Partnership Educators,
Team manager for Coronado High School Mitchell Marcus has a developmental disability but he far surpasses everyone on the team for the love of basketball. Coach Morales says, “He is just an amazing person that our basketball team loves to be around.” Mitchell’s mother Amy says he has always been that way. “Mitchell has always had a basketball. It is always what he wanted for his birthday.”
Because basketball is that important to him, on the last game of the regular season, the coach told Mitchell to suit up. Just wearing the jersey was enough for Mitchell but what he didn’t know and really what no one knew, was that the coach planned to play him at the end of the game no matter what the score. The coach said later that he was prepared to lose the game for Mitchell to have “His moment.”
With a minute and a half left and Coronado leading by only ten points, Coach Morales put in his manager. Then everyone started chanting, “Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell.” Here is where the fairy tale fell apart. Although his teammates did everything they could to get Mitchell a basket. Each time they passed him the ball, he either missed the shot or like on their last possession, booted it out of bounds. Turning the ball over to the other team with just seconds left everyone knew that Mitchell wasn’t going to score. The coach said later that he then knew that Mitchell wasn’t going to be able to score but he was hopeful that he was happy that he played the game.
No one could have imagined what happened next. A senior at Franklin High School, Jonathan Montanez, yelled out Mitchell’s name on the inbound and threw the ball to Mitchell and Mitchell scored. It was one of the most memorable turnovers of all time. Jonathan said later, “I was raised to treat others the way you want to be treated. I just thought Mitchell deserved his chance. Deserved his opportunity.” Mitchell’s mother described it like this, “ I think I will cry about it for the rest of my life.”
It wasn’t the game-winning shot. When the buzzer sounded Coronado had fifteen more points than Franklin but Jonathon’s assist did change the outcome decidedly. When you play any game with this much sportsmanship, then both teams win.
As it turns out, the then Texas Tech Chancellor, Kent Hance, saw the story on TV. He asked his staff to chase down Jonathon Montanez. “He did something that was beyond the call of duty,” Hance said. “He went out of his way to be nice to someone who was disadvantaged, and I was very impressed with his action. That’s the kind of kid that I love. I wanted him to be a Red Raider, and he turned out to be a great one.” In 2018 Jonathon Montanez walked the stage at Texas Tech as a graduate and all because of a random act of kindness.
Kindness is a gift that costs nothing but your own willingness to treat others in a way in which we all want to be treated. As we reflect on the partnership vision of building eagerness to learn to achieve successful, productive, healthy, and responsible citizens, we have to see around us the importance of character as a big part of our program. Portrait of a Graduate traits aren’t add-on activities to what we do, they are one of the most important things we do every day. Jonathan learned it well and Coach Morales demonstrated his willingness to act it out. Thanks to a wonderful place that recognizes that these traits rise to the level of content necessary for success in life. That what we do with our kids each day reflects our ability to teach these traits that will enhance the successful futures of our students.
Shopping Spree: As we head to this holiday season, no matter your beliefs, this is a wonderful way for us to support our students and families. Thank you Cindy Bishop for organizing this event and the site volunteers that came to help our students have a great time. Below is the video that Seth built about this great event.