Jake Olson, blind long snapper, makes college debut a successful one - Daily News

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LOS ANGELES >> Late in the fourth quarter of USC’s 49-31 victory over Western Michigan on Saturday, Jake Olson was spotted along the north sideline.

Olson, a third-year sophomore long snapper, bent his knees and hunched over a football, shuttling it back 8 yards to Wyatt Schmidt, the holder.

After a couple practice rounds, they were good.

Schmidt paced back toward Olson, who then grabbed ahold of Schmidt from his neck roll. In tandem, they jogged toward the Coliseum’s east end zone. Olson needed Schmidt’s guidance to make it there. He remains blind.

When Olson was 12 years old, he was forced to have both of his eyes removed because of an eye cancer known as retinoblastoma.

It was at that time that the young USC fan forged a close bond with a Pete Carroll-led football team.

In 2015, Olson, a Huntington Beach native who had enrolled as a freshman at the university, joined the program as a walk-on.

Saturday marked the first time he had stepped onto the Coliseum grass for a game.

“I tried to suppress my emotions,” Olson said, “because I had a job to do.”

Olson lined up to snap the extra point after safety Marvell Tell intercepted a pass from Western Michigan quarterback Jon Wassink, returning it 37 yards for a touchdown with 3:14 left.

After Tell crossed the end zone, USC coach Clay Helton approached Olson.

“Are you ready?” he asked. “Let’s get this done.”

The Trojans led, 48-31, in their season opener.

Schmidt caught the snap from Olson and set it for freshman kicker Chase McGrath, whose attempt made it through the uprights.

The Trojans went ahead, 49-31.

Teammates quickly huddled around Olson on the field, patting him atop the helmet. Schmidt then ushered him back to the sideline.

“Getting to snap at USC as a football player” Olson said, “I can’t quite believe it yet.”

Olson, who in high school was the long snapper at Orange Lutheran, met with reporters at a postgame news conference.

Helton has previously discussed the possibly of seeing Olson make it in a game and he was upbeat that it would not be his sole opportunity.

“We’re going to try as often as we can to allow Jake to settle in,” Helton said. “Hopefully it wasn’t a one-time event.”

Helton and Olson both thanked Western Michigan for the program’s sportsmanship.

Olson said they did not try to mimic the cadence or interfere with the snap. The Broncos did not rush to block the kick, either. Most of the players dropped as if they were in pass coverage.

“I just think there’s a beauty in it,” Olson said. “If you can’t see how God works things out, then I think you’re the blind one. I think to have a situation where a 12-year-old kid loses his sight and is going to have to face the rest of his life without seeing is just ugly, and to fast forward eight years and have that same kid be able to snap on the football field that really got him through that time, is just really just special and incredible.”



http://www.dailynews.com/sports/201...-snapper-makes-college-debut-a-successful-one

 

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Then there’s Helton. In his short tenure here, he has been the ideal Trojans coach, preaching not just toughness but family, winning 10 consecutive games while building up a tight locker-room culture of trust and respect.

Helton saw how hard Olson worked, knew how much he was loved, and figured he deserved a chance. He thought perhaps the final moments against a big underdog like Western Michigan in the first game of the season would afford him that chance.

But first, he had to call Western Michigan coach Tim Lester and ask for his help. The Broncos needed to know that they might be facing a blind center so they could respond with the appropriate sensitivity.

So on Thursday, Helton called Lester and offered to make a most unique deal. The Trojans would not rush the Broncos’ first extra-point attempt if the Broncos would not rush an extra-point attempt involving Olson.

“Coach Helton told me what the kid meant to the team, I told him we’d be happy to be part of it,” Lester said.

So, indeed, after Western Michigan scored its first touchdown on a four-yard run by Jamauri Bogan midway through the first quarter, even though the extra point would tie the score at 7-7, the Trojans backed off.

“Sure enough, they didn’t rush our first extra point, they actually played a Cover 2 [defense],” Lester said. “That was the setup.”

About three hours later, when Tell scored on the interception return, even though the score was a dagger in the Broncos’ upset chances, good-guy Lester kept his part of the bargain. Before the Trojans’ extra-point try, he called his defensive players together and gave them an impromptu speech that could serve as a manual for sportsmanship.

“I told them the entire situation and said, ‘You can’t touch him, you can’t yell at him, everybody get down so it looks like a football play but nobody move,’” Lester recalled. “I told them, ‘What we’re about to do is bigger than the game. This is about what kind of people we want to be, what we represent; this is bigger than us.’”

And what did they say?

“They said, ‘Yes sir.’”

And, yes sir, it was an amazing moment, everything great about sports emerging from this afternoon of pain and sweat, Helton and Lester shining like true leaders, the Trojans and Broncos acting like real men.

“I commend and thank coach Lester and entire Western Michigan family for giving us this honor,” Helton said. “That’s a first-class organization.”

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-usc-plaschke-20170902-story.html