And the vote for most inspiring person goes to……
Jason McElwain, aka J-Mac—who, February 15th, made seven baskets in the final four minutes of Greece-Athena High School’s 79-43 win over Spencerport—has been nominated as one of Belief.net’s 2006 Most Inspiring Person Nominees. From the Belief.net write-up about those famous four minutes:
Wanting to repay Jason’s three years of dedication to the team, coach Jim Johnson had Jason suit up, but with no guarantee he would play. Then, with his Trojans way ahead in the last period, Johnson gave Jason his chance.
Jason’s mother, Deb McElwain, is also quoted as noting that “‘Once the severe autistic child can break through, they can live in this world…..Just like anyone else.’” Jason finished school back in June and is currently studying to complete his General Equivalency Diploma and working in a local grocery store’s bakery department.
6 opinions for And the vote for most inspiring person goes to……
mcewen
Dec 3, 2006 at 12:12 am
Hooray! Good news for a change. Cheers
Gerard Petillo
Dec 3, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Jason has my vote!
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 3, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Here’s the story of another autistic high school athlete, Thomas Murray, who plays football in Texas.
And Kassiane is a gymnast–
Kassiane
Dec 4, 2006 at 1:59 am
Lots of great autistic athletes. And artists. I had autistic/Aspie tumblers both in ‘mainstream’ class and autistic gymnastics.
My vote would either go to my tumbler w/apraxia who learned a cartwheel, or to my dear honorary little sister who got pulled onstage at a swanky ASA Thing without warning & belted out Natasha Beddingfield’s “Unwritten” (a most appropriate song from an autistic 16 year old!) as though it was her song! Or to….oh I know too many…but they aren’t options…
I wonder what J-mac would have been able to do had he been on the team all 4 years. I’m glad he got his 4 minutes, but 5′5″, skinny, and determined does a lot on the basketball court when the fire is there-I speak from 3 years of “we don’t have enough girls to cut anyone” experience, when 5′5″ and 88 pounds or so was (not even the tallest and) starting center material.
But it was some good autism news we ALL needed. YAAAAY J-mac!
Autism Vox » J-Mac is Back
Feb 15, 2007 at 6:00 pm
[…] It has been exactly a year since Jason McElwain scored his 20 points in the final four minutes of a Greece Athena High School basketball game. J-Mac’s four minutes of fame were seen over and over by many on the Internet and—after an initial “wow“—his achievement has become a touch point for some in the autism community: It was great, some say, that J-Mac made those baskets, but this is not autism every day. This is not what autism really looks like; this is something very specific to one high-functioning—able to attend high school with his peers—autistic teenager. The true face of autism is not J-Mac shooting the ball, but the screaming, tantrumming, still-in-diapers-at-6-years-old lives of so many “severely autistic” children who, along with their parents, one kaka moment after the next. […]
J-Mac, the Book
Jan 26, 2008 at 2:59 am
[…] “Four minutes of fame” came to teenager Jason McElwain when he scored 20 points in the final four minutes of a Greece Athena High School basketball game. That was almost two years ago—-a book by “J-Mac” and Daniel Paiser is out, The Game of My Life: a True Story of Struggle, Triumph and Growing Up Autistic. After those four minutes, McElwain became a national celebrity and his famous minutes on the court played and replayed on CNN, ESPN, and local newscasts across the country. […]
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