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LSU softball trainer continues to defy the odds

4 years 10 months 1 week ago Wednesday, May 08 2019 May 8, 2019 May 08, 2019 7:17 PM May 08, 2019 in Sports
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Student trainer Dakota Loosemore helps out on the LSU softball team in any way the team allows. Whether it is helping tape and stretch players, shag balls at practice, or making sure head coach Beth Torina is drinking enough water, Loosemore is known as one of the hardest workers on the team.

"My parents never told me you're different. You can't do these things. It was always go try it. If you can you can. If you can't you can't. That's how I grew up adapting," said Loosemore.

That mindset of adapting to his situation is something that Dakota has had to do his entire life. He has a condition called right side hemiparesis which he has dealt with since birth.

"This leads to me not being able to use my right arm at all. I use it to stabilize things," said Loosemore. "I use it to grab things, but other than that, I don't do the main functions so everything I do is one handed."

As someone who was bulled for being different growing up, Dakota could've let his situation beat him. Instead he worked to defy the odds.
"I kind of turned me being bullied into motivation. That's why I learned to adapt to everything," said Loosemore. "I didn't want it to be 'hey Dakota can you do this? It's like 'hey, oh! Dakota is doing this!"
This kid that grew up playing 4 different sports never let his disability decide who he would become.
"It's the fact of proving people wrong and showing people that even with a disability you can do anything and that my disability won't define me," Loosmore said. "It won't constrain me to these limits that are set to me as society has set."
Up next for Loosemore, he will become the next student athletic trainer for the LSU football team. It's a challenge Loosemore is excited to take on.

"So for some people 'it's hey I want to be an athlete.' For me it was at a certain point, 'hey I'm not going to be an athlete anymore. Let's help athletes be athletes.

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