Just about every person in America who had a television set and watched any channel's news or sports report during the week of February 15th 2006 had saw and heard about Jason "J-Mac" McElwain! This teenage boy, having been diagnosed in childhood with autism, though normally just the team manager for his Greece Athena High School varsity basketball team in Rochester New York, was allowed to actually suit up for "Senior Night" the last game of the regular season. Coach Johnson had promised him he could wear a uniform but said he couldn't guarantee he would be able to get him in to the game, but he'd try.
The introduction and ending to this amazing "FOREST GUMP-LIKE BASKETBALL STORY" is written by Daniel Paisner. There is also a postscript entitled: "SPECIAL NOTE FROM J-MAC'S PARENTS". But everything else in between is "WRITTEN" by Jason himself. Note: Jason likes being called "J-Mac", but his mother likes Jason, so I'll honor his mother in the rest of this review.) The way Jason is "writing" is speaking his thoughts into a tape recorder, and then when he gets out everything he wants to say, he reads it back on paper to see how it is. Jason says: "Maybe there'll be some things I forgot, and some things I didn't remember right. And maybe I'll change my mind about something I wanted to say at first. I'm not actually holding a pencil in my hand or sitting in front of a computer, but it's a kind of writing. For me it's the same thing as writing. It's organizing my thoughts and getting them down on paper in a way that tells what I'm thinking, what I remember, what I want to say about some of the incredible things that have happened to me."
What the reader will be blessed with is at times heart-warming, at times sad, at times simply incredible, and always so interesting and educational, about a world that most people can never see inside of. But with Jason's remarkable "writing" we're given a view heretofore never seen by the world at large. Jason confirms many clinical statements but also audaciously disagrees with others. Jason refused to eat unless he was forced until he was three years old. He didn't speak until he was five. He was diagnosed with severe autism. "Autism is a developmental disorder that generally appears in childhood, typically in children under three years of age. The disorder is characterized by a marked impairment in social interaction (included but not limited to an aversion to being touched, avoidance of eye contact, and an inability to judge appropriate social behavior) and delayed development of communication skills, and is often accompanied by obsessive thinking and repetitive actions, such as tapping against a table." Instead of speaking Jason would point and one of his favorite things was to constantly bang two packs of gum together. Jason was blessed with two wonderfully loving and dedicated parents. Mrs. McElwain read everything she could about autism but she modified treatment and responses successfully as she saw fit. Jason's older brother Josh was also very instrumental in his interest and development in sports. "Like many autistic children, Jason had his obsessive interest, and for the longest time he lived and breathed basketball. If he wasn't playing it, he was watching it, or thinking about it." He read the sports section and watched ESPN and dribbled a ball everywhere he went and shot hundreds of shots a day with Josh. After being bused all over town to different special schools he finally got to go to a middle school and Greece Athena a "mainstream" high school. Jason was well liked and one of the many insights that Jason shares with the reader is his disagreement with magazine articles that say kids with autism don't have a sense of humor. He says: "I don't think that's true with me. At least it's not true anymore." Jason tried to live a normal life in these schools and even went out for the cross country team. His mother told the coach he couldn't tie his shoes, and they arranged it so that a "guardian angel" would help tie his shoes before every race and practice. It was just another kid on the team who would tie them for him, but that's what the athletic department calls it. This is the type of heart-warming view of human decency that is shared with the reader throughout this uplifting story. Jason went out for the junior varsity basketball team in his freshman and sophomore years and was cut each time. During the off season his passion and work ethic was infectious so the junior varsity coach made him the team manager. In addition to his duties such as filling water bottles and helping put the player's names in the scorebook his enthusiasm was catching. His overriding mantra was "STAY FOCUSED!" The junior varsity coach did not allow juniors or seniors on the team so the coach allowed Jason to suit up for the last game. When he got his one chance to play he got fouled attempting a 3 point shot, and with the crowd going wild he bounced the ball TWENTY TIMES between each free throw attempt and made them all. The junior varsity coach said: "He just started pounding his chest and it was amazing. The energy in the room. People were going bananas, and after the game people were in tears, just sobbing at the beautiful situation that it turned out to be. Who knew that two years later the same thing would happen times a million?"
And now to the fateful day two years later on February 15, 2006: After two years as the varsity team manager Coach Johnson lived up to the promise stated at the beginning of this review. On senior night with FOUR MINUTES AND NINETEEN SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME "J-MAC" got into his first and only high school varsity basketball game. With the entire crowd chanting his name, and the Sixth-Man cheering section holding up pictures of him attached to sticks, "J-MAC" scored TWENTY POINTS INCLUDING A SCHOOL RECORD 6 THREE POINTERS! The crowd gushing tears came on to the court along with the entire team and carried him off on their shoulders. Tears were unabashedly flowing from every fan, every coach, and of course his parents. As "J-MAC" lived his lifelong dream from his perch on the fans shoulders he said: "A part of me didn't want it to ever end-I'll tell you that. A part of me wanted to stay on my teammates shoulders forever and ever, because from there I could look out at all the other people and feel normal. From there they could look at me and not think I was any different from anyone else on the team. I thought, this is what happens when you're a regular kid and you hit the game-winning shot, or make the play of the game. I thought, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU'RE JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!"
What follows is what America already knows about. The constant TV exposure including winning the ESPN ESPY for the best sports moment of the year and a contract with Magic Johnson to film his life story. But as all of Jason's friends graduated and moved on, Jason stayed at home and hasn't graduated high school and is working part time in a local market. I feel this book has made me a better person with the education Jason gave me. I recommend this book highly and feel it should be mandatory reading from middle school on up.
IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: "According to a 2004 study issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism occurs about once in every 166 births-and, curiously, once in every 100 male births - currently effecting as many as 1.5 million Americans. Alarmingly, that number is growing, at a rate of 10 to 17 percent each year, MAKING AUTISM THE FASTEST-GROWING DISABILITY IN THE COUNTRY."
*** On February 14th 2008 I was advised by a reader that the new statistic is 1 in 150. *******
