Posted on 11/01/2002 8:55:37 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
McDERMOTT | Coach Dave Frantz doesn't know what all the fuss is about. But 17-year-old Jake Porter has humbly become everybody's hero."I need a nap," the affable Jake, sporting his red and black Northwest High School leather jacket, said Thursday after school, between a newspaper interview and talk show on Cincinnati radio.
Jake was born in Dayton with chromosomal fragile X syndrome, which causes mental retardation. But that hasn't stopped Jake, who lists his favorite subject as track.
Everyone loves Jake because he brings out the best in human nature, Frantz said, as was demonstrated late in a football game Oct. 18 when the Waverly Tigers from Pike County were ripping Northwest Mohawks, 42-0. Northwest High is in Scioto County, in southern Ohio near the Ohio River.
"It all started the previous week," Frantz said, "when I suggested to coach (Derek) DeWitt that we let Jake 'take a knee' on the last play."
That's when a player takes the football and falls to one knee to kill the ball and allow the play to end.
"He said that would be great," Frantz said.
The visiting Mohawks arrived early, and DeWitt had a chance to meet Jake.
"Along comes my shadow," Frantz said, smiling and motioning to Jake, who hangs out with Frantz during lunch and helps keep order during hall duty. "(DeWitt), like everybody else Jake meets, took an instant liking to him."
With 5 seconds left in the game, Frantz substituted Jake as running back. "Coach DeWitt said, 'Let him score, Coach. We're going to let him score.’ ”
The referee agreed and urged Frantz to go along with the game plan.
Jake, wearing No. 45 and a dark blue uniform, snapped the ball. "He was a little confused at first," Frantz said. "We'd been practicing the ‘knee’ all week."
But with the referee and players from both teams pointing the way, Jake took off in a trot from the Mohawks' 49-yard line toward Northwest's goal posts.
"Both teams opened up and let him through," Frantz said. "Everybody, both sides, people in the stands, were screaming."
Jake's 6-point score was "pretty emotional," Frantz said.
"In my 15 years as coach and assistant coach, I haven't seen anything like it."
Jake considers the 42-6 loss a victory. "We won," he said matter-of-factly, his green eyes dancing. "It was pretty good." The school's Web site [Windows media player of Jake's magic moment] http://www.northwest.k12.oh.us/docs2/newmain/tmain2.htm has been sluggish since the game's footage showing Jake's touchdown romp was put on line. "It's the international hits it's getting," Frantz said, "from Japan. All around."
Frantz said the game has become legend, but the story's broad appeal stymies him.
"Jake's just one of us," he said. "We take care of him, accept him. He's just part of life here. All the attention, it just dumbfounds us."
Jake's brother, 12-year-old Seth, also was born with fragile X syndrome, and is a junior high student and football player.
The boys' mother, Liz, moved the boys from West Carrollton in 1997, where Jake was in a multihandicapped program at Harold Schnell Elementary School in West Carrollton.
Liz Porter was divorced and managing a restaurant in Springboro when it was robbed. A gun was held to her back, she said, and she knew it was time to move back home to Scioto County, to a farmhouse with her father and aunt, Janet McFann.
Teachers at Harold Schnell Elementary fondly remember the boy they called Jacob.
Sandy Rosholt was “tickled” to see a photograph of her former student wearing his high school football jersey.
“It looks just like him — much bigger,” she said Thursday, remembering the happy child as being very sociable with adults.
His mother's work at Rooster's in Springboro apparently made Jacob feel at home in Rosholt’s classroom, which has a full kitchen where students learn life skills.
“He would come and take my Post-It notes, the whole stack of them, and stick them on the stove hood like he was doing orders,” she said, chuckling.
Just after midnight Aug. 20, 1997, three men robbed Rooster’s at gunpoint. The trio returned at 10:15 p.m. Sept. 28. Wearing paramilitary clothing and ski masks, they robbed 15 customers and employees.
Two days later, police arrested three brothers, who later pleaded guilty to a three-month robbery rampage that terrorized residents of Montgomery and Warren counties.
But the ordeal had persuaded Liz Porter to accept her father’s advice and move back to her hometown.
“We were very upset to see him go,” Rosholt said. “I don’t think Jacob understood the finality of moving and that we were not going to see him again.”
Christa Sprinkel, who taught Jacob in kindergarten, first and second grades, said the child’s good eye contact and social skills made him a standout.
“He was so social and so good at interacting with other people. This doesn’t surprise me.”
Frantz said having Jake at Northwest has enriched students, faculty and the community's lives.
As far as Jake is concerned, he was getting geared up to receive a third-year plaque at the Mohawks' winter sports banquet Thursday night.
After that, Frantz said, "Jake can take a week off. Then it's time for basketball."
Contact Cathy Mong at 225-2353 or cathy_mong@coxohio.com. Contact Margo Rutledge Kissell at 225-2094 or mkissell@coxohio.com
This movie clip was also replayed by ABC on their Sat College broadcasts
That's what "The Game" is all about !! !!
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