Dylan Galloway, a high school senior who was born with cerebral palsy, has always had a dream of scoring a touchdown. So the coaches and players for the Manila (Ark.) High varsity team got together and helped him make it happen. Manila was losing to Rivercrest High, 47-0, on Friday when, late in the fourth quarter, coaches from both teams planned a play in which Galloway would be allowed to motor onto the field with his wheelchair and score a touchdown from the 4-yard-line. See the video of the play following the jump.
This is a pretty wonderful gesture in my opinion, and it obviously had a big impact on Dylan and his family, his teammates and everyone at the game. My favorite part: When Dylan is surrounded by cheerleaders following his TD.
But surprisingly, not everyone is on board with the feel-good moment. Check out the Yahoo Sports message board to see what I’m referring to.
Video following the jump.
This story came to me via Prep Rally, the Yahoo Sports high school blog. And while many readers agree that the gesture by Dylan’s coaches and teammates is a pretty uplifting moment, not all did:
This is stupid. Leave it to our politically correct world to come up with something so pathetic. Lame. Completely a waste of time. — Case.
There were many comments like this. Man; all I can say is, tough room. From the Jonesboro Sun:
Galloway’s mother called watching her son score one of both his and her happier moments.
“Thank you and God bless you, and thank you for giving him a chance to be a part of something,” Liz Galloway told the Jonesboro Sun. “He really likes football, and this is like a little dream come true for him.”
For his part, Doke said that Galloway’s persistence made it hard for him to overlook getting the wheelchair-bound senior a chance.
“He had been after me all year in the hall, at lunchtime and during the school day, and kept telling me he wanted to score a touchdown,” Doke told the Sun. “I saw Rivercrest kids jumping up and down, and when Dylan went into the end zone our entire sideline cleared and all of his teammates went to celebrate with him. I had to fight back the tears, and in fact it kind of tears me up thinking about it now. It was pretty special.”
That should be all you need to know. Man, even if you own a condo atop Mt. Crumpet and are covered with green fur, how could you not be at least a little moved by that? Even Lord Voldemort is saying “Aw, that’s nice.”
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Arkansas player with cerebral palsy scores in wheelchair [Prep Rally]
Manila senior fulfills dream [Jonesboro Sun]
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- Greg - Oct 14, 2010 at 2:10 PM
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@Pete,
“Do you really feel that Dylan didn’t know he was allowed to score?” No and that’s my entire point.
I can’t surf. If one day my friends and family took me to the playground, had me stand on a seesaw and cheered me on while I “surfed” am I supposed to feel good about that? No, because it’s incredibly condescending.
If it made the kid happy, that’s fantastic. But if it were me (a person with sound mind but physical limitations) that charade would make me feel worse.
And what we should be teaching kids is that just because you can’t do something doesn’t mean you can’t excel at something else. Why focus on what the kid can’t do when you should be encouraging the things he can do.
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- Pete - Oct 14, 2010 at 2:45 PM
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@Greg,
If your friend took you out on their board and paddled you onto a wave with them you will have gone surfing. I have done this with people that are physically unable to do it alone. They have surfed. They are surfers. No condescension. Teaching kids that the world is greater than one person is important.
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- HKPhooey - Oct 14, 2010 at 8:35 PM
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How can giving a person a positive experience be wrong? Not until you’ve ridden in his wheels can you know how hard life can be. Great job Arkansas!
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- Ryan - Oct 15, 2010 at 12:25 AM
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Why must people sip of the haterade? Let the kid have his fun, live in the moment, and enjoy what is sure to be one of the high points in his life. The ironic part is that the people who are sitting here and talking crap about this situation fail to recognize how a tiny act can affect someones life in such a positive way, like when Patrick’s mother finally decided to lower her rates to five dollars so he could become a man. And Greg… really dude, of course it is difficult for you to imagine how that would make you feel accomplished, you have problems imagining anything other than feel of that creepy old man from next door when he took you into his basement when you were a kid. And as for James, look man just be quiet. As someone who can walk, make love to a woman, you know the better things in life; you can’t make a comment about how others want to be accepting, just go back to mounting your neighbors Jack Russell.
