook Elementary School, Stacy Mann made a connection. She had noticed Goodsell playing with a ball and mitt and remembered that Handrahan, who was already a volunteer at the school, used to play softball with her parents.

"He amazed me when I was a kid," Mann said. "I was probably 12 years old. I remember him pitching, his stance at bat, and I just couldn't imagine how he could catch the ball and throw it again so fast with one arm."

Mann introduced Handrahan to Grant, and the two have been bonding over a game of catch for the past month. Handrahan is teaching Grant to clench his glove under his chin before quickly grabbing the ball to throw back.


I think he's a remarkable young man. For him, the world's a whole lot more open than it was for me.

–Pat Handrahan, school volunteer


"I think he's a remarkable young man," Handrahan said. "For him, the world's a whole lot more open than it was for me."

Handrahan lost his left arm after falling from a power pole he climbed at age 11. He said he was later often ostracized for trying to play ball.

"I had people tell me I couldn't play on the community team because people don't take pity on cripples in Ogden," Handrahan said. "I went through life without anyone being able to tell me how to do stuff. I had to figure it out on my own."

For his part, Grant described Handrahan as being "awesome" and said he's grateful for the help.

"Baseball is my favorite sport," he said with a smile.

While the school year is ending, Handrahan already has plans to teach Grant how to tie his shoes next fall. He said he enjoys their time together.

"It's just getting to know a young man that has the same problems I did," Handrahan said, "and being able to help him overcome that issue real quick."

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