Football? Yes…Football! #00

I Love High School Football! We love going to support and watch our son Roman at his games.  But never in my wildest dreams did I think Raymond would be on the High School JV Football Team!!!!! We have a lot of dreams for him….but football?  Well, on Oct. 12^th, 2012….we got the biggest surprise….and boy was it a surprise! 

There was an announcement to the families to come early on this particular Friday.  I knew we had been trying to get all of the parents together for a “family” photo.  Our JV families have really bonded this year as we have been gathering to feed all of our 50+ hungry boys the night before each game.  So off to the field Raymond and I go, my poor husband was a little late because he was helping his family and didn’t know he would be missing anything.  This was a complete surprise.  Some of you might have already seen this video, not only did a friend post it on You Tube and Facebook, but the story also appeared on Channel 17 News the next week.

Raymond has always lived life with us or through us, going where we go, doing what we do.  But what these coaches, team, parents and school have done for Raymond is far more than what we could have ever have done for him.  Friendships started developing without us having anything to do with it.  We started hearing stories of the team coming up to him at school to say hi or give Raymond “Bumps”, and we heard about Raymond’s huge smiles that resulted from those encounters.  We had a Varsity Cheerleader come up to us at a football game to share a picture they took at school with Raymond.  You should have seen the smile on his face in that picture, too cute! He is such a flirt! Friendships are not easy to develop, and for a child who is non-verbal, it is even tougher.  But for our new Football Player, #00, friendships are one of the most important gifts this amazing JV team gave to Raymond, and for that we are so grateful.  I was already impressed with Centennial last year when Roman started attending, but the school continues to amaze us.  And for Raymond, this has started as the most amazing Freshman Year…Go G-Hawks!