Delk doesn't need a hand

ELIDA - Unlike other basketball players, Elida junior forward Teigan Delk grabs rebounds with one hand, instead of two, and for good reason - he can't. Delk was born with half of his right arm missing, including the forearm and hand.

Despite this, Delk has played basketball all of his life, and better yet, always has a smile on his face. For Delk, being born with two hands is no big deal in terms of playing the game, and in fact, he even believes he may be better for it.

"All my friends, they call it a nub," Delk said, laughing. "I don't know. I was born with it and I don't know anything different. People ask me, 'Do you think you'd be better with two hands?' And I say, 'No, because I wouldn't have ever tried as hard as I do to be that good.' The fact that I'm a starter shows that. I think, with two hands, I wouldn't have had the intensity that I do."

Delk is known to be a hard-worker with a high motor, according to Tigers coach Logan Turnbow. Like Turnbow, Delk is in his second season with the Tigers, but the two of them have actually known each other for nearly a decade.

Delk is originally from Melrose and started his high school career there, before coming over to Elida last year, when his mother, Tandee, accepted the school district's superintendent position.

The younger Delk says he has shown quite a bit of improvement playing the game recently, and credits part of that to the move to Elida. "In Melrose, they didn't really count me in as a teammate," he said. "So, when I came here and they counted me as a teammate and included me in stuff, I just felt good and I was in a better place," Delk explained.

"That just gives me a better feeling, and I think that could be a big part of why I'm so much better now. That's why I have the intensity and self-confidence now. The confidence in myself that I can do this, not people putting me down and saying that I can't - or shouldn't - play."

Turnbow's approach to Delk is to treat him like any other basketball player. Turnbow says that after his players got over the initial shock of a one-armed player coming out for the basketball team, Delk was embraced by teammates and treated as a brother.

Turnbow says that the big challenges for Delk are not having a right-handed layup, along with needing to set his feet sooner, as opponents frequently try to dribble right, instead of left, against him.

One of the biggest challenges, according to Turnbow, is the affect that Delk's birth defect can sometimes have on him. Nonetheless, the coach has seen significant improvement from his former guard-turned-post player, who now leads the team in rebounding.

"It's his attitude," Turnbow said. "He's got a heart of gold, but facing something like that can be a little bit of an emotional roller coaster. He gets down on himself pretty hard at times, when he misses a layup or doesn't catch a ball cleanly or something like that. Since the season started, he's really committed hard to just working hard for his team. If he makes a mistake, that's fine. He just keeps playing hard, and he never stops."

As for rebounding, the undersized and one-handed Delk says that it simply comes down to out-jumping his opponents, as he tries to palm the ball and get it away from opposing players, and ultimately get it back to one of his guards.

For all the challenges his birth defect presents on the court, Delk says that he hasn't faced much adversity off of it. "All my life, the only thing I can think of right now is (that I couldn't climb) monkey bars," Delk said, laughing.

"That's the only thing I couldn't do. I can't really think of anything else that really set me back or anything, because any time I found something, I found a way to get around it, face it, and not run away from it."

Turnbow says that he wishes he had a team full of Teigan Delks, and with the kind of attitude Delk displays, it's no wonder. However, while Delk's life hasn't really been impacted too much off the court, he's nonetheless a huge inspiration to many people everywhere.

As for Delk's message to others who may be facing a similar set of circumstances, well, it is a powerful one. "Don't lose hope," he said. "Just keep on trying, and if you can't get it, don't give up. If it's a dream that you want to pursue, pursue it. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do something, because you can do anything you want to."