Story 'O The Year
Apparently my decision to relocate to a cave with no means of communication inadvertantly resulted in my missing perhaps one of the greatest sports stories of my lifetime.
It happened the day after Valentine's Day and I just heard about it yesterday. Nonetheless, just in case any of you are as out of the loop as I am, here is the story of Jason McElwain.
McElwain, a 17-year-old senior at Greece Athena High School in Rochester, New York, is the manager of the school's varsity basketball team - he also has autism. Diagnosed with the disease when he was 3-years-old, McElwain tried out for basketball but failed to make the team. Still wanting to be part of the team, he became the manager, a position in which he has proudly served for the last three years.
Anyways, in the model of Jack "Rudy" Ruettiger the head coach of Greece Athena decided to dress McElwain for the final game of the season with the intent of getting the young man some game action.
What started as a nice gesture, turned into arguably the most memorable, significant game of recent memory. McElwain checked in with about four minutes left, chucked an airball, then proceeded to drain SIX three-pointers and a seventh shot with his foot on the line. With the gymnasium erupting with every swish of the net, the autistic kid playing his first and last high school basketball game ever, threw in 20 points for the game - good enough to be the game's leading scorer.
Simply an unbelievably heart-warming story. You can view ESPN's excellent feature on the game here. I strongly advise anyone who has yet to see the game footage, to watch that ESPN video on that link. Its stuff like that, that remind us why we love sports and just how great they can be....even for Clevelanders.
It happened the day after Valentine's Day and I just heard about it yesterday. Nonetheless, just in case any of you are as out of the loop as I am, here is the story of Jason McElwain.
McElwain, a 17-year-old senior at Greece Athena High School in Rochester, New York, is the manager of the school's varsity basketball team - he also has autism. Diagnosed with the disease when he was 3-years-old, McElwain tried out for basketball but failed to make the team. Still wanting to be part of the team, he became the manager, a position in which he has proudly served for the last three years.
Anyways, in the model of Jack "Rudy" Ruettiger the head coach of Greece Athena decided to dress McElwain for the final game of the season with the intent of getting the young man some game action.
What started as a nice gesture, turned into arguably the most memorable, significant game of recent memory. McElwain checked in with about four minutes left, chucked an airball, then proceeded to drain SIX three-pointers and a seventh shot with his foot on the line. With the gymnasium erupting with every swish of the net, the autistic kid playing his first and last high school basketball game ever, threw in 20 points for the game - good enough to be the game's leading scorer.
Simply an unbelievably heart-warming story. You can view ESPN's excellent feature on the game here. I strongly advise anyone who has yet to see the game footage, to watch that ESPN video on that link. Its stuff like that, that remind us why we love sports and just how great they can be....even for Clevelanders.
posted by Jon Sladek at 10:30 PM
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