Monthly Archives: October 2013
Wisconson Waterboy TD Thrills Town
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| LaChute Mustang Football Player Noah VanVooren after scoring first touchdown |
Noah VanVooren, is a Senior at Little Chute High School in Wisconsin, who has served as the Mustang football team’s Team Manage Water Boy for years.
While VanVooren has Down Syndrome, the team treated him as just one of the guys on the field. Senior fullback Chet Pereenboom noted VanVooren’s positive attitude and enthusiasm which he shared with the team. So the Mustang team wanted to do something special for VanVooren.
Little Chute Football Coach Mike Ryczkowski asked Noah if he want to play in the final home game. Ryczkowski thought that VanVooren would be nervous but the Team Manager turned player confidently strode onto the field wearing number 14. Noah was made the honorary team captain for the Senior Night game and helped lead the team on the field.
With 1.2 seconds left on the clock and Little Chute leading 57-0 over Clintonville High, the crowd shouted out “Noah, Noah” and VanVooren was sent in for the last play. Mustang Quarterback Sam Merrifield handed off to VanVooren. The Clintonville Truckers team let number 14 through, and VanVooren ran 35 years for the touchdown as he was surrounded by his teammates.
Although the score did not count for the record books, as both teams and the officials facilitated
VanVooren’s touchdown, one would never know it based on the enthusiastic reaction from the Little Chute crowd.
VanVooren was swarmed by fans. After scoring his first TD, VanVooren exclaimed: “I feel great. I scored a touchdown. It was great.” Later Noah enthusiastically sang the school song in the postgame team huddle.
VanVooren’s touchdown, one would never know it based on the enthusiastic reaction from the Little Chute crowd.
VanVooren was swarmed by fans. After scoring his first TD, VanVooren exclaimed: “I feel great. I scored a touchdown. It was great.” Later Noah enthusiastically sang the school song in the postgame team huddle.
Noah VanVooren’s father remarked: He was born 18 years ago and the doctors told us he would never be able to walk, talk or do anything. And then to see him 18 years later, it’s amazing.” VanVooren’s father also expressed gratitude to the Little Chute community who had backed up and loved his son.
The idea for a touchdown came from a group of Mustang Football Seniors who approached an Assistant Coach. The plan then got the approval of the opposing Clintonville football team as well as the officials.
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| LaChute (WI) Mustang Football Team, [front row] no. 14 Noah VanVooren |
Sports can chronicle achievements but they also mold and reveal character. This Wisconsin Water-Boy’s TD embodies the finest virtues of character building through sports. It echoes the triumph and sportsmanship depicted in the film Rudy (1993).
According to Little Chute High Principal Dan Valentyn, the school prides itself on being a place that is small enough to maintain a family-type atmosphere and give a personal focus to assist those who may be struggling personally or academically. The sportsmanship shown by the Mustangs for an underdog who had long supported the team and inspired them was noteworthy and commendable.
Sean Penn Cruz-ing for a Political Bruising
That Maui Wowie from 1982 must have been pretty chronic to inspire such pearls of wisdom to seek the to commit Congress-critters with whom Penn disagrees into insane asylums. And to suggest that the Executive Branch has such authority makes Mr. Hand’s one-on-one history tutoring moot.
Of course, Fast Times on Richmond High was a 1982 movie, and Sean Penn was play acting a stoner surfer there who had delusions of grandeur. This recent appearance on Piers Morgan was meant to be taken seriously and Sean Penn was playing himself.
Penn was promoting his activism for Haiti. But in the same breath of supporting his altruistic cause, he chooses to insult the electorate and the Tea Party while slandering Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
[T]he way peoples perception of political positions are, is a direct reaction to their lack of, of their education which is a huge problemthat we’re dealing with in the country.
and between of an uneducated people and the solipsism of people like Ted Cruz and their party.
It’s a poisonous thing and these things with what we talked about with, you know, this is why this period of time, this is one of the things that’s so fascinating to me in Haiti.
Penn’s political pronouncements with Piers Morgan do not sound very coherent. But he was not on a script and TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) was otherwise occupied.
