The honors keep rolling in for Snohomish High School football player Ike Ditzenberger.
On Monday, Guideposts magazine announced that Ditzenberger’s 51-yard touchdown run against Lake Stevens on Sept. 24 has been selected one of its Top 10 Inspirational Stories of 2010.
Ditzenbeger, a junior who has Down syndrome, scored on the final play of Snohomish’s 35-6 loss to Lake Stevens. The sportmanship demonstrated by the Viking defenders, who allowed Ditzenberger to score untouched, drew praise from around the world.
A video of the play — called the “Ike Special” — has been viewed more than 2.7 million times on YouTube.
“Everybody loves end-of-year lists,” Guideposts editor in chief Edward Grinnan said in a press release. “This year the editors tried to pick the 10 most inspiring stories from the hundreds we’ve published in 2010. There was a lot of back and forth. Ten seemed like far too small a number but lists are supposed to be short. Somehow we all finally agreed on 10.”
In the month’s since his run, Ditzenberger’s story has been featured on local and national television and he has been honored by Seattle’s Children Hospital, the Snohomish County Officials Association, The Seattle Times, the Seattle Seahawks and State Farm Insurance, which split a $10,000 Spirit of the Game award between Lake Stevens ($7,500) and Snohomish ($2,500) high schools.
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