AKRON -- Alex Berry just wants to look in the mirror and see himself, something the now 16-year-old Akron boy hasn't really been able to do for a full year.

Last April, Alex was pitching in a varsity game for Garfield High School when the ball got away from the catcher. As the runner broke from third, Alex covered home and the catcher short throw hit him square in the mouth.

"I can remember coming up and feeling around so I don't have any teeth," Berry said. "Everybody's looks were like, 'Oh my God! What happened?'"

Alex lost five front teeth, including all four on his bottom jaw, and has been plagued with a huge whole in his smile ever since.

"It's hard," Alex said. "Sometimes (classmates say) 'Oh he ain't got no teeth.' Sometimes I can't eat. I just want my teeth."

His family's dental insurance was exhausted after $1,000, but the bills are fast approaching $10,000 with surgeries to help with Alex's jaw and facial injuries.

It will take another $10-$15,000 for braces and dental implants to replace the missing teeth, Hughey said, but no doctors will take his case until the existing bills are paid.

Alex's family thought the school's insurance would cover some or all of the remaining bills when his mother received an insurance handout the day after the accident.

"The coach gave it to me, and I thought, 'Well this is great," said Megan Hughey, Alex's mother. "Between our insurance and what (the schools) have, sounded like a good policy. Sounded like he was gonna get it done."

The handout seemed to indicate that the district had full dental insurance that provided 100 percent coverage for dental injuries, but Hughey later learned that the insurance coverage listed on that page was not available.

A battle of insurance companies and meetings ensued, and a year later, Alex is still missing five front teeth.

"Here we are a year later, and we're nowhere," Hughey said. "We're the same as we were the day of the accident." School leaders defend their decision to deny payment of Alex's medical bills because his family signed forms releasing the district from liability from sports injuries.

"It is the parent's responsibility to make sure their kid is covered by insurance," said Superintendent David James. "The Ohio High School Athletic Association has several forms that parents have to fill out. One includes that they know the risk associated with playing high school sports. The risk of injury. The risk of infection. Parents need to be mindful of that and make sure they have insurance in place."

James empathized with the pain Alex endures with his missing teeth, and he wished the district could do more.

Both sides point to parents making sure they read the fine print on their family's insurance and on the forms parents sign to give their children permission to play high school sports.