Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

Colton Ferland, who just turned 12 last week, always thinks he can achieve whatever goals he sets for himself and he sets goals most of us wouldn’t even consider if we had his physical challenges.

Colton was born with something called Spondylo-epiphyseal dysplasia. In short this little known disease dramatically slows the rate of growth of all of his bones, especially his legs, hips and ribs. Also his vertebrae are flat leaving his trunk much shorter than others his age. As a result, he is 30 to 38 centimetres (12 to 15 inches) shorter than most of his friends.

Given his condition, Colton is in and out of Sick Kids Hospital in Vancouver on a regular basis. His most recent surgery involved breaking his right leg above the knee and driving pins through the bone on both sides of the break. The pins were attached to a cage that surrounded his leg and every six hours screws on the cage were turned a quarter turn.

In short as each screw was twisted, the break was separated just a little and his body worked to grow bone to fill that space thus lengthen his leg. At the same time, the bone was twisted slightly to begin to correct a tendency for him to be pigeon toed. This surgery also involved some major restructuring of his hip joint.

As his internal organs grow, his ribs will have to undergo a similar procedure.

Given his challenges, you could understand if Colton had decided that he hated sports and chose instead to focus on sedentary activities. However it turns out he loves sports and he wants to participate, not sit in the stands.

Although doctors told his parents, Mark and Andrea, that he would never be able to play sports, they didn’t focus on that prediction.

“We’re not the kind of parents to say ‘no’,” Mark smiled. “We figure Colton will let us know if he can’t do something or if he doesn’t want to.”

Over the years, Colton has played baseball and won the MVP award several of those years.

It seems that his hand/eye coordination is particularly good so he hits and catches extremely well and throws with great accuracy. His only challenge is running but then, given that he hits the ball a ton, he has managed to get away with being much slower than others.

Two other attributes have made Colton stand out as an athlete: his ability to focus on the game and his positive attitude. Coaches can always count on him for high fives all around to pick up team spirit especially when they appear to be down and out.

His ability to focus showed in bowling. In the last game of the Island Championships two years ago, Colton was the last bowler and his team was behind as he approached the line. Given his ability to focus and his “can do” attitude, he bowled three strikes in a row and took his team to the Provincial Championships.

By the way Colton also plays basketball at school and, in spite of the challenges with is legs, he tried hockey for a while as well.

When he came out of the hospital after his most recent surgery, doctors said he would be able to walk on crutches by July but Colton disagreed. He set May 22 as the date he’d be ready. He made it by May 9th.

As I was leaving his home, Colton told me that each night as he goes to sleep, he focuses on seeing himself improving in some small way. Obviously that kind of visualization works.

This boy has a lot to teach us.