“Don’t be scared,” 7-year-old Cash Harris whispers to himself. He rolls his small shoulders back and lifts his head before slowly facing forward in his red walker.
“Don’t let your feet get caught behind it. You got to keep your feet in front,” says his father, Chase Harris, who stands right by his side. “Come on, you got it.”
Cash, who Chase affectionately calls “Bubba,” moves his purple and white Nikes toward the step on their sidewalk.
“Remember we don’t create monsters that don’t exist,” Chase tells his son, who takes a deep inhale and exhale.
Cash successfully clears the step and then the curb, placing his feet on the ground. He exhales, smiles and high fives his dad. “Good work, baby,” says his dad. “That’s what real bosses do, man.”
Chase posted a video of his son overcoming his fear on TikTok on Sept. 11. Since then, it has gotten over 6 million views and 40,000 comments commending Cash’s bravery and Chase’s patience. It’s not this duo’s only viral moment. Chase posted a similar video in March, in which he coaches Cash to go up a step. It has over 50 million views.
“We use this curb as a metaphor of us conquering an obstacle that could typically hold us back forever,” Chase tells TODAY.com. “It’s basically a mountain that either we’re going to get over or we’re going to fall down.”
Cash was born with spina bifida, a condition that occurs when the spine and spinal cord don’t form properly in utero. Cash and his parents don’t want his condition to get in the way of his dreams.
Not only does Chase have the mindset to help his son, he also has the skills. Chase is a physical trainer. He works with able-bodied clients, as well as clients who are blind, are double amputees or have cystic fibrosis or muscular atrophy. His wife, Carly Harris, is a former pediatric nurse.
“God orchestrated our dynamic,” Chase says of their combined knowledge of medicine and physical anatomy.
“Cash is my most challenging yet gratifying client that I’ve ever had, because my sole purpose is to ensure that he has independence in his life when he’s an adult. There’s nothing more important to me than feeling confident that your child is going to be safe and secure when he’s out on his own,” Chase explains. “So it’s just a blessing, truthfully, to be able to help him and have the knowledge to help.”
Cash, who is a huge sports fan, has major plans to skip high school and college and go straight to the NBA.
“He works really hard,” his dad says with calm confidence. “I believe he’s going to be a Paralympian one day. So he’s going to be in places like Italy and France and all these different places where the terrain is going to be different. And so truthfully, I’m preparing him for that.”
He continues, “Also we live in a world that is not set up for the disabled community everywhere we go. So when there’s not a way, we’re going to make a way.”
Chase’s relationship with his son is less of a “coach/player” relationship, he says, and more of a “team.”
Chase says, “No matter what I tell him, he desires to make me proud. And in that, I have to make sure that I teach him that this is not a merit-based relationship. Whether you do it or you don’t do it, I’m going to love you with everything I have inside of me, regardless.”
Chase and Carly had an older daughter Charlee, now 11, when they discovered that their second child, Cash, would be born with spina bifida.
“Before Cash was born, I told my wife that our life will not change because he has a disability. We’re still going to travel, we’re still going to attend sporting events, we’re going to do everything that we’ve done up until this point, regardless of what his circumstances are,” he shares, noting that they continue to prioritize their daughter “equally, if not more” to make sure each child receives the support they need.
He hopes that by watching videos of his family going to the beach and the trampoline park, other families of kids with disabilities will understand that anything is possible with a little bit of intention.
Chase says, “This biggest thing is not to let disability yield what you’re going to do in life.”