The first time Eric Hendershot got a glimpse of Tyler Wilkinson, the young football star was doing his Houdini-like magic on the field at Dixie High School in St. George.
"I saw this one runner, No. 33, who was amazing," Hendershot remembers. "There was a play where he was completely buried and then he squirted out and ran all the way for a touchdown."When Hendershot saw Wilkinson two years later, the husky athlete with the tree trunk body weighed 140 pounds and was sitting in a wheelchair. Wilkinson, paralyzed from the neck down, was addressing the student body at Dixie High. And once again, although he could no longer gracefully move his body down the field, Wilkinson was mesmerizing.
Hendershot, a St. George screenwriter with an ABC Movie of the Week on his resume, knew an inspiring story when he heard one. He went home and told his wife that they should do a film series on "real heroes - not the kind who can do a 360 slam-dunk and then go home and do who knows what in their personal life."
The Hendershots' motivational film series debuts this summer with "Tyler, A Real Hero," narrated by San Francisco 49er quarterback Steve Young.
"A lot of kids are committing suicide," says Hendershot, "and here you have Tyler Wilkinson who says, `Hey, there's too much to live for.' "
Wilkinson, an all-state wrestler and baseball player in addition to a legendary football player - a boy destined for pro sports - was paralyzed in an auto accident the winter of his senior year.
"Tyler, A Real Hero" documents the determination and strength of character that made Wilkinson the kind of kid, and now the kind of man, who never gives up. The kind of kid who proved at age 5 that he was old enough to have a paper route; the kind of man who refuses now to feel sorry for himself.
Wilkinson is currently a student at Dixie College and recently married his high school sweetheart.
Hendershot hopes to make additional motivational films. "I want to show rare acts of courage," he says. "Things that would uplift people, where they can say `I can do that, too.' "