CLINTON, SC – Tyler White is a special needs student from Greenville. He was born three months premature and as a result developed cerebral palsy. This condition has confined him to a wheelchair since he was about one-years-old.

White is a huge football fan. White arrived at the PC campus for a visit on July 28, with Brian Maddux, a special education teacher at Woodmont High School, who was working with white through Care Givers on Demand. White was given a warm welcome from several members of the Blue Hose football team. When he arrived, White rolled in his wheelchair to various lunch tables and asked if he could eat with them. Every one of them said yes and moved to make room for White.

Further, Tyler Scott, a senior business major from Jacksonville, Fla., invited White to see the locker room, gave him a shirt, and introduced him to some of the coaches.

“Tyler is a big fan and I just wanted him to feel like one of the guys,” Scott said. “The football team is inspired by a young man like Tyler who has such a positive outlook on life. He is an amazing young man that we were honored to welcome into our football family. Too often we take for granted the opportunities God has given us.”

Maddux said that after “spending some time with some of the players, coaches and the Athletic Director Brian Reese, football is one of the main things he wants to talk about.”

Tyler White pictured with members of the Blue Hose football team.

“As a special education teacher, it is my observation and opinion that most great stories start with one person caring about one another,” Maddux said. “This story is no exception; the football players that Tyler got to meet took a few minutes out of their day to invest in someone’s life. Tyler is in a wheelchair and goes to physical therapy twice a week. After getting to eat and hang out with some of the football players, Tyler went to physical therapy and said, ‘come on, let’s go, we have to work hard like the PC football team.’”