Paralyzed athlete Robert Komosa remembered as 'positive'

Family members and friends of Robert Komosa filled a Mount Prospect church Saturday to mourn the death of the paralyzed athlete who inspired all who knew him in the thirteen years since he was injured in a high school football practice. Komosa, 30, died a week ago in his Barrington Hills home of what his family suspects was respiratory failure. In 1999, when he was a 17-year-old running back at Rolling Meadows High School, Komosa was tackled by three other players during a drill. The tackle knocked him into a metal post – part of a fence near the practice field. The impact fractured two vertebrae in Komosa's neck and paralyzed him from the neck down. Since the injury, he had needed a ventilator to breathe and depended on round-the-clock medical care provided by his mother, Barbara Komosa. The unpadded post was the focus of a lawsuit the family brought against Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214. The suit was settled in 2005 for $12.5 million. After the accident, the post was padded and the practice field layout was changed, a District 214 spokeswoman told the Tribune recently. "He was a 17-year-old boy and his whole life changed," Komosa's sister, Ann Phister, said of the accident at the start of his funeral mass in St. Thomas Becket Church in Mount Prospect. "He accepted God's plan for him and he remained positive." Kenneth Jennings, who was also paralyzed by a high school football injury 25 years ago, was one of those inspired by Komosa's approach to life after he was paralyzed. "Seeing Rob's positive attitude had such an impact on my life," said Jennings after the service. Jennings said Komosa had become both a friend and colleague in the Gridiron Alliance, an organization providing outreach and resources to injured student-athletes. Jennings said he is a founder and director of the organization. However devastating his injury, in some ways it didn't change the person Komosa was, said Tim Guza , a friend since childhood. "The truth is the type of person Rob was after the accident – the joking and the silliness, the kindness, the generosity – was a microcosm of the kind of person he was before the accident," Guza said. "He touched a lot of lives." Guza said Komosa continued to participate in activities with his friends, attending sports and social events and remaining connected with their lives. He was a longtime fan of the Chicago White Sox and always rooted for the underdog, his sister said. Rev. John Roller, a former pastor of St. Thomas Becket, recalled seeing Komosa at the church and during occasional visits to his home. "Rob came to Mass here, always cheerful, always smiling," Roller said. "His mother and his sister took care of him wonderfully and lovingly." Ann Phister said her brother had been strengthened not only by his own faith, but by that of his mother, his family and his community. "Rob not only showed others how to overcome adversity and how to cope," she said. "He was an example for all of us in how to live our lives."