Little more than a year ago Zackery Lystedt took five or six halting steps, a spotter at his side, across the stage at White River Amphitheater to accept his Tahoma High School diploma.

It brought everyone there to a momentary standstill.

That moment was epic.

But it pales in comparison to what Zack can do these days.

Now he can walk from one end of the house — or coast to coast as his father, Victor, said the family calls it — with a cane.

“I am walking a lot more,” Zack said. “I want to do more public speaking, raise more awareness about my law. I’m just trying to do more speaking about that.”

So far, he has taken one class each quarter at Bellevue College this school year.

“I took a geography class the first quarter, I took an English class the second quarter,” he said. “I got As in both of those by the way. I have an A in sociology (this quarter). It’s probably the hardest class I’ve taken yet, but, it’s also the most interesting to me.”

Victor Lystedt teased his son, his only child, while the two sat at an island in the middle of the kitchen in the home the family moved into in September. It was designed just for Zack.

“Are you sure you’re getting an A,” Victor said to Zack, who was confident he was acing the course.

“You’ve been throwing out social norms in the house on our lifestyle,” Victor said.

Zack responded, “That’s a violation right there!”

Walking, going to college, those are just two things that are victories for Zack and his parents, Victor and Mercedes.

“Just getting into school was a big starting point,” Victor said. “I think we’ll go from one class to two classes (per quarter) as time goes on, get him more integrated into school. A degree for sure, whether it’s done in four years or eight years.”

These are the kinds of things in the fall of 2006 when Zack was in a coma and fighting for his life his parents learned not to expect to happen.

Lystedt was injured in a middle school football game in 2006 that altered his life in ways that are indescribable. He suffered a concussion, sat out of the game for a while, then returned and suffered a brain hemorrhage after getting hit hard again while forcing a fumble on the goal line.

For the next three months he was in and out of a coma.

In a memorabilia room just to the left of the entry way of the Lystedt’s home, hangs Zack’s football jersey, the one he wore in the last game he played.

Victor described the process of getting it put back together and framed.

After the game was over Zack collapsed. Then 13, he was laying on the ground and stroking out. Victor explained he was doing everything he could to get his son’s jersey off. He ripped it above the numbers and tried chewing through the collar so he could get the thing off so Zack’s shoulder pads could be removed.

Someone saved the pieces of the jersey and put it in a Ziploc bag before giving it to Zack’s dad. Victor didn’t deal with it until he set up the memorabilia room — which is home to numerous signed footballs, pictures, a Ravens jersey signed by Ray Lewis, a baseball glove given to him by Ken Griffey, Jr., and a pair of basketball shoes signed by Tahoma classmate Christian Behrens, who just finished his freshman year at University of California, Berkely.

Victor then pulled out the jersey and found someone to put it back together. It took a crafstman two weeks to stitch it back together. The word ‘Tahoma’ above the numbers is missing the letter ‘m.’

It is a reminder of all the family has gone through in the nearly six years since Zack’s injury.

Today the 19-year-old is taking classes in between physical, speech and occupational therapy sessions, working with a math tutor, doing aquatherapy, public speaking engagements and working to raise awareness about the dangers of concussions, returning to play when such an injury is suspected, and supporting a law passed in Washington state in 2009 which bears his name.

When Zack graduated from Tahoma on June 10, 2011, more than 20 states had passes similar laws. Since then that number has risen to 37. His goal is for the law to be adopted nationwide.

The law requires athletes under 18 to be pulled from a game or practice if it is suspected they have suffered a concussion and can not return until getting a written authorization from a medical professional trained in the diagnosis and management of concussions.

During the past three years he has also made friends with powerful allies who have extended his ability to influence athletes at all levels such as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, Seattle native and NBA player Jamal Crawford, just to name a few.

Zack met Goodell when the commissioner came to Seattle in October 2010.

“The very next week was when the highest amount of penalties ever assessed to the players,” Victor said. “He definitely takes it very seriously. We were at six states (with concussion safety laws) then and he vowed to help us get to 20 by the end of (2010). Now we’re at 37.”

During that day the Lystedts spent with Goodell, Zack was able to persuade the NFL commissioner to provide tickets to the Super Bowl in 2011.

First, though, Victor prefaces this story with an anecdote about how Crawford helped Zack get to his first concert.

As he told the story, Zack was walking into the kitchen with a cane having come from his end of the house, and Victor coached his boy along the way.

“Power through. Stand up straight. Remember that chair will slide,” Victor said.

Lystedt met Crawford at a fundraiser, Victor then explained, when Zack told the basketball player he’s a huge Eminem fan.

What Zack didn’t know at the time was that Crawford was friends with Jay-Z, another favorite of Zack’s, who had plans to do a show in New York City with Eminem in September 2010.

“Jamal took a liking to Zack,” Victor said. “He called Jay-Z and set it up. We all got to fly back, stay in Times Square. That was a pretty phenomenal first concert experience.”

A month later, Zack was chatting with Goodell when he skillfully negotiated acquisition of those Super Bowl tickets using his concert experience as leverage.

“Zackery said, ‘Commissioner, I got to go back to the Jay-Z-Eminem concert in New York, but you know what would be cooler,’” Victor said. “The Commissioner said, ‘What?’’

Zack responded with, “Going to the Super Bowl would be cooler.”

It worked. Goodell provided four tickets to the game.

Since then, the Lystedts have remained in contact with Goodell, who has offered new terms to Zack for a return trip to NFL championship game.

“When we’ve had communications with the commissioner, he’s said, ‘If Zack ever learns how to run, because walking is too easy, he’ll get to go back to the Super Bowl,’” Victor said.

Walking does have its challenges, Zack explained, because he is still building up the muscle tone he needs to do something that was once effortless. Still, given his progress, it’s easy to see why Goodell would encourage Zack to plan to run again.

Running is one of a number of goals Zack has long term, though he said he tries not to think too much about the far-off future.

Zack and Victor are considering potential business ventures they could launch together, something close to home, so the younger Lystedt would have an opportunity to earn an income as well as be out in public.

“I’ve been working on my public speaking a lot,” he said. “It’s all about education and education is the biggest part of my law.”

While Zack isn’t exactly sure what he wants to do when he grows up he knows one thing.

“It’s more about passion, the purpose,” he said. “My purpose in life right now is to get more education about the Lystedt Law and to get it nationwide. As I get stronger, the law’s message gets stronger.”