If you love a feel good story, this highlight is certainly for you. A senior from Arkansas’ Manila High School fulfilled one of his childhood dreams by scoring a TD for Manila. Dylan Galloway was born with cerebral palsy, but the senior did not let that get in his way from playing football. This past weekend Manila faced Rivercrest High in a conference showdown. After Rivercrest took a 47-0 lead and dominated Manila on both sides of the ball, coaches from both teams got together and agreed to allow Galloway to score a TD.
Rivercrest had to give up the shutout to let Galloway score, but it was the most sportsmanship thing to do. Will less than 5 minutes remaining, Galloway’s number was called for a halfback toss left. As Galloway received the pitch, he rolled on into the end zone untouched.
Here is how Manila’s coach Toby Doke described the TD:
“I called coach (Kelly) Chandler down at Rivercrest and he agreed to let it happen, and late in the fourth quarter we had drove down to the 3- or 4-yard line. We were about to score and we were going to try to do it on the last play of the game, but the mercy rule was in effect and the clock was running so I felt like it was as good of a time as any to do it right then,” Doke said. “We put a football helmet on Dylan, and I told him to get his butt in there and go score a touchdown, and he wheeled out into the middle of the field. I had already talked to our quarterback and our linemen on how we wanted to do it, and our quarterback got him lined up and handed him the ball, and he went around the left side and went into the end zone. It was a very special moment.”
Rivercrest continued its good deed by signing a game ball and presenting it to Galloway after he scored. Now imagine if one of Rivercrest’s linebackers went for the tackle. That would have certainly generated a different kind of story.
