Hollywood Calls Autistic Basketball Star<\/a>
\nBy BEN DOBBIN, Associated Press WriterTue Feb 28, 4:34 PM ET<\/p>\nAlone in the gym after practice, Jason McElwain went through his elaborate
\npregame ritual.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old senior, manager of the Greece Athena High School basketball
\nteam, drained a 3-pointer, a double-pump layup and a free throw, kissed the
\nback of his ring finger at center court and sped off to the dressing room to
\nexhort and amuse his teammates.<\/p>\n
“You’ve gotta give it everything you got!” McElwain sang in rap verse. “The
\nwinner goes home all happy\/The loser goes home and says\/`Mommy we lost the
\ngame, wah wah wah!'”<\/p>\n
McElwain, who is autistic, was back in his role as an all-around motivator on
\nthe eve of a sectional semifinal game Tuesday night \u2014 handing out water
\nbottles, dispensing tips, helping run drills. Two weeks earlier, he suited up
\nfor a game and delivered a jaw-dropping performance.<\/p>\n
His play drew national attention, and a flood of calls from Hollywood. His
\nparents have received inquiries from about 25 production companies ranging from
\nThe Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. to independent documentary filmmakers.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what I’m walking into,” McElwain said.<\/p>\n
In his team’s final home game of the season, McElwain entered with four minutes
\nto go. It was his first and only appearance for the Athena varsity team in this
\nRochester suburb. The 5-foot-6 manager hit six 3-point shots and a 2-pointer and
\nwas carried off the court on his teammates’ shoulders.<\/p>\n
His triumph was captured on a student video that made the rounds of the
\ntelevision networks. The school was besieged with calls and e-mails from
\nparents of children who have autism, a little-understood developmental
\ndisorder.<\/p>\n
“We have an obligation as a society to find a way to include people with
\ndifferent abilities,” said the school’s athletic director, Randolph Hutto,
\nwhose 12-year-old son, Joshua, is autistic. “This, hopefully, will help open
\ndoors for some people, or open some eyes.”<\/p>\n
McElwain, who didn’t begin talking until he was 5, still lacks social skills but
\nhas learned to cope well in his teens, said his special-education teacher, Diane
\nMaddock.<\/p>\n
“He might talk a little loud, laugh a little too long or not be able the read
\nthe body language or even the tone of voice of a person, but it’s not a big
\ndifficulty,” Maddock said. “If you call him on it, he will acknowledge it, say
\n‘OK, you’re right, I shouldn’t have said that or laughed when I laughed.'”<\/p>\n
“This couldn’t happen to a nicer kid,” she added.<\/p>\n
Considered too small to make the junior varsity, McElwain signed on as manager,
\nthen took up the same role with the varsity to stay near the sport he loves.
\nAmazed at his dedication, coach Jim Johnson had him suit up for the home
\nfinale. There was no guarantee he would play \u2014 Athena was battling for a
\ndivision title \u2014 but he got in when the Trojans opened a large lead.<\/p>\n
“It was like a big old bucket and I was just hitting them like they were free
\nthrows,” McElwain said. “I just felt relaxed.”<\/p>\n
The coach couldn’t believe what he was seeing.<\/p>\n
“He’s been my right-hand man, he’s there every day and just getting him the
\nopportunity to suit up was emotional enough for me,” he said. “For him to come
\nin and seize the moment like he did was certainly more than I ever expected. I
\nwas an emotional wreck.”<\/p>\n
Because he played in just one regular-season game, McElwain was ineligible for
\nsectional play. But he’s not bothered.<\/p>\n
“I just want to win as a team, not individually,” he said.<\/p>\n
What’s more, he prides himself on having a lot of friends.<\/p>\n
“I’m not really that different,” he said. “I don’t really care about this
\nautistic situation, really. It’s just the way I am. The advice I’d give to
\nautistic people is just keep working, just keep dreaming, you’ll get your
\nchance and you’ll do it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Professor Nesson, dont know if you saw this follow-up to the news story re: the autistic basketball star, but if not, I thought you’d be interested. -Jake Mermelstein Hollywood Calls Autistic Basketball Star By BEN DOBBIN, Associated Press WriterTue Feb 28, 4:34 PM ET Alone in the gym after practice, Jason McElwain went through his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","p1","y2006","m03","d01","h06"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
