EndZone
The NCAA News Online, October 25th, 2004
By Greg Johnson
The NCAA News
 It
takes an extraordinary 8-year-old to turn down a trip to Disney World.
But that's just what Isaiah Compton did
last winter when his mother, Cindy Compton, informed him that he
qualified for a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Having been
diagnosed with Burkett's lymphoma, a fast-growing cancer, Isaiah had an
opportunity to pick anything he wanted. Anything.
He wanted a chance to stand on the
sidelines with the Mansfield University of Pennsylvania football team.
The Mountaineers entered the 2004 season
with high expectations. They had 15 returning seniors and had posted one
of the best records in school history last season at 8-3. But after
ending up on the wrong side of a 63-3 count in the season opener, the
Mansfield players were feeling more than a little sorry for themselves.
That was until they met Isaiah and
received a new appreciation for being student-athletes.
As wishes go, Isaiah's was a simple one.
His mother works at Mansfield as the family literacy coordinator.
"My kids and my husband are so into
football -- you can't imagine," she said. "I was expecting
Isaiah to say something about football, but not necessarily Mansfield. I
thought it was pretty neat."
Perhaps amazing would be a better
description since Isaiah had actually never met any of the Mountaineer
student-athletes other than through reading the roster posted on the
school's athletics Web site.
"He just liked to be on the Internet
and look at the Mansfield players and check out rosters of NFL
teams," said Compton. "We did that at the hospital a
lot."
Arrangements were made for Isaiah and his
younger brother to lead the Mountaineers onto the field and serve as
water boys for the September 4 home opener, which also happened to be
the fourth annual Josh Palmer Fund Pigskin Classic, a fund-raiser named
for a former Mansfield football student-athlete, Josh Palmer, who
overcame Hodgkin's disease. Palmer returned to the football field and
later started a fund to assist other youth battling the disease.
Mansfield sports information director
Steve McCloskey, who addressed the team before the game and shared
Isaiah's story, believes the boy did more than just pass out water that
day. He inspired an immediate and drastic change in the team's attitude.
"You could tell immediately the
appreciation that here's a kid who doesn't know if he's going to live
long enough to be in their position and yet all he wanted to be was one
of them," said McCloskey. "They lost the game, but they played
inspired."
The season has now pushed past the
halfway mark and Mansfield's football fortunes have not rebounded as the
team had hoped. But Isaiah's presence still lingers.
"What really brought it home to the
student-athletes is that when you're at a small school and you're
playing before maybe a couple thousand fans, you start to wonder if it
is worth it. Then you have a kid you really don't know who cares more
about you than he cares to go to Disney World or to meet the president
or go to an (NFL) Eagles game -- the things these guys would do if they
had just one wish. It had a drastic impact on them," said
McCloskey.
The day had a drastic impact on Isaiah,
too. Not only did he get his wish, he also was showered with other gifts
including an autographed team poster, a Josh Palmer Fund Pigskin Classic
T-shirt and an autographed jersey worn by former Mansfield football
student-athlete Dan Holland, a linebacker who led NCAA Division II in
tackles as a junior and was a two-time Division II linebacker of the
year.
"The football team has been just
amazing," said Cindy Compton. "It was pretty special for him.
The jersey Dan Holland gave him is hanging on his curtain rod in his
bedroom. He pinned his T-shirt on his bulletin board along with the
picture they gave him."
In addition, Isaiah, who has been
cancer-free since March, received a special pass to be on the Mansfield
sideline whenever he wants, something the team hopes will happen often.
"Not only is he inspirational, he's
a good water boy," McCloskey joked.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation also is going
to award Isaiah a second wish. Isaiah and his family are heading to
Disney World after all, where he won't be standing on the sidelines.
This story was
originally published on the official www.ncaa.org
website
The original publication of the story can be found here |