Best Moments of 2013: Noah Van Vooren, high school waterboy with Down Syndrome scores a touchdown
Noah Van Vooren, who has Down Syndrome, is a senior at Little Chute High School in Clintonville, Wisconsin, and is the Mustangs football team manager and waterboy.
“He’s always positive, walking on the sideline,” one of his teammates told Fox News. “He’ll pat you on the back, say, ‘You’re doing a great job.'”
His classmates wanted to repay him for his years of inspiration and morale-boosting, so for a recent Friday night game, they asked him to suit up for the first time ever and join them on the field.
During the game, which was clearly out of hand, the team gave Van Vooren the ball in the closing seconds and the senior scored a touchdown.
“With 1.2 seconds left on the clock, Little Chute called time out. As the crowd chanted ‘Noah, Noah!’ VanVooren jogged onto the field and lined up alongside quarterback Sam Merryfield,” The Post Crescent reported.
“I made a touchdown — I did great,” he told FOX.
“He was born 18 years ago, and the doctors told us that he would never be able to walk, talk or do anything,” his dad, Todd, said. “To see him 18 years later, to do this … it’s amazing.”
To make the moment more special is that it occurred during Down Syndrome Awareness Month (October)
“If there is one thing we could say about living with Noah, it would be that he is exactly who he should be,” his mother Kara wrote in a blog describing the life of Noah. Read it HERE
Below is the video coverage by FOX News
[…] doctors told us that he would never be able to walk, talk or do anything,” his dad, Todd, told Fox 11 News. “To see him 18 years later, to do this … it’s […]
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