Autistic HS Senior scores 20 points in 4 min.

How cool is this? Heard this on the radio this morning and saw it on the local sports report tonight:

A local high school basketball team had their Seniors' Night, and since they were leading and the opposing team were good sports, they let their assistant manager suit up and thought they'd let him take a few throws. He's autistic and they figured it would be a good thing for him and for his family to see since the team thinks highly of him.

So, the young man takes his shot and he makes a two pointer.

And then hits a three pointer. And he does it by only hitting the bottom of the bucket -- nothing but the hole in the bottom of the net.

After another three pointer or two, the opposing team decides they might want to actually guard the kid.

Turns out they needed to. He scored about twenty points.

He made something like six out of seven three pointers.

Both sides of the stands had their jaws drop and soon after that the whole place went crazy. At the end of the game everyone ended up on the court mobbing the kid. The coach was in tears and speechless. And it was all on videotape.

The local news interviewed him and a few of the other players. Great stuff and a class act by everyone all the way around.

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

Great story!

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

chmsam -

That was great to here about. Thanks!

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

An update on the late local cable news tonight --

Jason is a student at Greece-Athena High School, outside of Rochester, NY.

According to his mother, he is severely autistic, but this is actually hard to tell if you see his interview on some of the news video.

This was his first court time in three and a half years and his first shot missed by about six feet, so at first his mom and the coach were very worried for him.

Many of his school mates in the crowd had masks with Jason's photograph and were waving them wildly.

Then he hit a two point shot and then just kept hitting three pointers from the corner -- most just net. Most of these were absolutely perfect shots. You cannot believe how good these shots were and the video is just amazing.

He apparently made the school record for three point shots.

He scored twenty points... in about four minutes!

The more video I see of this, the more the crowd seems to go crazy.

I would not be surprised to see this video ending up on ESPN. If it doesn't, they will have really missed something that is nothing short of spectacular. This is the sort of story that should make the cover of Sports Illustrated. It's something you just have to see to believe.

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

My local high school had a severely mentally handicapped manager...much the same story. He got to suit up for a game just to stand on the sidelines. When our team got up by 4 touchdowns, the coach called time out and asked the opposing coach if he could put him in. He played guard for the last 4-5 plays. He didn't have a phenomenal game like this kid, but everyone in attendance had tears in their eyes nevertheless. Got a standing ovation from BOTH sides of the field.


IMO...that's what high school sports is all about.

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

This video needs to be posted!!

I can't find it so far on any of the news stations.

Bill

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

What a heart warming story; thank you for sharing this with us! And kudos to both teams for allowing that to happen.

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

This link should work.

http://www.wroctv.com/sports/story.asp?id=10211

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

Thanks!!!

Great Story!!!

Bill

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

That's like something out of the movies, that's great! It's also nice whenever a community adopts and embraces someone with special needs instead of shunning them.

I have to wonder if the kid has an intuitive savant talant for ballistics?

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

VERY COOL story!

THANKS for the link!

Re: A nice upbeat piece of local sports news

:mecry:! Great story! Thanks! :mecry:

For those of you that haven't seen it already...

A high school senior from New York was the trainer for the varsity basketball team. He is mildly autistic. He's not only the trainer but he was kind of the unofficial mascot for the team. His coach allowed to suit up as a player for their last game as a gift for his hard work with no promise of actually getting in the game. With 4 minutes to go the coach put him in the game. The kid made (6) 3 point shots and one 2 point shot. He set a school record. In the video the crowd is going flat nuts. It's a story that tugs at your heart and hits very close to home.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11526448

Can you say made for TV movie?

I merged DD's thread with this one...carry on!

BTW - AWESOME!! (and I don't use that word too often!)

I've been merged. Don't know why I didn't see this thread before starting mine, maybe giddiness or senility. Anyway, still a great story.

Chris Booker on 92.3 FM in New York did a bit on this called "Man Tear Theather".

All the guys in the studio tried to watch the video without getting all emotional.

Although you couldn't see it, driving around in the car, you did feel something just listening to it.

Thanks for sharing this great story. It brought a smile to me face.

Here's a link to CBS and a video that includes a few more shots..

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/23/earlyshow/main1339324.shtml