Shelby Cassesse tells the story of Vitali Daniels and his family, which overcame Vitali’s sickness, the death of his brother, and a house fire. And continue to give back to their community through it all.
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Despite tragedies, medical condition, Bentworth student strives to lead
Bentworth sophomore Vitali Daniels is an all-conference football player, elite wrestler, someone who loves to give back, a son and a brother.
He's also one of the most resilient and positive people you'll ever meet.
“We could be losing a football game by 30 points, I’m still going to go out there and give it my all,” said Daniels. “Same thing with wrestling, I just want to give it my all.”
In the last five years, Vitali and his family have faced more tragedy and adversity than many will in a lifetime. But, he says finding the bright spots have pulled him through it all.
“I like to be a leader,” he said. “I try to be a role model for other people. I try to bring other people up around me.”
It started when Vitali was getting sick. A lot. Too much for an 11-year-old boy, according to his mother Diana.
“He seemed to get sick a lot, and I was taking him every other week to the pediatrician,” Diana said. “She was like, ‘it’s a virus, it’s a virus, there’s nothing I can do.’”
Relying on her nursing experience and, of course, her mother's intuition, Diana fought for further testing. Doctors found his body wasn't making the antibodies needed to fight off certain illnesses. Vitali didn't skip a beat.
“I loved wrestling and I didn’t want that to hinder it at all, so I just kept going forward,” he said.
Vitali will take infusions every month for the rest of his life, expensive drugs that Diana said took six months to get approved by insurance.
It was around that same time that the unthinkable happened. Vitali's brother Dominick was killed in a car crash. He was 19.
“It was by far the worst moment of my life,” Vitali said. “He was my best friend. I did everything with him.”
Vitali lost his role model, the inspiration behind his athletic pursuits and his biggest supporter. Dominick may be Vitali's "why" when it comes to getting into sports, but that hasn't changed as he continues to excel.
“Everything I do is to honor him,” Vitali said. “I feel like if I don’t keep going, he’ll be mad at me or something. With wrestling or football, I try to be the best that I can to honor him and make him proud.”
The Daniels family has since started a scholarship in Dominick's name, and dedicate a lot of their time giving back in his honor, like buying meals for those in need around the holidays.
“Anything that we can do, any little thing we can do to brighten somebody’s day or take a little bit of a burden off of them, we like to do it,” Diana said.
But last year, they were the one's who needed the community they love to serve.
“It was like 2 a.m. and I was asleep,” Vitali recalled. “I work up and it was normal. But I walked down to the kitchen and the entire kitchen was on fire.”
Everyone got out safely, but the Daniels family lost everything. Friends, family, people who they didn't know jumped at the chance to help. On a foundation of bags of clothes, gift cards and benefits dinners, the Daniels family started picking up the pieces again.
“We’re not the type of people that like to take anything from anyone else,” Diana said. “We want somebody else to get it. It was really, really hard. But they were like, ‘you give to everybody, it’s time we give back to you.’”
The very next night, Vitali went to homecoming with a tux and flowers he and his mom bought that day.
“I don’t want to miss a beat,” Vitali said. “I just don’t want to miss any memories because something happened.”
A small example of a way of life, the Daniels family just keeps going with a smile on their faces and a helping hand extended. Loving people on a mission to find a silver lining in even the darkest cloud.
“If I keep a positive attitude, I just find myself more happy and other people around me happy,” Vitali sad.
“That’s one thing where he is like his brother,” Diana added. “When his brother walks into a room, he would light it up. Vitali does the same thing. When he walks into a room, he really brightens it up.”