2.24.2006

Team manager scores 20 points

Last night when I got home from work, JTC told me about this story that he'd seen on CBS news. And, this morning, they re-ran the package locally.

This"hoop dreams" story brought me to tears and I thought I'd share it with you just in case you hadn't gotten to see it yourself.

Jason McElwain is the team manager for his high school basketball team in Rochester, NY. What makes this special is that he is also autistic. And, while he wasn't able to play on the team over the past four years, he is one of their most enthusiastic supporters. Jason's dad even says he would sometimes worry he was too over-the-top at times... fearing a technical foul or something would be called during the game because of his enthusiasm. Everyone at Greece Athena High School loves him and appreciates his dedication to the basketball team.

So, for the team's last game of the season, the coach added Jason's name to the roster and let him suit-up. In the last four minutes of the game, the coach did what no one expected him to do... he put McElwain in to play. Afterwards, he was probably wishing he'd been playing him all year. By the time that short four minutes was up, Jason had scored 20 points. No... that isn't a typo... 20 points.

The crowd went wild and Jason is now somewhat of a hero at Greece Athena. In the interview, which you can watch from the story page, Jason said, "I just caught fire... I was hot as a pistol."

You have to read and/or watch the story.
It's just so inspiring.

2 comments:

Michael Hickerson said...

The story is a great one...I never get tired of hearing it. It's nice to hear good news for a change.

Anonymous said...

I saw that story too and had the same reaction. Amazing.
By the way, I haven't forgotten about that 4 things tag. Just thought I'd pour a cup of coffee in my keyboard first...