WARREN — Each one of the 18 outstanding athletes saluted last month at Warren De La Salle Collegiate for National Signing Day would have a story to tell about multiplying his God-given talents for an opportunity to further his academic and athletic career in college.

None would be as dramatic, though, as the journey of Jesus Villa.

“This is a dream,” he said before the ceremony. “Ten, even five years ago, I would never imagined this would happen.”

Eighteen years ago, when he was born in the Dominican Republic, life, it appeared, would be a nightmare. He was born without a tibia, the shin bone, in each of his legs.

Thoughts of one day wrestling on a high school varsity team or going to the University of Illinois in the fall on a scholarship to play wheelchair basketball were unthinkable.

Jesus was 2 years old when he came to the attention of Healing the Children, a worldwide organization dedicated to providing medical care to children in need. Marge Badowski of Clinton Township at the time was the coordinator of the local chapter.

“Our job was to find a hospital for the surgeries Jesus needed (both legs were amputated above the knee) and a family where he could stay during recovery and therapy,” she said. Jesus made several return visits to the Detroit area for necessary follow-up care. Badowski and her husband, Jim, ended up becoming his guardians.

“We’re his family. He calls us Mom and Dad and our son and daughter, his brother and sister,” Marge Badowski said.

Jim recalls how Jesus “flopped around the floor like a frog.” Marge remembers his unbridled curiosity. “Me do it, me do it — that’s what he’d say all the time.”

When Jesus was in first grade, Marge took him to watch wheelchair basketball. “I didn’t like it. I cried,” Jesus said. Marge took him a second time.

Jesus tried it, and became so good that he was a member of a junior national wheelchair basketball champion team in 2004, and currently plays for the adult Detroit Diehards.

He ranks fifth out of 18 players selected for the U. S. Paralympics team, and is hoping to make the final cut of 12 in June. The summer world Paralympics Games will be held in August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

De La Salle wrestling coach Dennis Parks wanted Jesus to wrestle the “first time I saw him as a freshman.” It wasn’t until his senior year that his wheelchair basketball didn’t conflict with the wrestling schedule.

Jesus said there’s good and bad about not having any legs. “The other guy can’t grab my legs, but I don’t have legs for leverage,” Jesus said. Parks says Jesus used his strength and quickness to compile a 16-11 record, place third in the 135-pound weight in the Catholic League Championships, and pin his opponent to help De La Salle win its first wrestling state district title.

Jesus attends Sunday Mass at St. Ronald Parish in Clinton Township.

The Badowskis are facing a challenge of their own. They’ve wrangled the last six or seven years with immigration authorities to gain citizenship for Jesus, who is in the United States on a student visa, so that he could travel overseas.

“Now that Jesus is 18, we’re back to square one,” said Marge. “I’ve called the White House. I’ve talked to Sen. (Carl) Levin’s office. Somebody there told me that only the president could help.”

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Don Horkey is a freelance writer from Shelby Township.