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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, September 19, 2014 | 26 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Loyola high school student Jacob Cupido (centre) shares a smile with (clockwise, from left) Hawks senior football coach Jeff White and players Alex Smith, Colin Soares and Christopher Jean at practice this week. Cupido, a 17-year-old special needs student who has Down syndrome, has been welcomed with open arms by the team and even scored a ceremonial touchdown following the Hawks' exhibition game against Milton's Jean Vanier last Friday. | photo by Graham Paine -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog The Loyola Hawks' Most Special Teammate by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor ith no time left on the clock, Loyola Hawks quarterback Brando Roberts barked out the signals, then handed the ball off to Jacob Cupido in the backfield. Flanked by blockers Alex Smith and Alex Filippini, Cupido started slowly to his left before picking up speed and heading up field. Several other Loyola players joined the cocoon around Cupido, who went untouched by Jean Vanier defenders in pursuit as he ran 40 yards into the end zone for a touchdown. Last Friday's play in Milton didn't win the game, a pre-season contest that won't even count in the Halton high school senior football standings. But Loyola coach Jeff White believes it will end up being the most significant of the Hawks' year, if not their lives. No longer `invisible' Jacob Cupido is not used to being the centre of attention. The 17-year-old has Down syndrome, caused by the presence of extra genetic material associated with the 21st chromosome which commonly results in an effect on learning style. When people speak to Jacob, he typically does not respond immediately. His mother, Susanna Cupido, describes him as quiet and docile. "Jacob has gone through life as invisible. Usually, when someone has a disability that W is visible, we avert our eyes," Susanna says. "When you're quiet and you're easygoing, it's easy to be ignored. It's easy to assume he's not getting it." Susanna admits she was concerned when, after an email was sent to various Loyola teachers encouraging them to find a role for Jacob in their programs, White volunteered to have Jacob join the football squad. Jacob wouldn't just carry the water out to practices, White insisted. Jacob was to be part of the TEAM. "I was scared," Susanna says. "I know hockey, but football I never followed. When we went to the practice, I expected the coaches to be demeaning and yelling. The way you hear about football on the news. I expected it to be very intense and rough practices. "But Jeff is like nobody I've ever met before. He is so inspiring and really, truly wants to do Get off the streets & into Friday night youth drop-in programs www.ymcaofoakville.com SOCCER Women's Indoor League Seeking competitive women's teams to join Premier Indoor League on Wednesday nights in Burlington Interested teams and players please contact us at www.bwrsl.com it for the love of the kids." Involving Jacob in stretching and warm-up exercises may have been White's idea, but he's quick to deflect the credit for how warmly Jacob has been received. "There's not a bad kid on my team. It's a great group of kids," White says. "I pushed Jacob to the middle, and it's done. It's been five minutes out of my year." And the more Jacob is encouraged to do, the more he shows he is capable of doing. When Jacob first went into a three-point stance at home, Susanna says, he leaned on his mother to maintain his balance. Now he can support himself on his own. "We give him things to do on the sideline. He's carrying my clipboard and depth chart. I don't know the terms for where he's at on the (special needs) scale... but he can do things when he's used to doing them. The more he learns, the more he can do," White says. Inspired by college football gesture That realization brought White to remember video footage he had seen from a 2013 University of Nebraska spring scrimmage, when the Cornhuskers lined up seven-yearold Jack Hoffman -- a pediatric brain cancer patient -- for a 69-yard touchdown run in front of 60,714 cheering fans. "I asked the Vanier coaches, `Can we do this?' They said, `Absolutely,' immediately," White says. So Jacob Cupido took to the field for the final play of last Friday's exhibition game. Guided by mentor Alana Kelleher, White and the Hawks' players, he took the handoff from Cupido and jogged to the end zone. Jacob crossed the goal line to cheers from both teams and from a small crowd that had figured out the significance of the moment as it played out. Jacob took a few seconds to digest what had happened, then clenched his left hand into a fist and thrust it in the air. "He did it!" he yelled, perhaps as loudly as Jacob Cupido had ever yelled before. "I thought it was really sweet... To see his face when he ran into the end zone, it touched our hearts," says Smith, the Hawks' 16-year-old running back. "I've seen (Jacob) become much more outgoing. He used to be in my gym class in Grade 9 and he never said much. Now he's just very open." Confidence boosted by participation Jacob woke up Monday morning feeling a bit under the weather. People with Down syndrome may be predisposed to certain illnesses and medical conditions, and Susanna says Jacob has "some things coming up with his health" that will require him to spend time at SickKids Hospital in Toronto. "I said, `You'll miss football practice,'" Susanna recalls. "He said, `NO!' Jacob Cupido, a teenager who avoids gymnasiums, assemblies and large crowds because the noise overwhelms him, has had his confidence boosted by a team of large and loud football players. "I wish I'd figured this out earlier," Susanna says. "It's just that Jacob has never been invited to play before." -- Video footage of Jacob's touchdown run can be viewed at bit.ly/1r45WVW