The Ike Special: Part I

The Snohomish Panther faithful rose to their feet, cheering in unison for a moment they had been waiting for since the start of the season. In the midst of a devastating defeat, this was going to be their one shining moment.

Ike lined up and prepared to make his run to glory. He took the handoff, but before he could get up field, he was dropped in the backfield for a 4-yard loss. Fans were in disbelief, students were baffled and the Snohomish players were beyond incensed.

This, obviously is not the harrowing run against Lake Stevens that ended in a 51-yard touchdown and a worldwide sensation for the Panther’s Ike Ditzenberger.

How could Jackson players have the nerve to stop the Ike Special? Didn’t the Timberwolves have even a shred of decency? The picture was muddled for Snohomish coach Mark Perry as well, as Jackson coach Joel Vincent came running across the field offering his apologies. “Coach, I’m sorry,” Vincent told Perry. “Our special needs player just tackled your special needs player.” While Ike’s big moment would have to wait, it was with good reason. A Jackson player with Asperger’s Syndrome got to make the tackle of a lifetime.

Just one of the guys

Perry grew up in a small town in Northern Idaho, where he lived in a neighborhood with several special needs youths. He says it is that experience as a youngster that gives him the ability to have the relationship he does with Ditzenberger today.

“Myself and our players, we don’t see Ike having disabilities,” Perry said. That message came across loud and clear as Perry spoke to a group of over 300 people at the Westin Bellevue on Friday morning in a fundraising event for Kindering Center, which Ike attended as an infant.

The event was titled “A Salute to Courage” and was a nod to the strength not only of those with special needs and their families, but those such as Perry who take time out of their own lives to interact and enhance the lives of special needs individuals.

Ike’s mother Kay Ditzenberger said when Ike was born, she and her husband had no idea what how to raise a son with Downs Sydrome. “We were completely overwhelmed,” Kay Ditzenberger said.

“We didn’t know how to help him and Kindering helped us.” Ike learned sign language at Kindering and more importantly, gave the family a positive and refreshing outlook on the future. “They gave us a positive picture of Downs Sydrome,” she said. “They gave us what we as a family needed, which was high hopes and the promise of a very bright future and that is what we’ve had.”

Of course there are certain circumstances where Perry gives Ike some leeway, but for the most part, he is just one of the guys.When Ike and his mother first approached the coach three years ago about the possibility of Ike joining the football team, Perry’s message was direct, just as it would be with any student-athlete.

“Son, you can play football for me for the next four years,” Perry told Ike. “But you’re going to have to lose some of that gut.” He poked Ike in the belly with a smile and the two made an immediate connection.

One of Perry’s sons, Tanner, has become exceptionally close with Ike. The pair first developed a relationship when Tanner was in middle school and would attend Snohomish varsity practices with his father. The younger Perry said he would sometimes wander off to the side of the practice field and build forts with the tackling dummies.

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One day he looked over and suddenly he was sharing the fort with Ike. Today, the two are great friends, playing video games together and sharing in one another’s experiences on the football field and wrestling mat. Tanner said his relationship with Ike is similar to those he has with other friends in many ways and yet is also completely unique, giving him a perspective on life as a teenager that many never develop even as adults.

The touchdown seen ’round the world

Most everyone has seen the Ike Special by now and anyone who hasn’t is remiss. But by the time Ike scored against Lake Stevens in the final seconds, the play was already in its later stages.

Ike scored his first touchdown as a freshman, in an otherwise uneventful Monday afternoon freshman football game. When he came up to varsity as a sophomore, Perry began running the play at the end of every practice and soon, the name “Ike Special” caught on as a way to alert the defense of the situation. Then there was the misfire against Jackson and finally, the world was introduced to the Ike Special.

Perry said since the video was posted online and has gone viral, he has received hundreds of emails from all over the world. The coach said he divides well-wishers into three categories: The teary-eyed school teacher, the varsity athletes and coaches and parents who have a child who is in a similar circumstance to Ike.

The first group was inspired by a 2nd grade teacher in Texas, who was so touched by the video she could barely squeeze out the words to thank Perry and Ike between sobs.

Calls and emails from coaches have been numerous as well, but none more so than from the head man at Lake Stevens, which is a bitter WesCo rival to Ike’s Panthers. Perry said the Lake Stevens coach contacted him by email and was frank with his message.

He badly wanted the shutout in the rivalry game, the symbol of absolute domination in football. But instead, he received a lesson in what it truly means to look at the big picture.

“We’ve got some kids out there that get the big picture,” Perry said of the Lake Stevens players. “The shutout didn’t matter, they gave a kid an opportunity to have a lifetime experience.”