Gesture of sportsmanship defines SC high school football playoff game

You think I was “bad-mouthing” you when I asked if you’d been around children with disabilities? I was sincere with my question. From comments made by more than a few, I got the impression that Children with Down’s Syndrome were all being categorized as mentally retarded, which is far from the truth for many of them. I was more curious as to whether you had any experience with people with this disability as opposed to trying to give you a bad rap! Perhaps I should have used a different approach!

I have no more experience with Downes Syndrome kids than the average American. I have worked with some of them, I have friends with Downes Syndrome kids or family siblings. I have no specific expertise with these kids, but I do know that there are different stages of their disability, that some can and do work and that many of them are actually over protected by family.

I never met one that wasn’t nice, but I understand there are some.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain your view. I certainly was not thinking of it from that perspective.

As I said, I don’t understand it. I didn’t say they were stupid, or I was mad about it, or complain about them doing it. Just that it made no sense to me. I still don’t understand why people say this was a tremendous example of sportsmanship. Some team was crushing another team, and the other team had asked them to please let them do this one play for their DS kid, and the other team let them do it, knowing it made absolutely no difference in the game, and wouldn’t bother them in the least.

Yes, I guess you could call it really bad sportsmanship if they had said yes, and then tackled the kid on the 1-yard-line. I guess from a position of sportsmanship, I think the bar for greatness is a bit higher.

I can’t possibly know what is in the mind of a DS kid, to know what this would mean to them. But if it truly makes a significant difference for DS kids to have moments like this, why hasn’t someone put together a program to offer such moments to all the DS kids, not just those lucky enough to go to a high school with a really bad team?

Backing up to general sports stuff, there are always kids on teams who aren’t good enough. And once in a while, the score gets so lopsided, that coach says “hey, go in for a little”. And the crowd goes wild, the other team looks perplexed, and it’s still a sport because the kid is really playing and maybe the kid scores a basket or steals the ball.

But it would be meaningless if the other team figured out what was happening, and stopped defending the basket and let him just dribble through and get a layup.

But again, that’s just from my perspective, I don’t know what it is like to be disabled, just what it is like to be a short fat nerd who never had a shot at making a sports team against people who were natural athletes.

I am a School Psychologist, and work with children with DS, as well as many other disabilities. In 15 years I’ve worked with many that were quite capable of performing a wide range of activities and jobs. I’ve also worked with some that are very cognitively low. Some parents are too protective, and some are not. That too varies. While the largest percentage of DS children/adults are well mannered, I have worked with several that are extremely difficult to manage with respect to behavior. The one thing I know is that to categorize them all as incapable of knowing what goes on around them is simply not true. Some, a small percentage, are extremely capable (some are actors on T.V. and in movies, for example). Some are so low as to always need assistance in life. Most fall somewhere in-between.

Jeez Louise, Kevorkian.

My gosh, this boy was provided the thrill to run for a touchdown during a *real* game! Obviously, someone had enough compassion to offer him this chance.

Our school hosts a state prison high school football team each season. Their team isn’t very good at all, but our school asks those who would be inclined to show these kids some kindness. Most of us sit on their bleachers because only a few of their parents show up. We make signs to cheer them on. Half of our cheerleaders cheer for them. Some wear their team’s colors. We send them home with box meals. Most of these kids were never extended kindness like this —— ever. And everything we offer is genuinely given. It’s from the heart and not short-changing someone else.

Maybe you’re seemingly an ogre because no one in your younger years did something this special and monumental for you?

Nah, I just don’t get how this is such a “sportsmanlike” thing to do, or is really a gift.

I bet when your school hosts the prison team, they play for real, and you don’t just let them run around you and score touchdowns.

What you described I have no problem with. I don’t see the parallel to handing someone a football, running a pretend play, helping them down the field, and then pretending they have scored a touchdown. But if that is a great thing, why not just run a pretend play after the game is over? It would be just as real.

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