A inspiring video of a young wrestler who won his first competitive match — and happens to have cerebral palsy — has gone viral and touched the hearts of thousands.
Nashville (Tenn.) Sunset Middle school wrestler Jared Stevens defeated Nashville (Teen.) Freedom Middle School opponent Justin Kievert — even though Stevens is unable to walk on his own.
Kievert, a seventh grader with compassion beyond his years, had to physically pull Stevens' arm over his own body to make the pin official while fans in attendance cheered and dried their eyes.
Stevens is more than inspiration for the Sunset wrestling team. He works with the grapplers every day — lying on the mat to serve as a practice partner for his teammates.
For his official match, Stevens' coach, Clay Mayes, asked the Freedom coach to pick the player with "the kindest heart" to face the determined Stevens. Kievert, the captain of the Freedom team, was nominated and accepted the intentional loss.
"I was a little nervous," Kievert said. "Then I kind of figured out what to do."
What he did was make a lot of people think hard and long about what school sports are really about.
No comments:
Post a Comment