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Canfield soccer team names special captain for Saturday
By kristine gill
CAnfield
The differences between the soccer Matt Wittman plays and what the Canfield High School team plays are only skin deep.
Matt, a freshman at Canfield, has muscular dystrophy and plays a modified version of the game with an oversized ball.
“Our soccer ball is big,” he said. “It hurts.”
The rules of play are the same.
On Saturday, the Canfield boys varsity soccer team will make Matt an honorary captain at its 2 p.m. game.
The idea for a game dedicated to Matt started on Labor Day. That’s when Mike Thomas, goalkeeper for the varsity team, and his father, John, saw the Wittman family on the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon.
“We got the idea that why not have them come out and raise money for MDA?” said Mike, a junior.
The rest of the team quickly accepted the idea.
“It’s about the team making Matt a captain and making him feel welcome in high school,” John said.
Matt and his family are excited for the event, the proceeds of which will go toward the MDA. A 50/50 raffle, door prizes and proceeds from the concession stand will all benefit MDA.
“I think it’s great that these high school kids are thinking of kids who can’t do what they can do,” said Matt’s mother, Amy. “They’re going out of their way to help people.”
Diagnosed at age 4, Matt slowly has lost strength in his muscles. Both he and his 11-year-old brother Garrett have a type of the condition known as Duchenne’s. Those with the disease usually live until their late teens or early 30s before vital muscles such as the heart and lungs lose function.
The degenerative disease forced Matt into a wheelchair when he was 9.
“He was on steroids to help him walk, but they weakened his bones,” his mother said.
When Matt fell and fractured his ankle walking through a doorway, he began using a wheelchair.
“It was OK,” Wittman said of the transition to using a wheelchair. “I didn’t like walking anyway.”
Amy said wheelchairs have given her sons more independence and help them avoid similar injuries.
“They can get around like anyone else in them,” she said.
Matt is unable to lift his arms but can use his hands. He can wiggle his toes and swing his legs a bit to play soccer.
He first began playing the sport five years ago through TOPSoccer, a community-based soccer program for youth with disabilities.
He plays on a blacktop surface with two teams of four players who use wheelchairs and a ball about 3 feet in diameter. Aside from those obvious physical differences, the sport has the same intensity and follows the same rules as high school soccer.
Garrett is still able to power his manual wheelchair through the house, but Matt uses a motorized chair.
Amy said their home has been modified to accommodate the boys. It now features a handicap bathroom, a lift which takes them out of their wheelchairs and into bed at night and a ramp from the first floor of the home to the garage.
The lift system was paid for by Canfield Community Care Net, a nonprofit organization which helps families in the area with medical needs, and Difference Makers in Youngstown.
Amy, who works with special-needs children at Canfield schools, and her husband, Bill, a professor at National College, renovated the rest of their home.
Amy began an organization called All Play. which is raising money to build a playground for disabled children in Canfield. She’s raised $18,000 over the past few years through various fundraisers and has a goal to raise about $250,000.
Amy said though she’s thankful for what the boys soccer team is doing for her son, she’s come to expect kindness and generosity from the community.
“Canfield schools have been great,” she said. “I’ve never had to fight for anything.”