It was the touchdown of a lifetime for 18-year-old Yorktown High School senior Josiah O'Brien, the football team's manager for the last four years.
His dream of playing football finally came true Friday night.
It was the end of the game against Poughkeepsie High School when the crowd's cheers "Josiah! Josiah!" grew stronger. O'Brien took the ball at the 20-yard line and sprinted ahead to the end zone where he scored a touchdown.
His teammates rushed to congratulate him and celebrate.
"He was very happy," Rev. Dan O'Brien of the Calvary Bible Church in Yorktown, said about his son. "[Josiah] was not expecting it. It was a surprise. He enjoyed it."
Yorktown High School football coach Mike Rescigno said he came up with the idea to involve O'Brien in the game as he was thinking of ways to honor the seniors on his team.
"I just felt that it was time for him to get his due," Rescigno said about O'Brien. "The rest is history."
In his role as manager of the team, O'Brien would carry water and mostly support his teammates. During games, he would wear his jersey with the number 75 on it. But Friday night it was different – he also wore a helmet, shoulder pads and hip pads.
"I know that he lives for game day in the same exact manner that any coach or player ever has," Rescigno said. "The fact that he [had] the opportunity to contribute with his teammates on the field itself is symbolic in many ways."
Rescigno has been O'Brien's coach for the last four years but their friendship started simply as a biproduct of small talk regarding football in between classes, he said. O'Brien's two older brothers – Dan and Jonathan – also went through the football program at Yorktown.
"Josiah has a lot to teach others," Rescigno said. "He is a spiritually grounded kid beyond words. Perhaps it is because of this glaring characteristic that Josiah and I became close."
O'Brien has also been embraced by the tight-nit football team and at the end of the game – rallied by Rescigno – the athletes cheered "family" as they huddled around O'Brien. During the team's banquet last year, he received the "Twelfth Man Award."
"I really appreciated Rescigno embracing Josiah and really including him over the last few years," Rev. O'Brien said. "The coach is behind all that. The team members have been great. We've been really pleased with that."
Rev. O'Brien said he and his family were thrilled by the response of the community.
Besides football, O'Brien loves to spend time with his family and participates in the teen ministry group at the Calvary Bible Church where his father is the pastor. He is devoted to his faith and takes his Bible to school. O'Brien also loves music and plays the drums after school, his father said.
"I suggest that you all find the time to get to [know] kids like Josiah," Rescigno said. "He has changed my life."
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