TONTOGANY – Don’t tell AJ Digby he can’t do something.
Chances are the 13-year old Tontogany resident will prove you wrong.
Digby, who is an eighth grader at Otsego Junior High School, was born without a fibula bone in either of
his legs and had both feet amputated at the ankles when he was less than a year old.
But that doesn’t mean he’s not your normal All-American teenage boy. In fact, it’s hard to even notice
his disability once you start talking to him.
A huge racing fan and of sports in general, Digby is an honor student and plays quarterback and middle
linebacker for the Otsego Junior High football team through the use of prosthetic limbs. He’s also
active in basketball and hopes to make the United States Paralympics track and field team in 2016.
A tribute to his positive attitude and overall outlook on life, Digby was honored recently with a day
that he will likely never forget, taking a ride around the streets of Toledo in a street legal
two-seater Indy race car with IndyCar series driver Simona de Silvestro.
Digby rode around sectioned-off streets of downtown Toledo reaching speeds of what he says were up to 120
miles per hour, then enjoyed lunch with his family and the driver. He even signed a checkered flag with
de Silvestro for Toledo mayor Mike Bell.
"It was incredible. The first I learned that I would be doing that I was sitting in Dairy Queen with
my parents and they asked me, ‘What would you think if you got to meet an Indy car driver?’ I was like,
‘It’s not possible,’" Digby said.
"From then on it was just crazy. And when I figured out it was Simona I was really excited because
she was one of my favorite drivers. I just kept on anticipating that day," he continued. "I
was mostly looking forward to talking and meeting with Simona. After the ride was done, they asked me if
I could sum it up in a word, I said, ‘No words can describe that.’ It was unbelievable."
Digby and his family received six tickets to the Indy Series race at Mid-Ohio in Lexington, and went on
to meet some of the sport’s biggest stars including Danica Patrick, Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanann, and Mario
Andretti in the pit area.
For Digby, who has gone to the Indianapolis 500 with his parents, Gordon and Robin, the past seven years,
it was almost as if his childhood dream came true.
"I like racing in general a lot, but I do have to say Indy car is over NASCAR. I don’t know exactly
why, it’s just always been above it," Digby said. "I wouldn’t call it a dream, I’d call it
something that you think of as a far off imagination of what could never happen, but did."
Digby, who wears prosthetic feet whenever he’s outside, at school or playing sports, doesn’t seem to let
his disability get him down.
In fact, after meeting him, it’s hard not to evaluate your own attitude towards the challenges life may
throw at you on a daily basis.
"He’s a very good kid, very determined. You know it’s hard, but he doesn’t show it," said his
mother Robin Digby. "That’s probably a good thing for others to see as well for us, because we have
hard, difficult things in our life, and if he can do it, we can do it.
"He’s got such a good head on his shoulders. Because he watches so closely, he makes up for it up
here," she added, pointing to her head. "Because he can read and know ahead of time what’s
going to happen."
Digby has many big plans ahead of him, including going to college and perhaps becoming a sports
journalist or earning a doctorate degree or becoming a police officer.
He also hopes to race go-carts competitively, and continue playing football.
Just don’t expect Digby to want people to feel sorry for him because of the way he was born.
"It’s not really too bad. There are sometimes where I’ll be like I wish I could have feet in my
life. But I know this is the way I’m supposed to be and I don’t complain about it. I just live life the
best way that I can with what I have," he said.
"I have a downfall with sports a little bit because I get sore more quickly on my legs than other
people. But I still play whatever I can. I don’t really take anything different," he added.
"What’s been good for me, is everybody I’ve always been around never says that I can’t do it, they
say you can try to do it and that I can.
"I’ve never said that I can’t do it. I say I can do it until I know that I can’t … Otherwise I can
do whatever anybody else can do."