Special-needs kids score touchdowns with a little help from EMU football players - mlive.com

2022-05-28 06:57:10 By : Ms. Riva Wu

EMU hosts 7th Victory Day football camp for special needs kids

YPSILANTI, MI - For a brief moment Wednesday, Hendrick Manning was tallest in the room as he was hoisted by members of the Eastern Michigan Eagles football team

The 9-year-old from Chelsea had just spun his way for a touchdown, sparking a raucous cheer from the dozen or so Eagles around him. Hendrick’s father Rustin felt the enthusiasm pervade through the EMU practice facility next to Rynearson Stadium.

He and Hendrick are two of the nearly 200 guests who participated in Victory Day, a camp hosted by the EMU football team and Special Olympics of Washtenaw County to teach football to local special-needs children.

“It’s super cool and fun for the kids, especially with the enthusiasm the team puts into it,” Rustin Manning said at the May 25 event.

Eagles Head Coach Chris Creighton started Victory Day at EMU when he was hired in 2014. It consists of his players supervising campers in drills, such as taking handoffs, running through cones, snatching up fumbles and scoring touchdowns.

Similar camps for special needs children were held in southeast Michigan and the Toledo area, and when Creighton was told about it, he thought it would be a great event for EMU.

“We jumped at the chance to do it,” he said.

There has been a Victory Day at EMU every year since, except the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first year saw 50 campers, said Kristi Haywood of Special Olympics of Washtenaw County, and the event has grown thanks to EMU football and campers feeding off each other’s enthusiasm.

“The enthusiasm from our athletes is all year long. They just cannot wait for this day,” she said. “It’s just such an inclusive event and to be with real, live college football players and seeing how (EMU) really pushes this with their athletes, coaches and team. It’s just cool seeing how enthusiastic they get.”

Creighton is quick to credit his players for organizing the event, emphasizing the “real relationships they form” with the community. Senior offensive lineman Jake Donnellon knows how big a deal Victory Day is to the campers, so it’s a big deal to the players, too, he said.

“We have a leadership series, and we form groups that run this event as their first chance to lead anything,” Donnellon said, adding that they learn a lot from campers about a positive mindset.

“You hear the campers tell us sometimes that the biggest disability is a bad attitude,” Donnellon said.

One of the cooler moments of the day for Donnellon is seeing campers “really get after it” in the tackling drill, where the children jump into bags to take them to the ground.

In addition to parents taking their kids to the camp, teachers across Washtenaw County accompany their students. Roy Ellison of Red Oak Young Adult Program in Ann Arbor said he hears his students talk for days after the camp about when they scored a touchdown.

“This day makes the students feel so special,” Ellison said.

If groups with special needs children want to do more events with EMU, Creighton said he would say yes in a heartbeat. This attitude within the EMU football program makes these children feel safe, Haywood said.

“They don’t get many chances to feel safe in their environment,” she said. “Even though the world may be gravitating towards inclusion, there is still a long way to go, but events like this make these kids feel at home and safe.”

Read more from The Ann Arbor News:

‘These memories last.’ Michigan State football runs clinic for people with disabilities

See 2022 football schedules for WMU, CMU and EMU

Nearly 2K students gather at EMU spring commencement

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