Braedyn Watson loves watching sports, especially basketball.
Watson is a grade 8 student with special needs at Graham Creighton Junior High in Cherry Brook, N.S.
While watching his school’s basketball team play in a tournament this week, Watson got more involved than he could have imagined.
During the first quarter, Watson asked to sit on the bench with the other players. He even got his own jersey and was able to go into the locker room to give some advice to the players during a break in the game.
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After seeing Watson’s excitement, coaching staff from both Graham Creighton Junior High and the visiting St. Agnes Junior High, decided to put Brayden on the court for the last few minutes of the game.
“He starts dribbling, right to the basket and he scores,” said David.
“The gym went crazy. It was great. He was happy.”
Tyrae Atkinson, a grade 7 student at Graham Creighton Junior High said he was happy to see Watson play.
“I didn’t think he was going to score in like the first few shots, but he did,” said Atkinson.
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“It was pretty exciting and I won for the team,” said Watson.
Players from both Graham Creighton Junior High and St. Agnes Junior High were supportive of Watson as he joined them on the court.
“Basketball makes me happy and when someone else scores that actually doesn’t play serious, it made me happy that he could score and do what he wanted,” said Chaysten Cameron, a grade 9 student at St. Agnes Junior High.
“To be able to help a special needs kid like that score four points, I mean, it’s really cool,” said Zion Brown, grade 8 student at Graham Creighton Junior High.
“He was really happy you could tell,” added Dreonne Williams, a grade 9 student at Graham Creighton Junior High. “Actually, the first time he went to the basket he scored. So he was real happy about that and then he got the buzzer beater so he was really happy about that.”
In fact, Braedyn received a special honour following the game.
“I had the player of the game,” he said.
“It feels great.”
For the teachers and coaches, it was a special moment seeing Braedyn doing what he loves most, all while being encouraged by other students.
“It just makes me realize that we do this job not for the money, not for bragging rights but to see the looks on their face,” said David. “For me, it’s like they’re giving back and they’re picking up exactly what we’re teaching them, the leadership and the sportsmanship and the role model.”
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