Kid With Cerebral Palsy Pins Wrestler, But Compassion Wins: Video

WEST BRANCH, IA — Youth sports are often criticized as being so hypercompetitive that they put too much pressure on kids when their main job in school is to learn. But, as video of a middle school wrestling match in Iowa illustrates, sports can teach kids vital life skills such as sportsmanship and compassion.

It’s amazing that West Branch Middle School student Lucas Lacina got to compete at all in the Nov. 25 wrestling match. He has cerebral palsy, a disorder that affects his ability to move and maintain balance. Doctors told his parents that if he couldn’t sit up by the time he was 2, he would never walk.

That grim prognosis has never defined the life of the 14-year-old, though.

Lucas has been practicing his moves since school started this fall, so the match last month was a highlight in his life — and in his mother’s, too.

“I do just think it's amazing that Lucas gets to be part of the team,” Jill Winger-Lacina told news station KWQC. “What’s neat is they get to see how hard he’s working, too, and they get to realize how blessed they are to ... have the abilities that they have as well.”

The crowd in the West Branch gymnasium rocked with deafening cheers and shouts as Lucas approached the mat. As is customary, he shook the hand of his opponent, Austin Scranton, a “top-notch wrestler” from Anamosa, Winger-Lacina wrote on her Facebook page.

“C’mon, Luke,” Mom shouted. “Get him.”

In the blink of an eye, Lucas grabbed Austin’s leg and he was down.

“Roll him over! Roll him over!” Lucas’ mom encouraged. “Hold him down! Hold him down!”

In less than two minutes, the match was over. Lucas got the pin. Austin patted his back encouragingly as the two walked off the mat.

Austin “had an amazing heart, and he was patient and helped Lucas try to put to work the moves he has been practicing all season,” Winger-Lacina wrote on Facebook. “What I love the most, though, is the end when he helps Lucas off the mat, where he is cheered on by his whole team. Sportsmanship and inclusion at its finest.”

Lucas learned something important about kindness, too, Winger-Lacina told news station KGAN.

“Kids can be mean, they can be really cruel, and what makes my heart so happy are kids like Austin,” she said.

ESPN shared Winger-Lacina’s video of the match with its vast audience, and other news and sports outlets picked it up as well. It has been viewed about 4.6 million times on ESPN’s Twitter feed alone.

Austin didn’t know until the day of the match that Lucas would be his opponent.

“They kind of told me a little bit about Lucas, like how he has a feeding tube and how I need to be careful with him since I’m a little bigger than him,” the Anamosa teen told KGAN.

The two met again Sunday, this time as friends rather than sports opponents. Austin told KGAN that he wanted to wrestle Lucas “because I wanted to help some kid that loves the same sport as me and to help him be really happy.”

But that kid’s sheer love of the sport made a more-lasting impression.

“Lucas is an inspiring person, and ... it proves that you can do anything if you put your mind to it,” Austin told KGAN.