A blind Modesto, California, 15-year-old is making headlines as the starting quarterback for the Modesto Raiders youth football team. Jasen Bracy has always wanted to play football, but when retinal cancer he developed as a toddler took his eyesight at age seven, his parents didn’t think playing football would be possible for him. "No way!" was the response from Bracy’s dad, also named Jasen Bracy. "How is this going to be possible for him to get out there and play?"
But Bracy was determined to play and once he got his own phone, he called all the local teams asking coaches for a chance. "The way he was on the phone,” recalls David Nichols, coach for the Modesto Raiders. “I just said, 'Come on we'll figure it out.'" Through hard work and by memorizing every play and where every player is going to be, Jasen worked his way from running back last year, earning himself the starting quarterback position. “It's all memory. It's all about having trust in the player, the receiver and the team,” Bracy says. “I have to trust them 100%.”
His dad directs him on the field from the sidelines using a walkie-talkie and a speaker inside Bracy’s helmet. "I don't even want a team to know that I can't see because they might ease up on me," he says. Recently, Bracy led his team in a win over one of the teams that turned him down and he has big dreams of one day making it to the NFL.