A local mother’s social media message praising coaches at Kinder Middle was recently shared with the Kinder Courier.
In her message, Dana Thomas Walker wrote, “I just want to let everyone know the coaches at KMS (Kinder Middle School) are amazing and are the true definition of community heros! Most people know Bralyn is autistic with epilepsy, and this year, he wanted to play football. He talked Coach Cade (LaFargue) into asking me to let him play. He attended every practice and game with the coaches and teammates helping out and encouraging him.”
Walker’s message went on to say the coaches and both teams allowed her son Bralyn to play at the end of every game. He would make a touchdown at the end of each game. She sent a special thank you out to the coaches stating, “You all are the true definition of loving your job and caring about the kids; teaching them not to treat others different but encouraged them.” Walker said the school should be proud to call each of these men their coach.
Walker told the paper that all her son talks about his football. “It’s one of his favorite sports,” she said. By allowing Bralyn to participate in football this past season, Walker said her son is overjoyed and can’t stop talking about his teammates and coaches. As a mother, she said it was an amazing feeling to watch her son blossom on the team. “They made him feel like he fit in.”
Walker said when Bralyn first asked her about joining the team, she was not on board. She told him no and said maybe next year. She said he didn’t let that stop him. During P.E. at school, she said he would practice and play football. She said he would talk to Coach Cade asking him to talk to his mom. In the end, she said Bralyn talked the coach into sending her a text.
“He really wanted to play, and it went from there,” she said. “He loves Coach Cade.”
So after Coach Cade talked to Walker, it was decided Bralyn could play. She said he told her they were trained to handle whatever happened, but he kept telling her, “it will be okay. She said last Monday, Bralyn had an episode and had to have a nasal spray applied at school. She said the spray helps with his seizure.
She said they let Bralyn ride the bus to away games. At practice, when one of the coaches thought Bralyn was too hot or had enough, they’d pat him on the back and tell him to take a break. She said they were calm, supportive, etc. And that approach carried over to the rest of the team.
She said they always followed the bus to out-of-town games and were at the home games. If she couldn’t be there, her sister, Flossie Barker, would follow Bralyn. She said at the end of the game, the coaches let Bralyn join the game and score a touchdown. Even at the games that were at other schools, they allowed him to play the last play and score a touchdown.
After the games, the coaches would help Bralyn get out of his pads and uniforms and help him cool down. Soon she noticed his teammates were doing the same thing. She said when they saw Bralyn struggling to take off his pads, they quickly finished removing their own equipment and ran over to help Bralyn.
“It was amazing for him,” she said, but as a mother with a special needs child it did something to her heart and her emotions as she recalled how special it was to watch her child feel like he belonged with the team and that he was a member of the team.
And to watch the kids working with Bralyn as well as the coaches was really something special. She said, “They just did it. They didn’t mention it. They just did it naturally.” She said the coaches never discussed what was happening behind the scenes, but she watched as her child blossomed and got to be apart of something he loves so much – football.
“Coach just kept saying, ‘Ah, we got it…Aw, that’s nothing…We got it.’”
Walker also feels calm about Bralyn practicing at school without her, because she knows the coaches. She graduated with Josh (Fontenot). “He’s in good hands,” she said.
Cade and Josh, along with Nathan Courville and Carlos LaFargue, said no thanks is needed in this case. “We treat every kid the same,” Cade said. “No kid is different than the others. We try to do our best to accommodate them and to make sure they have as much fun and joy as the others.”
Cade said this year spoke volumes about the other kids on the team as well. They kept Bralyn hyped up, involved in practices and the game, watching out for him and enjoying being in his company. “The kids did a great job.”
Through classroom and other activities like football, Cade said they are teaching students to “understand that we are all human beings. We treat others like we want to be treated.”
For Walker, the coaches and the students, these lessons are working and evident in the way the team functioned this year. Walker says Bralyn tells her he’s going to college, and he’s going to play football.
“They didn’t have to take the time,” she said of the coaches and the kids, “but they made him feel like he belonged. That was so special to him and to me. It showed how his teammates had good sportsmanship. It really touched my heart.”
And on the other side of that coin, she saw her son, whom she describes as a people person, patting his teammates on the back and telling them ‘good job.’
A seventh grader, Bralyn loves video games. He likes to play with the kids in the neighborhood, and he loves watching football and baseball. On Friday nights, he’s at the Kinder game watching his cousin, Damien Matthews, and cheering on the Yellow Jackets and Damien.
“He’s always cheering Damien on.”
Walker said people don’t often see what’s really right there, especially in small communities. In this case, she said it’s the coaches that are the heros. They took time out to allow a special needs child to participate in the game of football. She said the coaches always made sure her son was okay by telling him when it was time to take a break and cool down; making sure he was having fun; letting him belong; and putting a big smile on her son’s face.
“It’s all he talks about, and I can’t thank the coaches enough for allowing this year to happen for Bralyn. All she has to do is look at his face, and she knows how much this meant to him.
