Winning Debut
Don’t think you have what it takes to achieve your dreams? Read on. When Jake Olson lost his sight at the age of 12, it seemed he would never get to fulfil his childhood dream of playing American Football for the University of Southern California. Not so fast. Eight years on and the 20 year old has done just that and what’s more in front of 70,000 fans he set up a kick for the final point of the game against West Michigan University which saw his beloved USC Trojans emerge victorious. Speaking after his winning debut, the 20-year-old said “it turned out to be a beautiful moment…I just loved being out there. It was an awesome feeling, something that I’ll remember forever. Getting to snap at USC as a football player… I’m trying to say as much as I can, because I can’t quite believe it yet.” Mr Olson first lost his left eye to retinal cancer when he was just 10 months old and had to have his right eye removed at the age of 12, but only after he watched the Trojans practice the night before his surgery. But despite losing his sight, all was not lost. On hearing of his cancer and his love for the Trojans, in 2009 former coach Pete Carroll got Olson onto USC’s football programme and in 2015 the student enrolled at the university on a scholarship for physically challenged athletes. The rest as they say is history.