Tackling a Dream

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Tackling a dream

It was just one play, but it was also so much more

By Fowler

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Posted: Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008

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Weisner, 17, has been a ball boy and water

boy for Newton-Conover's football team for two seasons. He was happy with those

jobs – but mostly, he wanted to play. JEFF WILLHELM –

jwillhelm@...

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Weisner got his first tackle in the last

home game of the year for Newton- Conover's junior varsity team. JEFF WILLHELM

– STAFF PHOTO

NEWTON On the last play of the last home game of the 2008 season for the

Newton-Conover junior varsity football team, the backup nose guard made a

tackle.

One tackle. That's all.

The tackle was the first one the Newton-Conover nose guard, whose name is

Weisner, had ever made in a real game. But it made no difference in the

outcome. Newton-Conover won by 26 points.

So why were so many fans screaming as the clock ran to zero? Why were so

many people crying? Why were Weisner's teammates slapping him on the back and

lifting him off the ground with bear hugs?

To know that, you have to understand that has Down syndrome. And you

need to know that, after serving as the water boy and ball boy for

Newton-Conover's varsity in 2007, the 17-year-old junior was determined to try

football himself in 2008.

“I like being a water boy, too,” says. “But I wanted to play.”

His mother didn't want him to. Newton-Conover's head coach didn't want him

to.

But Weisner wanted to.

And so this is a Thanksgiving story about the power of want-to.

In 1990, Tara got pregnant. At the time, she had two daughters and a

lot on her mind. She and her then-husband broke up in the third month of the

pregnancy. She was suddenly a single mom, working for $7.50 an hour. She didn't

have any sort of prenatal testing while pregnant with her third child.

was born on April2, 1991. Within hours of his birth, a doctor

approached his mother.

Tara, we think your son has Down syndrome, the doctor said.

“I busted out crying,” Tara recalls. “You have two normal, healthy

children, and you don't think of anything else. I was real upset. I cried for

the whole first day. And then I went to sleep that night, woke up the next day

and said, ‘OK, let's get on with it.'”

They got on with it. Tara learned about Down syndrome, a genetic disorder

caused by the presence of an extra chromosome. One of about every 800 babies is

born with Down syndrome, which causes mental and physical limitations.

In 's case, he reads at about a third-grade level. His mother has

mainstreamed him in public schools, although some of his high school classes

are only with other exceptional children. He also struggles with ADHD

(attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Sports has always been an outlet for . He has played basketball and

softball for Special Olympics teams.

“I love football,” he says. “When I was a little boy, I started to like

football.”

would watch Newton-Conover games on Fridays and Panthers games on

Sundays. He would tell anyone who asked that – when he grew up – he would play

for both of them.

‘Strong as an ox'

While in middle school, was befriended by Matt , quarterback of

the Newton-Conover football team and son of coach Nick Bazzle. was doing

an internship at the middle school, working with exceptional children.

“I guess why fell in love with football had something to do with me,”

says , now a senior at Appalachian State. “We would wear our jerseys on

Fridays. And he'd tell me every time I wore mine: ‘I'm going to have one of

those jerseys one day. I'm going to play.'”

Newton (population 13,000) sits 45 miles northwest of Charlotte in Catawba

County. Its downtown is dominated by white church steeples. Newton-Conover High

routinely draws several thousand for Friday night football games.

When got to high school, he became Newton-Conover's water boy and

ball boy. The players treated him nicely. They always let him “run through the

sign,” as he calls it – leading the football team's charge through a paper

banner made by the cheerleaders before each game.

But wasn't playing. And that's what he really wanted to do.

His mom, who remarried when was 4, was concerned.

“As his parent, I didn't want him to play, because I didn't want him to get

hurt,” Tara says. “But I didn't want to stop him from his dream.”

She bought him a replica of a Newton-Conover uniform for Christmas,

including shoulder pads. She hoped that would be enough.

loved it. But it wasn't enough.

Coach Bazzle knew wanted to play, too. And while he was fond of

, he didn't want him to play, either.

“I was concerned about his safety,” Bazzle says. “What if he got cheap-shotted

sometime? And he had never played before. There was no way he'd know what he

was getting into. Plus, how would my kids react to him?

“I kept trying to convince him I just needed him as our water boy only –

that he was the best water boy we had. And he wanted nothing to do with that.”

Surely, though, there would be some medical reason to keep from

playing. Maybe the doctor could be the bad guy – not the mother loved,

not the coach he adored. 's mother took him to Dr. Ben Goodman, who had

been his family physician for his entire life. She explained the situation and

sort of hoped he'd say “No.”

Goodman and another doctor ran all sorts of tests. Then Goodman wrote a

letter to everyone concerned. It gave medical clearance for football and

compared his situation to that of “Radio,” a mentally challenged man from

, S.C., whose association with a high school football team became the

basis for a Sports Illustrated story and a movie.

Goodman noted that was 5-foot-5 and 217 pounds.

“Look at carefully,” the doctor wrote. “He is not a frail, frightened

young man; he is as strong as an ox, with massive shoulders and a heart at

least as big as his shoulders.”

OK, everyone said after they saw that letter – and after 's mother and

19-year-old sister agreed that at least one of them would come to every

practice and game to make sure he stayed focused.

Let play.

‘I knocked him down'

On the first day of practice in July, in the middle of conditioning drills,

flopped down on his back. He was sick of running.

I don't want to play football after all, he said.

His mother came and stood over him. “A lot of people went to a lot of

trouble to get you on this team,” she remembers saying. “Let's give it one week

and if you still feel the same way, we'll talk.”

stuck around, doing double duty as a JV player on Thursday nights and

a water boy for the varsity on Fridays (Newton-Conover's varsity is 12-1 and

still alive in the 2A playoffs).

His teammates got used to him.

“I thought it was kind of weird at first,” says Rob Lutz, one of those

teammates. “But it only took until about the second week until everyone started

acting like he was part of the team.”

still didn't like to run. When the team did sprints, he would often

plop down on the ground, complaining about a mysterious problem with his

cleats.

But he learned what to do well enough that he played a couple of snaps in

games where Newton-Conover built a big lead. No one took it easy on him, and he

never came close to making a tackle until that last game.

On the video of the play, you can see that is actually double-teamed.

He fends off the blocks, moves to his left and runs into the ball carrier. Then

about five of his teammates fall on top of the pile.

describes the play simply: “I found him. I got hold of him. I knocked

him down.”

After the game, got to call his friend Matt at college and

tell him about the tackle. Partly because of , Matt has decided to become

a teacher.

He will teach exceptional children just like .

asked his mom a question about the tackle a few days later.

Will my tackle get my name in the newspaper? asked.

Oh, honey, I don't think so, his mother said. They just can't put the name

of everyone who made one tackle in the newspaper.

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