Posted on 09/27/2010 9:46:43 PM PDT by Abin Sur
Ike Ditzenberger is like a lot of other 17-year-old American football players. He dreams of playing college football. He attends daily practices. Most of the time he toils away in offensive drills. Then, on rare occasions, Ditzenberger runs into the limelight with aplomb. The description could fit thousands of American teenagers, except for one crucial detail: Ike Ditzenberger has Down Syndrome.
Ditzenberger, a junior at Snohomish (Wash.) High School, achieved a major milestone on Friday in a game against Lake Stevens, running 51 yards for a touchdown with 10 seconds remaining. The "Ike Special" provided the only points in Snohomish's 35-6 loss. It was the first varsity touchdown in Ditzenberger's career, a ramble through an opposing defense that mirrors the end to Snohomish practices every day, when Ditzenberger gets the final run of practice and somehow finds the end zone, through a combination of running guile and intentionally passive defenders.
"He's someone that everybody can kind of enjoy because he has such a great personality and character," Snohomish senior captain Keith Wigney told the Everett Herald in a feature on Ditzenberger.
For Ditzenberger's feel-good story to go beyond practice to an actual competitive game took an assist from the coaching staff at Lake Stevens. The Vikings' coaches not only instructed their players to let Ditzenberger score, but to make it look relatively competitive in the process to make the moment more real for the Snohomish junior. In the video above you can see a handful of Lake Stevens defenders make diving runs at Ditzenberger, only to come up agonizingly short. Or perhaps gleefully short, in this case.
(Excerpt) Read more at rivals.yahoo.com ...
The kid felt great. His teammates felt great. The opposing team and coaches all felt great. The crowed felt great.
It was all appropriate.
Did I “project” anything about you insulting anyone in that way? Nope.
Enjoy being a stick in the mud
And stop with the snarky “projection” stuff. You sound like you belong at Kos
Yes, actually. Not too much into pagan perversions.
Good grief...lighten up, dude.
Upon reflection, I realized that the lesson of this thread is how so many people take football WAY too seriously.
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