Communities, Dexter/Pleasant Hill, Front Page, Sports

Matt gets wish, scores a Billies’ touchdown; ‘Words will not express how much this . . . means to him’

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Matt Oakley of Pleasant Hill gets ready to enter the game and score a touchdown with the Billies varsity team. Dean Rea/The Herald

By DEAN REA/Herald Correspondent — Twenty-five-year-old Matt Oakley ran for a touchdown a short time after the game began late Monday afternoon at Pleasant Hill High School.

It was the fulfillment of a wish shared with his cousin Zach Seratte, a freshman tackle on the Billie junior varsity football team.

Could they make it happen? 

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BILLIES LOSE TO SHELDON — Matt Dutton throws a 40-yard pass to Gabe Trafton early in Monday’s game, but the Pleasant Hill junior varsity football team lost to the 6A powerhouse Sheldon jayvees, 44-6. Matt Oakley’s TD was the only scoring by Pleasant Hill, which was scheduled to play the Sheldon freshman team but met the junior varsity because of a scheduling conflict. Dean Rea/The Herald

Yes, was the reply of football coaches Dustin Holmes and Joel Smith, who set the wheels in motion with Sheldon’s coaching staff. How about during Monday’s junior varsity game?

Matt has Down Syndrome, which his grandmother says, “means that an extra chromosome makes him a gentle person who wants to try to be just like everybody else.”

Matt was born in Springfield and later moved to Montana with his parents, Alan and Valerie Oakley. In February he moved to Lost Creek to live with his grandmother, Hilda McSwane.

She said Matt has become “very much a football fan since being with his cousin Zachery.” Eventually, Matt donned Zachery’s shoulder pads and helmet and decided he wanted to score a touchdown,” she said.

Last week Matt was a guest of Pleasant Hill football players during a practice session. Assistant football coach Darwin Terry filmed the session, which went viral after being posted on Facebook.

Matt’s grandmother wrote a thank-you to the community, school, parents and coaches in which she said, “Words will not express how much this gesture means to him.”

The answer was etched forever on Matt’s face as he crossed the goal line Monday evening in Pleasant Hill.

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member and senior writer for The Herald.

 

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