[Vision2020] Life of Reilly (Rick Reilly)

[Tom Hansen]

Matt Steven can't see the hoop. But he'll still take the last shot.
by Rick Reilly

A few seconds left. The game teeters on these two free throws. The shooter 
gulps. The packed gym goes silent, save for the tapping of a white cane on 
the back of the rim. That's right. The shooter's brother is under the 
hoop, rapping a cane on the rim. That's because the shooter, Matt Steven, 
is blind.

So why is a blind kid in a competitive CYO game for sighted high schoolers 
in Upper Darby, Pa.? Because he doesn't like to miss anything -- 
especially free throws. 

Matt, a senior, had been on the St. Laurence CYO team for a year and never 
played in a game -- never expected to. "He just likes being on the team," 
says Matt's brother and coach, Joe. Matt shoots free throws every 
practice, though, making about half. And that's what gave Joe a crazy, 
unthinkable, wonderful idea.

Before a charity tourney this past February, Joe asked the other teams if 
Matt could shoot all of St. Laurence's free throws. Amazingly, they 
agreed. So did the refs. A blind kid was going to be his team's designated 
shooter. Hey, it's still better than Shaq. 

Did that make Matt nervous? "Nah," he says. "I shoot 'em all the time!"

The first game, Matt came in and -- to the crowd's shock -- made his first 
two. He was escorted back to the bench, where he grinned as if he had just 
kissed the head cheerleader. He was 4-for-8 that day.

Matt doesn't talk much -- he has a stutter -- so when Joe got home late 
after the game, their mom, Joan, asked, "Any idea why Matt's been smiling 
all night?"

"Oh yeah," Joe yawned. "He shot all our free throws tonight. Going to 
tomorrow night, too."

Joan about dropped the spaghetti. Does she like it when Matt rides a bike? 
Ice-skates? Plays soccer? Sort of. She also dreads the day he comes home 
hurting.

But Matt already knows what it's like to be hurting. Hurting is being born 
with two permanently detached retinas. Hurting is having your left eye 
removed in the fifth grade and the right in the sixth. Hurting is when 
they send you to a high school for the blind even though the last thing 
you want is to be around only other blind kids. Matt wants to be around 
other kids. He aches to be treated normal. Not "He does so great for a 
blind kid!" Just normal.

That's why the free throws meant so much. He'd begged his parents to let 
him transfer to a regular school -- Monsignor Bonner. And he'd begged his 
brother to let him join his friends on the CYO team. And then, for the 
first time in his life, he was going to be one of them.

Which brings us to Matt's moment in that second game. He'd missed his 
first six free throws, and St. Laurence was down eight to St. Philomena. 
Then a full-court press pulled the team to within one with 10 seconds 
left. That's when St. Laurence's best shooter -- 6'4" senior Ryan Haley -- 
was fouled in the lane. Surely, with the game on the line, the team stud 
would shoot his own free throws, right?

Up in the stands, Matt's mom was hoping: Please don't make him shoot these.

And Haley really was going to shoot them, until he looked over at Matt on 
the bench. "And I thought, He comes to every game, he never misses a 
practice, he cheers us on. He deserves a shot. I mean, it's everyone's 
dream to make those shots."

So out comes Matt. And for the first time, the St. Phil fans aren't 
rooting for him. In fact, they look like they'd prefer that he shoot 
straight into the hot dog table. "That might have been the best moment of 
all for Matt," recalls Joe. "For once, he was just normal."

Now the ball bounces under Matt's hand. Now the picture shakes in Mom's 
viewfinder. Now the rim pings from the cane.

Matt lets go. Off the backboard and through. Tie game. Crowd goes berserk. 
Says Joe: "I think it helped that he's blind. He couldn't see the crowd, 
the scoreboard, his teammates' faces." 

The crowd stills again. Dribble. Tap. Shoot. Bank. Swish! Up by one. The 
gym windows nearly break.

St. Phil's players forget to give Matt time to get off the court. They 
race the ball up. Nine guys are running around Matt, who's trying to find 
a way to the bench. Make that 10, since Ryan's already off the bench and 
pressing. Make that 11, since Joe -- tears in his eyes -- is trying to get 
to Matt. Chaos. Joy. Wonder. 

St. Phil's desperate shot misses. Game over.

Since then, Matt's life has gone all kinds of crazy, unthinkably 
wonderful. His teammates call him Shooter. A girl says she heard all about 
him. He's even thinking about asking somebody to prom.

I hope she says yes. Best blind date of her life.

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Matt Steven

http://tinyurl.com/MattSteven

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
Join us at The First Annual Intolerista Wingding, April 17th, featuring 
Roy Zimmerman and Jeanne McHale.  For details go to . . .

http://www.MoscowCares.com/Wingding

Seeya
there.

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