His desire to be a high school athlete didn't just teach about winning and losing, but how to fight for his life. He doesn't remember the details, just what other people tell him.

"The car coming the other way was in our lane," former Jefferson City Jay player Kevin Norris said. "My buddy says I was trying to save it. Save his life. I was trying to take it for him."

On April 29th Norris flew off his motorcycle, hit the car, was knocked unconscious and run over.

"I was in the middle of the road still," according to Norris. "I wasn't breathing. It was bad."

Doctors had little hope for Norris's survival.

"The doctor first called us in and he said 'tenuous at best,'" said CJ Norris, Kevin's mother.

Kevin spent the next seven weeks in a coma, and doctors did seven surgeries, including one on his heart.

"Basically the quote given to his family was 'breath to breath,'" said physical therapist Bobbi Arp.

"Kevin had a saying when he played football," CJ said. "He had a band that he wore on his arm that wrote on it, Go hard every play. It was wonderful watching him even from when he was a little guy and first started playing sports"

The two-sport athlete followed the motto from his armband during every baseball swing and football catch.

"I mean, you never appreciate what you have until it's gone," said Norris.

After Kevin woke up, his next fight started. Doctors sent him to Rusk Rehabilitation in Columbia where he pushed through the pain.

"As soon as I came here every little bit of pain that I had was definitely showing," Kevin explained.

"I knew Kevin's fighting spirit, his competitiveness, was going to get him through it," CJ said.

"I think he used a lot of his sports background," Arp said. "That, I can endure some pain and get through this, attitude."

"My dad says it's like two-a-days," Kevin explained. "I played Jefferson City football and it's almost as hard as two-a-days."

Kevin's climb started from the bottom, but one step at a time he reached new heights.

"He was totally amazed to go from not being able to take a couple of steps to walking up and down the hall," CJ said.

"They seriously told my family if I wasn't an athlete, if I wasn't in that shape that I was, I wouldn't be here," explained Kevin.

Kevin weighed more than 200 pounds when the accident happened, now he's only 140.

"It's just scary knowing that I'm just 20 years-old, but I already have stints in my lungs, had heart surgery and a lot of things like that," Kevin said. "I've been through it all."

On 4th of July weekend, doctors released Kevin from rehab, yet another championship for the Jeff City kid.

"I went in and had a talk with him," CJ said. "This is the biggest game of your life. The hardest game, but you're going to go hard, you're going to make it, and he did."

Norris says what he wants to do the most once he's healthy is to go fishing. Long term, doctors say once he's healed he'll be able to play sports again.

There will be a blood drive in honor of Kevin Norris Friday, August 1st from 12-6 p.m. in the Jefferson City High School cafeteria.