But I hate to break it to the activist/actor but if you are trying to raise funds for Haiti, you are insulting many of the people who AEI’s Arthur Brooks argues are the most charitably inclined as individuals. But maybe after Penn’s J/P HRO group received $8.75 million from the World Bank for Haitian relief, maybe he does not need more friends.
After Penn’s “Crazy” diatribe on Piers Morgan Live, people can figure out who got wasted. Res ipsa loquitur— the fact speaks for itself.
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Excerpts of Book Review: 40 Days for Life by David Bereit and Shawn Carney
40 Days for Life: Discover What God Has Done…Imagine What You Can Do (Capella Books 2013, 269 pages)
is a book which chronicles the trials and tribulations for the 40 Days for Life campaign as prayer vigil against
abortion from its genesis around a wooden table in College Station Texas in 2004 to its spread world-wide. The book
is co-authored by David Bereit, a pharmaceutical rep who left comfortable career to follow the call of the Holy Spirit to do His will in uncertain circumstances. The other narrative voice is Shawn Carney, a young Texan who inherits the College Station leadership after Bereit answered the call to work for other Pro-Life organizations in Washington,
DC. Carney became the Campaign Director for 40 Days for Life, while Bereit later returned to lead the
National 40 Days for Life campaign.
is a book which chronicles the trials and tribulations for the 40 Days for Life campaign as prayer vigil against
abortion from its genesis around a wooden table in College Station Texas in 2004 to its spread world-wide. The book
is co-authored by David Bereit, a pharmaceutical rep who left comfortable career to follow the call of the Holy Spirit to do His will in uncertain circumstances. The other narrative voice is Shawn Carney, a young Texan who inherits the College Station leadership after Bereit answered the call to work for other Pro-Life organizations in Washington,
DC. Carney became the Campaign Director for 40 Days for Life, while Bereit later returned to lead the
National 40 Days for Life campaign.
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| [L] David Bereit [R] Shawn Carney of 40 Days for Life |
The 40 Days for Life idea was modeled after several key scriptural moments, like the flood which necessitated Noah’s Ark and Jesus’ Prayers in the Desert before beginning His Earthly public ministry. Similarly, the book followed a structured course. Each chapter is one of forty vignettes, followed by concurrent scriptural passage concluded with a prayer. Presumably, this book was intended to be read over forty days. Perhaps it had a different impact in short, reflective increments rather than reading the contents in several sittings.
The power of the faith of Bereit, Carney and of many prayer warriors who participated in the 40 Days for Life is palpable. The book does not sugar coat the hardship and anxiety of starting up the campaign. But their testimony shows how the Lord provides. 40 Days for Life also recounts some of the acerbic resistence which Pro-Lifer’s were met with in witnessing the call of their conscience by publicly praying against abortion.
Several of the stories are quite striking and seemed pulled from current headlines.
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The details of the unhygenic conditions, the crusted blood on the linoleum floor and rusted abortion instruments at 72 Ransom Street called to mind the horrific details from the recent trial and conviction of late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia. The appalling conditions are not isolated incidents in abortion mills, but pro abortion advocates get apoplectic if anything id deemed to impede the so called “right to choose” or more clinically “womens’ reproductive health”.
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The years of globe-trotting by Bereit and Carney to prayerfully support unborn children allowed for some serendipitious experiences. Shawn seemed to have quite a knack for unexpectedly rubbing elbows with his opponents.
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The book was mostly conversational in tone, reading almost like an oral history that was culled by their collaborative writer Cindy Lambert. However, a couple of entries started with ambitious introductions but the transitions to their stories seemed forced and rough.
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40 Days for Life would be a welcomed bedside daily devotional for prayer warriors committed to the Pro-Life cause. It gives great examples of the power of prayer to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to defend life. The book gives many perspectives on how abortion affects the unborn child, the often grieving abortive mother, the father, the extended family and the community. If only people spouting pro-choice propaganda would choose to the time to read 40 Days for Life, one wonders how many hearts of stone would turn to flesh.
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