Feel Good Stories From The Wide World of Sports
So those of you that know me--or read this blog regularly--know that I'm not really the sentimental type. I rarely get mushy, never get moved to tears, and don't enjoy "feel good" stories on the news. I'm not sure why: I'm a happy person, I enjoy life, I'm one of the good guys, and I believe we need to encourage good behavior by focusing on good things. Maybe because I'm happy and enjoy my life I don't feel like I need to see it.
But two incredibly good feel good stories have happened, in what has sadly become the last place you would expect it--the sports world.
First was the story of Jason McElwain. Jason is an autistic high school senior who has been the manager of his high school's basketball team for four years. Loves the game. Loves being a part of it anyway he can. Well, on the last home game of the season, his coach put him in the fourth quarter. Very nice, you think. Good feel good moment. So how did it turn out?
The kid just dropped six three pointers--and one two with his toe on the line.
I'm sure most you have seen the video. If not, you can catch it here.
How unbelievable is that? There's no way you can watch that sitting down. That kid was fricking AMAZING. Not only did he go out and have a great game from a basketball standpoint--Hell, the other team was guarding him! They were trying to stop him!--but the charisma he had, the joy that you could see, and the joy you could feel in the entire gym...wow. Simply incredible. At the end of the video, when the fans stormed the court, for the first time in my entire life I wanted to storm the court. I didn't even care which one--I thought about running over to Ranchview or the rec and storming the court there (that would have gone over well at the rec). You could feel the energy, the camaraderie, the moment--it was breathtaking.
And then last week the Southern Illinois Salukis (those of you who read here this time last year will remember that the Salukis are one of my favorite names in college basketball) were playing Butler, when one of their cheerleaders fell off the top of the pyramid. It was a horrible fall--the first time I saw it happen, I would not have been surprised at all if the next thing the announcer told me was that she was dead from a broken neck. So the paramedics came out, put her on an immobilizer, put a neck brace on her, and got her on a stretcher. The gym is deathly quiet. No one knows how seriously this girl is hurt.
So as they start to wheel her away, she gives the crowd the thumbs up. Well, people start cheering, but all sports fans know that just because the athlete gives the thumbs up doesn't mean that they're okay. We've all seen plenty of athletes do that and then leave to never walk again. So everyone is still nervous, and as Kristi said, "distracted".
So as the band starts playing the school's fight song, Kristi starts fucking cheering. That's right. She's doing the whole arm movement thing (it's the only part of her body she can move) as she leaves the stadium. Of course, the crowd explodes, and of course, the Saluki's win the game.
Now we've all made fun of cheerleaders. We've all laughed at cheerleaders. And as an athlete, I will question the affect cheerleaders have on a game, especially in this day and age. I just think we're so used to seeing cute young girls and the pyramid that they don't really make much of a difference to the outcome of a game anymore.
Well, this girl influenced the outcome of the game. She could very easily be the springboard to a fantastic postseason for the Saluki's. I mean, that's fricking commitment right there people: that's truly caring about your team. What a little bad ass.
It's kind of sad in a way: we're not used to stories like these anymore. We're much more used to Barry Bond's being caught using steroids, or TO being a waste of air, or any NBA player being caught smoking weed, or whatever. Even when good things do happen on sports, quite often they seem--and sometimes are--contrived, dreamed up by some PR guy to get you to feel good about the team, or be distracted from bad things going on.
But these two stories? This is it man. This is the shit. These are stories you can tell your kids about someday about why you should play sports, and why it's good to be a human being.
So enjoy. It's not often I get sentimental, but these two stories are well worth it.
But two incredibly good feel good stories have happened, in what has sadly become the last place you would expect it--the sports world.
First was the story of Jason McElwain. Jason is an autistic high school senior who has been the manager of his high school's basketball team for four years. Loves the game. Loves being a part of it anyway he can. Well, on the last home game of the season, his coach put him in the fourth quarter. Very nice, you think. Good feel good moment. So how did it turn out?
The kid just dropped six three pointers--and one two with his toe on the line.
I'm sure most you have seen the video. If not, you can catch it here.
How unbelievable is that? There's no way you can watch that sitting down. That kid was fricking AMAZING. Not only did he go out and have a great game from a basketball standpoint--Hell, the other team was guarding him! They were trying to stop him!--but the charisma he had, the joy that you could see, and the joy you could feel in the entire gym...wow. Simply incredible. At the end of the video, when the fans stormed the court, for the first time in my entire life I wanted to storm the court. I didn't even care which one--I thought about running over to Ranchview or the rec and storming the court there (that would have gone over well at the rec). You could feel the energy, the camaraderie, the moment--it was breathtaking.
And then last week the Southern Illinois Salukis (those of you who read here this time last year will remember that the Salukis are one of my favorite names in college basketball) were playing Butler, when one of their cheerleaders fell off the top of the pyramid. It was a horrible fall--the first time I saw it happen, I would not have been surprised at all if the next thing the announcer told me was that she was dead from a broken neck. So the paramedics came out, put her on an immobilizer, put a neck brace on her, and got her on a stretcher. The gym is deathly quiet. No one knows how seriously this girl is hurt.
So as they start to wheel her away, she gives the crowd the thumbs up. Well, people start cheering, but all sports fans know that just because the athlete gives the thumbs up doesn't mean that they're okay. We've all seen plenty of athletes do that and then leave to never walk again. So everyone is still nervous, and as Kristi said, "distracted".
So as the band starts playing the school's fight song, Kristi starts fucking cheering. That's right. She's doing the whole arm movement thing (it's the only part of her body she can move) as she leaves the stadium. Of course, the crowd explodes, and of course, the Saluki's win the game.
Now we've all made fun of cheerleaders. We've all laughed at cheerleaders. And as an athlete, I will question the affect cheerleaders have on a game, especially in this day and age. I just think we're so used to seeing cute young girls and the pyramid that they don't really make much of a difference to the outcome of a game anymore.
Well, this girl influenced the outcome of the game. She could very easily be the springboard to a fantastic postseason for the Saluki's. I mean, that's fricking commitment right there people: that's truly caring about your team. What a little bad ass.
It's kind of sad in a way: we're not used to stories like these anymore. We're much more used to Barry Bond's being caught using steroids, or TO being a waste of air, or any NBA player being caught smoking weed, or whatever. Even when good things do happen on sports, quite often they seem--and sometimes are--contrived, dreamed up by some PR guy to get you to feel good about the team, or be distracted from bad things going on.
But these two stories? This is it man. This is the shit. These are stories you can tell your kids about someday about why you should play sports, and why it's good to be a human being.
So enjoy. It's not often I get sentimental, but these two stories are well worth it.
posted by Michael Pondrom at 8:11 PM
1 Comments:
I don't know if you heard but they've already signed off on the movie for that kid. I think Disney is gonna be doing it. It'll be cool that everyone will get a chance to see that story... I just hope they don't fluff it up too much. The story is great enough by itself. And that cheerleader... I think she was out of it from the concussion, that was creepy watching her cheering while being wheeled off on a stretcher and neck brace. Lots of heart though. I hope the Salukis can get to the sweet 16.
Tone Loc
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