CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — At Grant Middle School if you put in the work, you can earn a spot on the basketball roster. The seventh grade B team shares how passing the rock can be the right shot.
Matthew Thomas attends practice four days a week for at least an hour and a half with his Barracudas teammates and head coach Carlos Estrada.
"He's always smiling. He's always ready to go," Estrada said. "He's always like coach is it my time? Is it my time? I'm like wait Matthew we have rotation. Give me a chance and you're going to go in."
Matthew gets as much playing time as everyone else on his team. Not letting his intellectual disability slow him down.
"I like basketball because basketball is the best," Thomas said.
It was not always easy, but his mother Rita was there to help along the way.
"He couldn't talk till he was about 5 or 6, so to see him getting so excited to join in on the game it's very exciting because honestly I didn't know if that would every happen," Rita Thomas said.
Now he's taking shots and making them thanks to coach Estrada, Gilbert Deleon and Grant Middle School.
"We know Matthew is going to get the ball and is going to shoot," Estrada said. "When he makes a basket everyone goes crazy."
He scored his first bucket earlier in the season against Cunningham.
"Oh man. I almost started crying," Rita Thomas said. "I probably did cry the first time, but now I'm getting used to it."
The Barracudas had won 7 games and only lost 3 with two games to go leading up to their matchup against Adkins. Grant Middle School was going to need their sharp shooter. Just ask Matthew's teammate J.J. Baldwin.
"He takes a lot more shots than he did earlier in the season and he's a lot more accurate with them," Baldwin said.
The Barracudas tallied a 9-0 lead at halftime, but near the end of the third quarter Matthew found his magic. Making a 3 pointer. Moments later, he did it again.
"The best part about playing with Matthew is his energy," said Matthew's teammate William Bocanegra. "We've a lot of happy moments with him. He's a really great player and he's really confident."
Matthew ended the game with 8 points and the Barracudas won 23-2. It's not easy taking the shot, but he is proof that passion, determination and acceptance by others can make inclusion possible for everyone.
"Everybody deserves a chance, and when you see one of these players loving the game so much and laughing and just spreading the likeness to all of the people," Estrada said. "That's what's really good about me coaching."
Matthew turns 13-years-old on his birthday Feb. 14. After the basketball season he plans on playing in the Special Olympics basketball tournament on Feb. 25 in Kingsville.
