One of the captains of the first junior high team was a well-thought-of...very likable and skilled young man who was a ninth grader who went varsity the next year. This story is not so much about him as it is about his son who was the only player I ever had of a former player on the original junior high team...! Let's call him "JT," and you may find him good to know.

I knew JT prior to his seventh grade year and obviously was looking forward to his trying out and playing; this was because I knew his father whom I had coached and was expecting great things from this young man. Somewhere...sometime...somehow.......this hoped-for young man (I found out) lost his right eye by means of a sling shot while playing the previous summer before eligibility for seventh grade. He was down as could be expected; the team still did well without him, and JT and the team survived.

In JT's eighth grade year, he tried out for the team...made it...and showed good skills. JT was small, but a good ball control player with good skills. As coach I figured that his good eye being left, it might be smarter for him to play right half. What he lost by size and the missing eye, he overcame by control skill. He had done well and had overcome (if you will) disability. END of STORY

Well, JT did well...he officiated some rec soccer games.....and he played some rec or traveling soccer. Contrary, though, to what he told me while officiating rec games...he did not ever play varsity. JT did well to overcome his handicap....I think highly of him and his dad....so I choose to withhold my judgment.