LSU-Eunice baseball signee fighting after paralysis with help from Dylan Crews, Tommy Whit

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Hebert had been shot once in the neck in the early morning of Jan. 6. He remembered that part, but he did not yet know the bullet shattered his C5 vertebrae, paralyzing him from the neck down.

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Despite all of that, the first thing Hebert wanted to know when doctors told him he was paralyzed is if he would ever play baseball again.

The answer was no.

"After the doctors told Kole, he was crying a lot,” Tracy said. “He said, 'Mom, I'm never going to play baseball.' All he talked about was baseball.”

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Before the shooting, Hebert was on the verge of his senior season at Breaux Bridge High. He planned to go hunting the next morning. In six months, he was going to start his LSU-Eunice baseball career on a full scholarship.

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A fundraiser was arranged March 2, and some current and former LSU baseball players have gotten involved. A GoFundMe account was also started to help raise funds. As of Wednesday, the account had obtained $70,400.

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So when Crews, Tommy White, Alex Milazzo, Brayden Jobert and Gavin Dugas met with Hebert at the hospital Feb. 6, he described it to his mom as "life-changing.”

"I think he felt like someone cared about him other than just us," Tracy said. “I think he just felt like, 'Man, they care. They care about me. Dylan Crews and Tommy the Tank, they care about me.'
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Milazzo, Crews, White, Jobert and Dugas spoke with Hebert for more than two hours, laughing and talking about baseball and life. Hebert spoke with Milazzo about duck hunting and White about fishing. Crews gave him a signed jersey. They even talked about girls and tattoos.

"He's kind of like me," White said. "Just growing up living the same life I loved, so that's kind of what drew me toward him."

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