CLAREMONT, Calif. – Right before his senior year, Alexander “Albee” Harris broke his neck in a motocross crash. After months of physical therapy, the Claremont High School senior prepared to take the biggest steps of his life at graduation. 

“I’ve been practicing a lot,” Harris told reporter Kim Passoth. 

Harris goes to physical therapy as much as he goes to school, five days a week. On August 19, 2018, his first professional motocross race jump went wrong. 

“My foot hit the ground when I was going off the jump… I landed on my head and broke my neck,” Harris said.

His doctors tried to prepare his family for the possibility that he may never walk again. However, just 10 months after his crash, in front of his entire senior class and the world, Harris defied the odds. 

“I’ve been planning it since I was in the hospital,” Harris said. “Never give up… believe you can do it.”

From not be able to move at all, to walking with walker, and then taking a few steps on his own with his best friend behind him.  

“I was defenitely not expecting that reaction but it was amazing,” Harris said after his big walk across the stage. 

“Seeing him walk across the stage today was very emotional,” said Dr. Tanya Minasian, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. 

Dr. Minasian performed the emergency surgery on Harris’s spine. 

“He had essentially no movement… to see him walk is nothing short of a miracle,” Dr. Minasian said. 

With his motocross number on his graduation cap his next big step is clear. 

“I want get back on a bike,” Harris said. 

In his personal race on the road to recovery, he has now crossed one finish line in astonishing time and is speeding toward the next one.