Jake Olson (58) being escorted to the field by teammate Adam Connette.
File photo by Ted Aguirre
One of the last wishes a 12-year-old
Jake Olson made as a sighted person was to watch a USC football game and meet the team.
He did much more.
Born with retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the retina, Olson actually attended a team meeting with then-coach Pete Carroll and then-quarterback Matt Barkley. According to this
terrific story in the Los Angeles Times, the USC team chanted his name and made him feel like one of their own.
Now 18 and completely blind, Olson will soon be a Trojan — and may even play for the football team.
The senior at
Orange Lutheran (Calif.) will receive a full scholarship in the fall through the school's Swim with Mike foundation that allows disabled athletes go to school.
At 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, Olson was Orange Lutheran's long snapper that last two seasons. Teammates guided him onto the field and helped him line up the ball.
But that was it. For everything else, Olson was on his own.
"We didn't see him as a blind person," kicker
Jerry Fitschen told the Times. "We saw him as a football player."
Not only did Olson play varsity football, but he also played golf (he shoots in the 80s), sang in the school choir and maintained a 4.3 grade point average.
All of it has led him back to USC, where coach Steve Sarkisian has maintained the relationship upheld by Carroll. Olson has attended the last two Super Bowls and still corresponds regularly with Carroll and Barkley, among other former USC players.
Now he will be one.
"Someday, he's going to snap in a game for us," Sarkisian told the Times. "When? I don't know. But it will happen. … When that day comes, it will be awesome."
