SIOUX FALLS (AP) – Mhiretab "Tab" Tsegaye doesn't remember the night of Nov. 5.
He doesn't remember hopping into Barry Grieve's Jeep after watching a volleyball game at Lincoln High School. Nor does he remember the drizzle that turned to ice on roads and bridges around Sioux Falls after the sun set.
As Grieve and Tsegaye crossed the ice-covered I-229 bridge just north of the 26th Street exit on their way home from the game, Grieve lost control of the Jeep. The vehicle left the roadway, rolled and hit a tree.
Grieve, 15, was pronounced dead on scene, while Tsegaye was sent to the hospital in critical condition.
The 16-year-old woke up from a medically-induced coma 16 days later. He went through several surgeries to address head trauma, a broken jaw and other injuries.
Faces passed in and out of his hospital room as he grappled with news of the crash, he said. It was a few days later when he finally accepted his new reality – that he couldn't walk, he was in the hospital and he lost his best friend.
Tsegaye was released from the hospital almost two months after the crash. He returned to school at the start of the new year, the Argus Leader reported.
Finding a new normal
Tsegaye had to learn how to walk again while spending two months in the hospital. And the aspiring basketball player had to learn how to dribble again.
It was a slow process, but one he was anxious to complete.
"I was just trying to get through everything," Tsegaye said. "I was just trying to get home."
Tsegaye returned home on Dec. 27, where his parents kept a close eye on his recovery. He returned to school for a few hours at a time with the start of the new year, reviewing material covered in the time he was gone.
His return to school is another step toward normalcy, but it's a return to basketball that would indicate Tsegaye's full recovery.
Tsegaye takes any chance he can to play on the court, using it as both an escape and as physical therapy, he said. His moves aren't as smooth as they might have been before the crash – they're methodical and focused on his shot; but just holding the ball is enough at this point, he said.
"It's what I do best," he said.
Tsegaye's doctor hasn't indicated a timeline of when he can return to the court, but he has hopes to return soon. The center plans to play in college and has hopes of professional basketball.
It's been his driving force ever since he started playing in fourth grade — and now it's the force behind his recovery.
"I want to play basketball so bad," Tsegaye said. "I was watching the game the other night and I just wanted to jump in."
Cheering Tab on
Tsegaye returned to Lincoln High School after holiday break to a swarm of students. He was greeted by friends and people he'd never met. One student even handed him a check the day he returned, he said.
While he's spent hours in the counseling office at LHS to review material he missed last semester, he regularly was interrupted by students (and adults) who wanted to congratulate him on his return to school.
"He walked down the hall like a celebrity," said LHS Principal Laura Raeder.
Raeder would regularly receive updates from students about Tsegaye's recovery through social media posts in the months he was gone.
Even parents of LHS students who didn't know Tsegaye were concerned about his recovery. Joni Merkley, the head boys basketball booster club member, said she regularly looked for updates on his recovery.
Within a day of the crash, Merkley's phone blew up with group texts between LHS parents, sharing Tsegaye's condition and encouraging families to pray for all involved.
After the accident, Merkley couldn't help but picture if it had been her son or daughter, both students at Lincoln High School. It could have been any number of students leaving the volleyball game that night, Merkley said.
"This could have been any night, any kid," she said. "The gravity is not lost on us or these kids. They were speaking and talking to each other, and they went out of their way to be connected to each other and reach out to each other."
The booster club ordered Tsegaye an embroidered LHS basketball sticker with a jersey number, identifying him as a team member even though he couldn't play.
"We're all better people when we're around Tab," Raeder said. "You have a sense of perspective — some of the small things don't matter as much."
Grieving a lost friend. 'It hurts every day.'
While the LHS community welcomed Tsegaye's return, it's a reminder of losing Grieve in early November.
"We remember Barry, but we're happy for Tab," Raeder said.
The hallways were nearly silent the day after the crash as students absorbed Grieve's death, Merkley's son told her.
Students led the charge on how to respond to Grieve's death, helping each other grieve for his death and reaching out to his family. Students in Grieve's welding class constructed a statue for his family, and Spanish immersion students wrote to Barry's family with memories of him.
"It's made us a little more tender and respectful," Raeder said. "It's the element of being human. These are tough life lessons to learn at 14 and 15, but they're doing it."
For Tsegaye, he's learning to balance his recovery while still grieving the loss of his best friend.
"It's so hard," Tsegaye said. “It hurts really bad, every day waking up and realizing that Barry's gone. It hurts every time, all the time.”
