Blind player snaps for USC
A blind football player for the University of Southern California participated in his first college regular-season game Saturday, snapping the ball on the final extra point in the fourthranked Trojans’ 49-31 home victory over Western Michigan.
The long-snapper, Jake Olson, lost his eyesight when he was 12. He has been a lifelong fan of USC’s football team and was eager to take the field at the Coliseum after two years of high school football and two years of practising alongside his college teammates.
“It was an awesome moment,” he said in a phone interview Saturday night, adding that it all boiled down to practice. “It’s muscle memory — it’s not like magic,” he said. “It’s not like, ‘I hope this goes right.’ If you do it correctly, it will go right.”
After USC’s season-opening win, Olson, 20, said he planned to celebrate with his teammates.
When he was 10 months old, Olson’s left eye was removed because of a cancer called retinoblastoma. When he was 12 years old, his right eye also had to be removed. He learned to live without his sight, and in high school he became passionate about joining the football team.
Chuck Petersen, who coached Olson at Orange Lutheran High School outside Anaheim, California, said he proved himself as the best player for the position. Petersen said that in two years, Olson had only two bad snaps — the first and the last of his high school career.
“It wasn’t a charity case,” Petersen said minutes after discovering that Olson had played in USC’s game Saturday. “First and foremost, Jake would never have allowed it to be that.”
In high school, Petersen said, one teammate would help Olson down the sideline when a kick was imminent. The holder would then line him up facing the goalposts, before giving an audible signal to let Olson know where to snap the ball.
Olson was ambitious, and although he could not persuade Petersen to let him snap on punts or block opponents, his determination paid off. Olson earned a scholarship for athletes with physical disabilities and joined the Trojans in 2015.
Olson said USC coach Clay Helton decided last week that he would enter the game if the score was not close.
With about three minutes left, Olson entered the field for the first time. He snapped the ball to holder Wyatt Schmidt, and Chase McGrath sent it through the goalposts.
“I tried to suppress my emotions because I had a job to do out there,” Olson said at a news conference after the game. “I’ll check out the videos tonight and get emotional about it.”