Will Bermudez was simply trying to chase down a pop fly when his life changed forever.
In May 2019, the 17-year-old Air Force baseball commit collided with a teammate during a travel baseball game. The collision left Bermudez temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. He also temporarily lost five years of memory due to a traumatic brain injury.
Bermudez suffered his first epileptic seizure two months after the injury and was ultimately diagnosed with myoclonic juvenile epilepsy. The Air Force rescinded its offer for him to play baseball there as a result.
“Going to the Air Force Academy, I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. I wanted to build aircraft and then be able to fly the jets,” Bermudez said. “But after my injury, math and chemistry and that stuff just didn’t click how it used to before.”
A difficult path forward awaited Bermudez, but his comeback culminated in a return to the diamond.
Bermudez, now a redshirt senior at UC Irvine, and Mya Wang, a Cal graduate, have been selected as the recipients of the 2024-25 CalHOPE Courage Award. Wang will be presented her award Wednesday before the San Francisco Giants’ game against the Kansas City Royals as part of Mental Health Awareness Month. Bermudez will receive his trophy during baseball practice this week.
Presented monthly since February 2022, the CalHOPE Courage Award honors student-athletes at California colleges and universities who have overcome stress, anxiety, and mental trauma associated with personal hardships and adversity. Wang and Bermudez were selected from the 14 student-athletes who were honored throughout the year as those whose journeys best represent the spirit of the award.
Bermudez engaged in extensive rehabilitation, as well as developed coping skills through mental health counseling.
Steadily, Bermudez improved. He first enrolled at UC Davis as a student, and then transferred to Mount San Antonio College to give baseball another crack.
Bermudez impressed on the diamond and got on the radar of UC Irvine’s coaching staff. He transferred there in 2023, and became a starter at second base.
“I have a different gratitude towards the sport and towards life in general,” Bermudez said. “There was a time where I thought I was never going to be able to walk again.”
Bermudez is now majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology thanks to his personal experiences and is dedicated to helping people struggling with mental health challenges.
Wang faced her own challenges when she was just two weeks away from graduation from University High School in Irvine. She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
“I felt very blindsided by it,” Wang said. “Hearing the words, the doctor telling me I have cancer — mentally, I don’t think I processed it fast because I just never expected to hear those words.”
After her diagnosis, Wang faced a tumultuous two-year journey that included a pair of surgeries and time spent soul-searching and learning mental coping skills.
Wang withdrew from the lacrosse team as a freshman at Cal to focus on her healing and carve a path forward. There were times she wondered if she would ever come back to the sport and instead quit lacrosse.
Yet Wang persisted. After recovering from her first surgery, Wang played for team Hong Kong at the 2022 World Championships, which reignited her drive to return to Cal’s team.
“I was like, ‘This is a commitment I made. I’m going to follow through on it and see how I feel,’” Wang said of the 2022 championships. “And that was a big turning point for me. That in combination with reading all those self-help books and building upon my mental health.”
Unfortunately for Wang, she required a second surgery.
This time, though, she was much better prepared because of the coping mechanisms she had already developed. Wang ultimately returned to the Cal lacrosse team in 2023.
Wang said she couldn’t be more proud of her comeback.
“It made me realize I don’t have to give up,” Wang said. “I still have so much ahead of me. Just because I had something happen to me doesn’t mean I need to give up all my goals. If anything, it’s more motivation to prove that I still have the ability to do that, even if something challenging happens to me.”
