A paralyzed teenage Long Island wrestler says he took inspiration from a local fallen Navy SEAL to recover — and now hopes to follow in his hero’s footsteps and join the elite unit.
Finn Schiavone, 16, of Bay Shore suffered a traumatic brain injury in the eighth grade after accidentally being tossed off a wrestling mat and into a heating pipe, leading to the nightmare that no kid or parent would ever want to face.
“I wasn’t able to walk, I could barely talk, I lost lots of my vision. …I wasn’t able to do school and was focusing on basic life skills like counting to 10,” Finn recently told The Post.
The teen had to be homeschooled while confined to a wheelchair as he relearned the basic functions of his body and elementary rhetoric, such as being able to pronounce the word “firefighter.”
Sensing the despair he faced, the teen’s teacher brought him to the Michael P. Murphy Navy SEAL Museum in Sayville after his 2022 accident.
“She thought it would inspire me because she knew how much I loved the Navy SEALs,” Finn said.
After two years of grueling recovery — inspired by Murphy, a slain Navy warrior from Patchogue — Finn finally took his first steps with a cane last year and now aims to become a SEAL himself.
“I knew if he was able to go through the hell that he went through, that I could go through my situation,” Finn said of the 29-year-old war hero, who died saving comrades in Afghanistan in 2005.
“It’s your ‘why’ factor, really,” the teen said of his motivation. “You just have to find your reasoning, your purpose for what you do. Once you find that, then the ‘how’ of actually achieving the goals doesn’t become an excuse anymore.”
Never out of the fight
Finn said he was deeply moved by the museum, where he met Daniel Murphy, Michael’s dad.
Michael, whose sacrificial heroics were retold in the 2013 film “Lone Survivor,” was part of a four-man team surrounded by more than 50 members of the Taliban in the Afghanistan mission. He, two teammates and 17 other military reinforcements were killed in the deadly showdown 20 years ago, with Daniel fatally exposing himself to enemy fire to call for help.
“Never quit — that was part of Michael’s persona,” his father told The Post.
“Finn didn’t have very good control over his motor skills, but even then, it was amazing how he took to Michael’s story.”
Finn said those two words — “Never quit” — resonated with him like nothing else could.
“They were in the most impossible situation — yet they never quit, especially when it looked very grim for them,” the teen said of Michael and his comrades. “They stuck it into the end and even to the point where Michael sacrificed himself for his teammates.”
Finn said that day, he vowed to walk again — no matter what it took.
Hell weeks
The teen ended up bravely facing 10 hours of brutal physical therapy a day, where the act of standing up for 3 minutes would cause him to pass out over and over again.
“I would do that non-stop for six hours,” he said. “I would just keep hammering that out, doing that six days a week.”
Finn also endured stim therapy to his legs, “which is when you’re basically electrocuting your legs to hopefully get the nerves to connect again,” he said.
“Since I had complete paralysis, we had to crank the machine all the way up to the max,” the teen explained, saying that after he started to regain feeling, it became excruciatingly painful.
While all of this was going on, Murphy and the museum’s executive director, Chris Wyllie, a former SEAL, were right in his corner to carry him through the dark times.
“I would always make sure to come back at least once a month, just because they were probably one of my biggest cheerleaders,” Finn said.
“They were always there to help me out and support me. We always made an effort to stop by whenever I made a milestone. This is the first place I would visit.”
Last year, Wyllie pushed Schiavone’s wheelchair during a charity race named for Michael Murphy at Lake Ronkonkoma, where the hero had been a lifeguard.
“He isn’t inspirational, he’s Finn-spirational, and I’ve been saying that for years,” Wyllie said.
The teen shocked everybody when he rose from the wheelchair and walked the final steps with the help of loved ones.
“Just having everyone on my back, holding me up, I definitely realized I would walk on my own again,” Finn said.
He started moving with a cane in September, and by March, he had regained almost complete control of his body, to the point that he would “hit the gym four times a week.”
The soon-to-be Bay Shore High School junior said he didn’t push himself only for the sake of wellness but also to honor Michael Murphy’s name.
“I just think it’s just another sense of where Michael continues his legacy of service to our American citizens,” Daniel Murphy said.
So you wanna be a frogman?
This past Memorial Day Weekend at the museum, Finn took on what was once unthinkable for him: the grueling “Murph Challenge” — a 1-mile run followed by 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats and then another mile dash, all in a 20-pound weighted vest. Murphy invented the regiment during notorious basic underwater demolition SEAL (BUD/s) training.
Greeted by the roar of the military community and fitness enthusiasts taking on the gargantuan task, the teen, who was given a perseverance award at the 2024 event, finished the workout with flying colors.
“This was the pinnacle for me of being fully recovered. I just wanted to give it all I had,” he said.
The teen said that after he finishes high school, he hopes to go to the US Naval Academy.
He then aims to one day qualify for SEAL training and wear the hallowed trident of the frogmen.
Wyllie said he is “1,000, not 100%” confident that Schiavone has what it takes.
“I would be the first person to put money down that Finn would make it,” the former SEAL said.
The teen likes his own chances, too.
“After what I’ve gone through, BUD/s seems pretty light,” he quipped.
