by Gloria Hillard
Taylor Howell told Vasquez High's football coach that if he wasn't blind he sure would love to play football. The coach told him he'd have to come up with a better excuse than that. The sophomore now plays center on the junior varsity team.
It's afternoon practice for the junior varsity football team at Vasquez High in Acton, Calif. A high desert wind somersaults a discarded paper plate across the line of scrimmage just before it becomes a pile of white jerseys and purple helmets.
"You were offsides," the coach yells after blowing his whistle.
The players dust themselves off and line up for the next play. At center, is Taylor, a lean 15-year-old. His quarterback, Bryan McCauley, is a few yards behind him in shotgun formation.
"Down, set, hike, good," Bryan says.
That "good" from the quarterback is valuable information for Howell, who is blind. It means his aim was dead on.
"Breaking out of the huddle after he calls the play, it's up to my guards to get me up to the line of scrimmage, make sure that I know where the ball is," he says.
On the field the tackles tell him what to do and if Taylor has a question he goes to Bryan.
"I make sure he's straight so he doesn't snap the ball crooked," he says.
