Lockhart teams up with Bastrop to make autistic football player's dream come true
LOCKHART, Texas - The Lockhart Lions teamed up with the Bastrop Bears to make one Lion football player’s dream come true.
Senior defensive lineman Desmond Pulliam was born with Autism and his dream was to make his first-ever touchdown. At Thursday night’s scrimmage, Desmond achieved that goal.
“It feels great, feels good to be able to see the kids on the field,” said Lockhart Head Coach Todd Moebes. “It’s our first scrimmage of the season. We’ve been practicing for two weeks now.”
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Coach Moebes has been waiting for this scrimmage against the Bastrop Bears. He says he’s not just excited for the game, he’s excited to watch his players shine especially #44.
“Desmond Pulliam is one of our senior's defense of lineman and he’s born with Autism. Desmond has been a tremendous young man, tremendous football player, tremendous teammate for us,” said Coach Moebes.
Moebes says he wanted to help Desmond achieve his football dream, a dream Desmond's mom told him all about.
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“She reflected back on his football career and said coach, he’s always talked about wanting to score a touchdown, but he’s never scored one and I said, Miss Pulliam we’re gonna make that happen,” he said.
Coach Moebes reached out to the coach of the Bastrop Bears to see if they could help Desmond make his first touchdown, and he said they were all for it. “Bastrop is going to run an offense of play and the ball's gonna be on the ground. It’s going to be a fumble and we’re gonna see what Desmond does with it,” he said.
With only seconds left in the final play, Coach Moebes called a curtain call substitution for Desmond to play.
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“We try to establish a football IQ with all of our players and the thing is with Desmond, he’s a member of our football team and we treat him just like he’s any other player. It’s a defensive mentality, if the balls on the ground we want to score a defense of touchdown,” said Coach Moebes.
It happened all in the last play. Bastrop's team fumbled the ball and Desmond was there to pick it up and score a touchdown. “It was awesome,” said Desmond.
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Fans, coaches, teammates, and especially his family were all cheering for Desmond as he scored.
“I’m glad he got to experience this. He will remember this for the rest of his life,” said Desmond's mother Wendy Pulliam.