UPDATE: Ike Ditzenberger’s mom: “They gave him the gift of normalcy.”

Published 9:07 am Thursday, September 30, 2010

Here is a link to my full followup story about Ike Ditzenberger that appears in today’s Herald.

It includes an embedded video clip that shows Ike’s heartwarming run and several photos of Ike taken during Snohomish’s practice on Tuesday. The video clip has been viewed nearly 2 million times (Wow!), according to YouTube statistics.

POSTED TUESDAY

I just spoke to Kay Ditzenberger, proud mother of increasingly well-known Snohomish High School football player Ike Ditzenberger.

Ike, a 17-year-old Snohomish junior, is attracting tons of attention across the country — even in other parts of the world — because of his 51-yard touchdown run at the end of the Panthers’ 35-6 loss against Lake Stevens on Friday.

According to Youtube statistics, as of 2:50 p.m. today Tony Soper’s video of the play, featuring audio provided by KRKO 1380 AM, has been viewed more than 1 million times.

Ike, who has Down syndrome, practices with Snohomish’s football team and lately has had a chance to run the ball at the end of varsity games. In his most recent opportunity, he ran 51 yards into the end zone on the final play against Lake Stevens at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

With 10 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Snohomish football coach Mark Perry called timeout and put Ike in the game to run his trademark play, the Ike Special. Perry, speaking today in a phone interview, said he told Lake Stevens defenders — who by that time in the one-sided game were mostly little-used sophomores and juniors — that they didn’t need to let Ike run for a TD but could maybe let him run 5 or 10 yards before tackling him.

Instead, the Lake Stevens players helped give little Ike (5-foot-6, 160 pounds) the thrill of a lifetime.

As Ike ran with the ball (and actually stepped out of bounds at one point early in the play), Lake Stevens players pursued him, feigning numerous diving tackle attempts. Ike eventually scored, celebrated with teammates in the end zone and performed a celebration dance.

“They gave him the gift of normalcy,” Ike’s mom said today, referring to the Lake Stevens players’ generosity and sportsmanship.

After scoring the TD, Ike raced to the sideline, ripped his helmet off his head, pumped the helmet in the air and yelled like a banshee, said his mom, who was in the stands, crying tears of joy along with many other fans from both teams.

“He’s not the shy little boy with Down’s anymore. He’s one of the guys now,” said Kay Ditzenberger.

In the last few days, Snohomish’s coach Perry and Lake Stevens football coach Tom Tri have been bombarded with e-mails and phone calls from people all over the U.S. Tri even received a message from someone in Jamaica. They are all inspired by Ike’s inspirational run and the way Snohomish’s opponent, Lake Stevens, allowed it to happen.

It wasn’t Tri’s idea, he said. He gave total credit to the Vikings players who were on the field with Ike.

“If we have to sacrifice a shutout or give up six points to touch thousands of people around the country, then absolutely it’s worth it,” Tri said.

Tri and other coaches constantly tell student-athletes that sports builds character.

Said Tri: “I think that’s a perfect example of it in this case — yes, it does.”