UGA Football Team Visits Injured Student

Patients at Atlanta's Shepherd Center got some special visitors Friday, about 60 members of the UGA football team. The Bulldogs will be in town to take on Georgia Tech Saturday. First, the team dropped in to see injured UGA baseball player Chance Veazey, who was recovering at Shepherd Center.

Veazey was riding a motor scooter home from a study session on October 28, when police said a driver suddenly turned in front of him. Veazey crashed and suffered a spinal cord injury.

"Each day seems to be getting longer, I'm doing more therapy, more rehab, starting to workout in the gym, getting my upper body strength back," said Veazey.

Veazey, second baseman for UGA baseball team, is working hard at Shepherd Center to try to come back, after being critically injured in a motor scooter accident that shattered one of his vertebrae last month.

One of Veazey's biggest cheerleaders has been UGA head football Coach Mark Richt, who gave him a signed helmet.

"When I shook his hand, he's still so strong, his upper body. The first thing I asked him if they've allowed him to keep lifting weights in his upper body, and he said they've just allowed him to do that, you could tell he's staying really strong," said Richt.

"To get better on the baseball field, you had to work hard. And to get better here, I know I have to work hard every day," said Veazey.

Other Shepherd Center patients also got a chance to meet the UGA football team.

Veazey hopes to leave the Shepherd Center just before Christmas and he'll spend the holiday at home in Tifton. Then after the New Year, Veazey will return to the facility to start life as an outpatient.

"I get up every morning, knowing all the support I have. I can't fail. I can't look back. I have to grind every day, because I want to get better for all the people who are supporting me," said Veazey.