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Sooner Football
Players Surprise Avid Young Fan With A Visit
(December 18, 2009) “I
was shocked. It was a total surprise,”
explained Jared Goss, a 16-year old patient
at the J. D. McCarty Center from Vinita, Oklahoma.
The surprise he’s speaking of was an unexpected
visit from University of Oklahoma Sooners Landry
Jones, Gerald McCoy and Matt Mooreland.
Arrangements for the visit
were made by Callyn Honse and Katie Slagle,
members of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at OU
and wish granter volunteers with the Make-A-Wish
Foundation ® of Oklahoma.
“We get a list of
children each week that we can select to work
with,” explained Honse. “When we saw
that Jared was at the McCarty Center Katie and
I selected him because of our past work with
the McCarty Center through our sorority.”
Since 1980, the Make-A-Wish
Foundation has enriched the lives of children
from age 2 ½ to 18 with life-threatening
medical conditions through its wish-granting
work. There are four steps to the Make-A-Wish
process. The first step is the referral. The
referral can be made by a physician, a parent
or the potential wish child themselves. The
second step is determining the child’s
medical eligibility with he help of the treating
physician. The third step is finding out what
the child’s true wish is. That’s where
volunteer wish granters like Honse and Slagle
come into the picture. The fourth and final
step is the wish itself.
It was during the third
step that Honse and Slagle discovered what an
avid football fan Goss is. “He knew players
names. He knew statistics,” said Honse.
“His true wish is to be the coach of the
Minnesota Vikings for a day. We’re working
on trying to make that happen,” she added.
Another piece of information
that came out of Honse and Slagle’s interview
is that Goss is a huge Sooners football fan.
“I’ve known Landry
Jones since we were freshmen,” explained
Honse. “I thought it would be neat if Jared
could meet Landry, so I called Landry and asked
him a favor. He said yes. The added bonus was
that he brought Matt and Gerald with him. We
really blew Jared away when he saw them standing
in front of him.”
After the shock wore off
of Goss, the conversation turned to what else…football.
While McCoy hasn’t been drafted into the
NFL yet, Goss believes that he will be a Hall
of Fame player. The three Sooners signed a football
for Goss as a remembrance of their meeting.
In return, Goss gave Jones a play to use in
the Sun Bowl.
Goss’ play goes like
this: The Sooners line up in the Wildcat. The
snap goes to a wide receiver who begins a sweep
run to the left. He hands off to another wide
receiver who is running back across the backfield
to the right. This player then throws the ball
to Landry Jones who is running a fly pattern
down the sideline.
Goss just hopes Jones can
catch the ball. And would it not be thrilling
if Goss’ play made it into the game and
it was used to score the winning touchdown?
If you’re going to wish, wish big.
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J. D. McCarty Center
patient Jared Goss of Vinita, Oklahoma,
proudly shows off his newly autographed
football that he received during a surprise
visit from members of the University of
Oklahoma football team. The visit was made
possible by Katie Slagel (l) and Callyn
Honse who are volunteers with the Oklahoma
chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Goss'
visitors were (l-r) Landry Jones, Matt Mooreland
and Gerald McCoy.
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