Mayde Creek Soccer Team Shows Exemplary Character at Tournament
Katy, TX News (January 13, 2017) During a tournament in College Station this week, the Mayde Creek High School men’s JV soccer team showed that there is more to competition than points on a scoreboard. When the players learned from their coach that one of the opposing team members had down syndrome, they banded together to show a level of sportsmanship that is seldom seen in competitive tournaments. Read the story below:
Rams soccer coach Ryan Allred says, “I was notified ahead of time that the team we were playing had a young man with down syndrome on their team. The coach told me that he was going to be putting the young man in the second half, and that he would be wearing the #17 jersey. Before the game started, I went over to our team and I asked them if they would be willing to let this young man score a goal while he was in the game. Without hesitation, all of them answered yes. As the game started, all of that had kind of gone to the back of our minds. With a few minutes remaining in the game their coach put this young man into the game. I yelled to our players that he was on the field. With one minute left to go in the game this young man had received the ball and started dribbling towards our goal. One by one our players started diving to the ground as if he had dribbled around them, and they had missed trying to take the ball away from him. Our goalie even did the same thing. I wish you could’ve been there to see the look on this young man’s face as he scored the goal. His hands quickly shot in the air while running to the sideline and then jumping into the arms of his coach. Meanwhile, all of our players were clapping and cheering him on. And to top that all off, as we were driving away his car was closely parked to our bus and our boys started chanting his name and telling him great game. I felt like we had won more than just a game today. These young men displayed something that most young men would not do for fear of embarrassment or ridicule. They truly set an example as some of the great students we have here at Mayde Creek.”
Courtesy of Mayde Creek High School
