{"id":261977,"date":"2022-02-05T13:44:35","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T19:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=261977"},"modified":"2022-02-03T21:50:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T03:50:10","slug":"tennessee-teen-down-syndrome-senior-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tennessee-teen-down-syndrome-senior-night\/","title":{"rendered":"‘That moment you dream of’: Tennessee teen with Down syndrome shows his skills on senior night"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One Tennessee teen with Down syndrome felt like his dream came true in January, when he started for his high school’s basketball team on senior night.<\/p>\n

Maddox Shields is a student at Halls High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and for four years he’s been the manager for the boys basketball team. His mother Tina told a local newspaper<\/a>\u00a0that the source of his passion for basketball is a puzzle. “He literally woke up one day and was like ‘I love basketball.’ We were like, ‘ Where did that come from?’\u00a0because none of us are basketball people. He likes to dribble. He shoots about 60 layups every practice. He just loves being part of it.”<\/p>\n

His team manager role started back in middle school but wasn’t always a positive experience. His mother recalled that he was excluded from being in the locker room at games and from attending practices or away games. But everything changed for Maddox when he got to high school. At the same time Maddox started as manager, Clint Shields was also stepping into a new role as coach.<\/p>\n

“He wanted to be part of the team. I thought it was a great idea. I thought it was a good experience for our guys,” Shields commented<\/a>.\u00a0“I thought it would bring us together a lot and help build our culture within our program, and it has.”\u00a0Maddox attends every game and joins the team on the court during warmups each game day. And when the team gets together for team bonding outside of practices and games, he’s there for that too.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Down syndrome rights advocate Katie Shaw speaks at March for Life<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teammate Luke Simpson first conceived the idea of Maddox starting on senior night back when the two were sophomores. “We wanted him to start because of what we were going to experience. It\u2019s our Senior Night, we wanted him to get that same experience because he\u2019s a senior. That\u2019s what it should be. Everybody should get that chance. So he deserved it.”<\/p>\n