Sunday, October 18, 2009

Coaches collaborate, allow touchdown by player with DS


From the Kansas City Star (with video):

Freshman football player Matt Ziesel, who has Down syndrome, ran in a touchdown in the last seconds of a Benton High School game in St. Joseph, Missouri, this week

His team was down 46-0 with 10 seconds left on the clock when coach Dan McCamy asked the opposing coach for a favor: forfeit a shutout and give running back Ziesel the opportunity to make a touchdown. McCamy asked the players to avoid physical contact with Ziesel but to make it as real as possible for him.
“It’s just amazing how one play can mean so much to one kid and then to a team and then to a community,” McCamy said

… “It was just a good thing to see people realize that the value of winning is not (as) important as it is to participate and enjoy the game,” said Mike Ziesel (Matt’s dad, a longtime high school coach and the athletic director at Benton).

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