By Katelyn Weisbrod

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This week’s Kid Captain was born a Hawkeye.

Thirteen-year-old Hayden Despenas of Mason City, Iowa — named after legendary Iowa coach Hayden Fry — will step on the field in Kinnick Stadium before the Hawkeyes take on Michigan on Saturday.

Through the Kid Captain program, kids who are receiving treatment at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital have the opportunity to stand with the Hawkeye football team before games during the national anthem.

Hayden suffers from Friedreich’s ataxia — a rare form of muscular dystrophy. The disease is progressive and impairs Hayden’s balance and heart function.

“I have to be in a wheelchair, well, most of the time,” Hayden said. “I usually have to hang on to walls if I’m walking so I don’t fall down.”

He was born a healthy boy, and his parents had no concerns throughout his early childhood.

“[There were some] slight abnormalities; I always yelled at him for dropping his eating utensils and running into walls — I thought it was because he wasn’t paying attention,” said Hayden’s mother, Sarah Despenas. “And now looking back at those things, they’re all symptomatic of this condition.”

When he was 5 years old, Hayden’s parents noticed he was running funny while playing football with his friends.

“We attributed it to his shoes … my parents were saying, ‘His shoes don’t fit,’ so we’d buy him new shoes, and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference,” Despenas said.

When Hayden was in second grade, the school nurse called Despenas to tell her that Hayden had been in the nurse’s office several times with leg and stomach pain. Hayden’s parents brought him to the doctor, but they were told it was just a symptom of development.

His parents soon realized it was more than that.

“We were playing checkers, and [Hayden] had to use his left hand to stabilize his right hand to move the checkers,” Despenas said. “Then it was obvious something was wrong.”

Hayden’s parents took him to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia.

The family eventually moved Hayden’s care to the UI Children’s Hospital because the hospital is actively engaged in muscular-dystrophy research and trials, Despenas said.

“This is it, [the Children’s Hospital] is where we need to be, and we have no regrets at all,” she said.

Because of his illness, Hayden has a shortened life expectancy. Two of his cousins died of heart failure because of the same disease at around age 20, said Hayden’s father, Dana Despenas.

“Unless they come up with [a cure], it’s not looking good,” he said. “It will continue to get worse; he’ll lose his sight and his ability to talk, his muscles will grow weaker, he’ll probably have to go through spine surgery.”

Despite his condition, Sarah Despenas said Hayden is a happy kid who loves to play video games and hang out with his friends.

“He likes the same things any average 13-year-old boy likes to do,” she said.