VIDEO: Aliano Fights Back One Punch at a Time

Robert Aliano and his father Nick stopped by East Coast Black Academy last year to say hello to his old Sensei Jerry Figgiani.

With the 2008 accident that left him in a coma for four months, the therapy at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey, and the other items to take care of since his son Robert, now 23, was hit by a minivan at the intersection of Whitney Avenue and Renshaw Road in Hamden, Ct., Nick didn’t initially have time to call Figgiani back and fill him in on the recovery.

Robert was in a wheelchair then, fresh off doctors saying he can write off walking.

“Jerry goes ‘we’ll make him a black belt,’” said Nick, who owns Aliano Real Estate in Miller Place. “I said ‘are you crazy?’”

That was a year ago. Now he’s a second-degree orange belt and the punching pads pop when he thrusts his once torn body at Figgiani who pushes him to the edge and back from his Middle Island dojo.

“I’m accomplishing so much in such a short period of time thanks to Jerry,” said Robert, who is graduating Sunday from Quinnipiac University, where he was a senior when he was hit, after completing his degree in marketing online. “Everyday things that people take for granted, I have to work double for. It’s hard to accomplish those same things. I work as hard as he wants me to.”

Figgiani is a Sachem alum from the class of 1978 and was an integral part of the school's first county championship football team in 1977. He is the first player in Sachem history to rush for 1,000 yards.

This was a kid who captained the wrestling team at Miller Place – he placed fourth in League VI at 140 pounds in 2005 – and who was fit and lean at the time of the accident.

Then all of a sudden he was sent soaring in the air, shoes flying off as he came crashing down to the pavement, bursting his lungs and his bladder, scratching his spleen, breaking bones and, worst of all, damaging his brain.

“We have the attitude that he’s going to be 100 percent,” said his mom Lori. “We’re not going to quit until he is. He’s very strong and thanks to Jerry he’s out of his wheelchair.”

Figgiani’s nephew Christopher in still in a coma from a car accident that happened three years ago. Through Robert, he draws inspiration that things will improve.

“It’s important to use someone like Robert to push ourselves and see what we can achieve in life,” Figgiani said. “If you believe in yourself and continue to work hard, good things will happen. He always comes in here with that same attitude.”