Making a varsity sport is hard enough in high school, but with a serious medical condition and five AP courses, it definitely shows that nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it.

For junior Devin Combs, being active in athletics, band and multiple AP classes is not easy, but is something that he enjoys doing.

“I would come home from a bowling meet and remember that I have to do reading for history and notes for chem. It was definitely hard to juggle at times,” Combs said.

With the school year first starting off with hybrid, then remote and finally back full time, school got pretty crazy. In Combs’ opinion, he liked remote for his AP classes because of the independence that came along with it.

“I think I was able to work more productively because I could work on my own time and get the stuff that I wanted to be done when I wanted to do it,” Combs said.

Advanced courses gave him more insight into what he might want his future career to be.

“I have been interested in becoming a software developer. This is why I have been taking AP Computer Science Principles and next year I will take AP Computer Science & Cyber Security at the new CTEC building,” Combs said.

Although Combs has Cerebral Palsy, but his medical condition has never held him back from doing his best.

Ever since he started he has enjoyed bowling, even if he wasn’t good at first.

“During the middle of sixth grade, I joined my first league over at Crest Lanes in Lawrence. I didn’t have the equipment I do now, but I really enjoyed the experience,” Combs said.

Combs missed the initial tryouts this year due to an injury; regardless, Combs was not going to let anything get into the way of his junior season. 

“This year’s tryouts were quite interesting actually. I suffered from a hamstring injury and missed the initial tryouts. Coach put me on JV because I missed tryouts. At the first meet I bowled first, and then at the second one I got third, because of this I was able to get moved up to varsity,” Combs said.

Devin describes how his approach is a little awkward to some people that don’t fully understand the reason behind it.

“I have this feeling when people see me bowl, they think that oh this kid may not be that good because my approach is a little awkward to a ‘normal’ person’s eyes, but it feels normal to me so I can make it work,” Combs said.

Combs just recently shot his new personal best game of 266 points out of a perfect 300. Proving his point furthermore that just because he is different in the way that he bowls, it definitely does not hold him back from achieving greatness.

“I still feel like I can bowl the same as anyone else. Even though my disability might put me at a disadvantage, I don’t see it like that because I have something that works for me,” Combs said.

Devin is also involved in band. He hopes to make Wind Ensemble next year.

Band definitely has its challenges and it’s hard for him to play really fast songs or very fast notes like 16th notes. 

“I can’t maneuver my hand around the French Horn as easily. It’s also hard to play fast because my left hand can’t keep up with the music sometimes,” Combs said.

With everything that has given Devin difficulty throughout his life, he definitely isn’t held back from anything he puts his mind to, whether that is big or small.