Seven-year-old Thaddeus Thatcher scores touchdown in spring game before getting hero's treatment.
Video: Make-A-Wish child scores touchdown for Bishop Gorman.Las Vegas high school football powerhouse grants wish to 7-year-old with Leukemia.All eyes are on new
Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) football coach Kenny Sanchez, the team's defensive coordinator for five years who took over for his brother Tony Sanchez, now the head coach at UNLV.
Tate Martell, Bishop Gorman
File photo by Jann Hendry
One of Sanchez' first moves this spring was spot on because it was authentic and straight from the heart.
Last week Gorman hosted Thaddeus Thatcher, a 7-year-old who was diagnosed with Leukemia last fall. Thatcher's Make-A-Wish dream was to score a touchdown for Gorman.
According to the
Las Vegas Sun, he did so at a Gorman spring practice, taking a handoff from his favorite player, All-American sophomore quarterback
Tate Martell, evading several defenders and sprinting into the end zone.
Once he crossed the goal line he was hoisted onto the shoulders of offensive linemen
Julio Garcia and
Jaron Caldwell, who led him on a victory lap while the school's fight song belted out throughout the stadium.
Sanchez, who inherits a team worthy of national championship hopes — Gorman was a mythical national champ in at least one rankings last season — told the Sun the experience was life altering.
Not just for Thaddeus.
"It's going to be a memory forever," Sanchez said. "We get wrapped up in our own lives … we've got to remind ourselves and I'm going to remind our kids all the time that football's tough, but it's nowhere near as hard as what life can bring to you."
