Corey Borner, a 16-year-old football player who was paralyzed from the neck down on May 6, left his rehabilitation facility around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and returned to his DeSoto home in hope of regaining some sense of normalcy.

Nothing will be the same now that Borner is confined to a wheelchair and can't move his lower extremities.

Try telling that to Borner, whose motor skills developed to the point where he can once again put on a shirt and a baseball hat. Those simple tasks seemed impossible when he was paralyzed after making a tackle at football practice and was rushed to Parkland Hospital.

"I know I'm going to walk again," Borner said in his first interview since the accident. "I don't let it get to me. I'm real determined. That's why I have a smile on my face every day."

Borner underwent two procedures at Parkland on May 7. Doctors fused the C5 and C6 vertebrae and they relieved the pressure the C6 vertebrae was putting on Borner's spinal cord. All total, Borner was in surgery for about eight hours.

"I was shocked at first when I was on the ground," Borner said. "Real shocked. I just remember the receiver did a bubble route, and I was backpedaling. My head hit his stomach and he flipped. The ball came out, and my body just fell on the ground so slowly. After that, I just couldn't get up.

"I was in the ambulance, and I asked if I was going to be OK. The guy said, 'You're going to be alright.' I just said, 'I know.'"

Charlotte Borner, Corey's mother, said she was devastated when she first got the call.

"My spirit, my faith in God is strong," Charlotte Borner said. "But you find yourself questioning things sometimes and then you have to sit back and look at the overall picture that things happen for a reason. God doesn't make any mistakes.

"With my faith in God and Corey's faith, I know it's going to be OK."

Borner was transferred to the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation on May 18. Since then, he's been working with an army of doctors and therapists and became somewhat of a celebrity on the fourth floor.

Former Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens and his new teammate, Buffalo's Donte Whitner, came to visit Borner. So did Texas coach Mack Brown and the state attorney general Greg Abbott, who himself was paralyzed in an accident in 1984.

Brown even gave Borner his watch. The coach told Borner that the next time he calls, Borner had better be able to lift his arms and see what time it was.

"I was impressed with both Corey and his family," Brown said. "They had a very positive attitude. One thing I learned from spending time with him is that he is a kid that will never give up. He's a very courageous and tough young man."