Often the people who love sports the most, and surround their lives with following games, stats, players and bets, forget about the great things that sports can do.
Senior Jason McElwain had been the manager of the varsity basketball team of Greece Athena High School in Rochester, N.Y. For three years he was there helping and watching the team. McElwain is autistic and for the last game of the year, his coach added him to the roster. The coach just wanted the kid to wear a jersey, get to set on the bench, and ideally get a couple minutes of playing time. This is where this story could be just another sappy story about how an autistic high schooler managed to get into the big game and score a basket, the product of Hollywood writers designed to eek out a few tears.
But that's not what happened. He entered the game with 4 minutes to go and his school up by double digits. And he was so nervous that he missed his first 2 shots, one of them an airball. I'm sure his mom and coach and everyone in the gym just wanted him to score once. Well he did. And then he went off. In the final four minutes he scored an unbelievable 20-points - not on layups where the other team held off. He sank 6 3-pointers in four minutes! Every shot, the entire crowd, cheerleaders, bench just went bananas.
In four minutes he set the school record for 3-pointers! His mom said, "I look at autism as the Berlin Wall, and he cracked it."
His teammates said for 3 years he brought humor and life to the team. Tonight he brought the most 3-pointers anyone has ever scored at Athena High. When the game ended, the crowd erupted like a 16-seed knocking off Duke, storming the court. But they weren't surrounding the team, just one senior who will never forget the power of sports.
That's pretty damn awesome.
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