Letter to the football coaches.

Here is the letter I sent to the coaches of the High School Football team:

Dear Coaches,

Thank you for allowing Davis to try out and practice with the team. He has wanted to try out for football for so long and Monday he was determined that he would go out for football. On Monday when we registered for school there was a very kind and helpful woman that asked him about sports and when she heard that he wanted to sign up for football she was very helpful to get him the paperwork and introduce him to the coach. Thank you for letting him try for much of the day on Tuesday.
Davis realized that it was too hard for him to play with the team and "resigned" from playing football for the school. He is fine with his effort and he's glad that he tried.
But that is only part of the story.
Davis started hearing voices when he was just ten years old and it went on for at least a year and a half and now he rarely hears voices but has other personal challenges. There is no one-word diagnosis that describes Davis. He isn't Autistic, doesn't have Aspergers or isn't Schizophrenic but he has some characteristics from all three. So, it was one of the bravest things I've ever seen him do, to try out for football. Yes, we would have loved to see him succeed and be able to play for the team, but the courage it took him to even try is astounding and more than touching.
Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for treating him like any other boy that just wanted to play football.

Sincerely,

Cheryl and Jeff