8. Blind leading the mind
Davonte Pollard carried the ball just one time all season, but it was more than memorable. Even for a two-yard loss. Pollard epitomized a remarkable fighting spirit for the sightless community who competed and inspired throughout the prep sports landscape.
Photo by Stuart Browning
The sightless community supplied numerous inspirational tales.
Sami Stoner and her seeing-eye dog Chloe.
Courtesy photo
The story of cross-country runner Sami Stoner (
Lexington, Ohio) and her seeing-eye dog Chloe captured the country's heart in October. Her
transformation to reluctant beauty queen warmed it.
The following month in Florida,
Braddock (Miami) junior
Davonte Pollard carried a football against rival Coral Park in what was undoubtedly the most
celebrated two-yard loss in Miami-Dade county history.
In the spring, a pair of courageous pole vaulters — one in
Arizona,
Aria Ottmueller of
Valley Christian (Chandler), and the other in Texas,
Charlotte Brown of
Rains (Emory) — not only competed at the sport, but each reached their respective state meet.
As an eighth-grader, Stoner was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, a
hereditary form of macular degeneration that causes irreversible
blindness.
Like the others mentioned here, rather than ask "why me?" of her new life, she attacked it from a different angle and attitude. It's all a state of mind, she said.
"Why
not me?" Stoner said. "I would rather this happen to me than my sisters.
Yes, it wasn't exactly my plan. It sounds sad, but I would never want to
go back and erase the experience of it. I would never wish this didn't
happen to me. Because, honestly, I think it's made me a better person."
Read Sami Stoner storyRead Davonte Pollard story
