The senior boys' football team at Ursuline College Chatham has celebrated plenty of touchdowns over the past few weeks, but none of them has been quite as special as Dante's run.
Diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Dante Collins -- who's in Grade 12 -- faces some significant challenges on a daily basis, but his Lancers teammates at UCC are doing their best to make sure he doesn't have to face them alone.
So, when Dante told his teammates that one of my biggest dreams was getting a touchdown, they knew just how to make that happen.
Before the team's game against Chatham-Kent Secondary School on October 4, facing down a full line of defenders from the rival Golden Hawks, there was Dante, all decked out in UCC Lancers football gear.
The plan was to hand the ball off to Dante, so he could run it into the endzone -- and he executed it to perfection.
"I just watched him... it was pretty special -- he had a smile from ear-to-ear when he ran that ball," said UCC quarterback Evan Torres, who has been friends with Dante since they started high school together in Grade 9. "I was handing it off to him and I was a bit scared he might get too excited and drop it... but he held on perfectly."
Lancers head coach, Scott Morkin, said he couldn't be more proud of the way his team has rallied around their teammate and friend.
"They're kind of like brothers to [Dante], these guys take care of him in the hallways... he looks up to them, they look up to him, and it's a fantastic relationship," said Morkin. "Their relationship with him is bigger than football... I've seen our boys score touchdowns and make big tackles, but I've never seen them as excited as they were when they saw Dante score that touchdown."
As for what's next for Dante now that he has his first score under his belt, Torres still expects to see his teammate to continue coming out at practices and games, a strong source of inspiration for the Lancers football team and everyone else around him.
You can watch a video of Dante's touchdown below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R__yhZPyR5I&feature=youtu.be
