‘This Is The Stuff For A Movie’: Standout High School Football Player Has Autism

PITTSBURGH — Byron Lewis is the only player on the powerful Westinghouse High School football team who starts on both offense and defense. He is an imposing 6-foot-4, 280-pound senior, a standout lineman who has dreams of winning a state championship this year and possibly playing in college.

Oh, and by the way, he has autism.

“I don’t think anyone thought he would turn out like this,” said Ayodeji Young, Lewis’ first coach three years ago in a youth league. “I don’t want to sound too sappy, but what he is doing, this is the stuff for a movie. Really, this is Disney movie stuff.”

But movies are often fictional. Lewis’ story is as real as one of his tackles on defense or blocks on offense, and right here in heart of the city of Pittsburgh is a high school teenager authoring one of the best feel-good stories this fall in Western Pennsylvania football.

Lewis will play for Westinghouse in the City League championship Saturday afternoon, as the ‘House goes after its fifth title in six years. In two weeks, Westinghouse will begin play in the state playoffs in hopes of becoming only the second City League team to win a state championship.

But no matter what happens in the upcoming playoff games, talk to those around Lewis and they already consider him a champion. Football has helped him thrive in a life with autism. And now he actually might inspire others.

“I think he is a great story of hope,” Westinghouse coach Donta Green said. “He is a story of encouragement for other kids with diverse abilities to go after what they want. The thing is, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to be on this team and to be contributing to our success.”

A child with autism playing sports certainly isn’t unprecedented. There have also been numerous stories in high school sports over the years about a teenager with autism maybe being a team manager or being part of a team and getting into a game on senior night. But here is Lewis, actually playing a major part on a team with state championship aspirations.

“He doesn’t hide and he’s not self-conscious. He’s just his authentic self, and that’s something you have to admire about him,” Green said. “The man I am today, I don’t know if I would be as brave and courageous as Byron is, to go out there every single day and every single week and be around guys who are slightly different than him and feel a part of everything.”

Jesse Torisky is the president and CEO of Autism Pittsburgh, the longest-running autism advocacy organization in the country.

“It is so encouraging to hear stories like (Lewis’) because so many people on the spectrum struggle to work with their peers and interact with peers because of their autism,” Torisky said. “For him to be able to do this is quite an accomplishment and should give encouragement to other people in our community.”

On the front of Westinghouse High in Homewood are three small banners next to each other that read, “Together we can … We will … We must.” That’s Westinghouse football and Byron Lewis.

“Nobody on the team talks about Byron having autism. It’s normalized,” said Josiah Collins, a junior standout defensive lineman for Westinghouse. “We love Byron. He’s just one of us.”

‘Byron is special’

Autism is a developmental disability that affects a person’s ability to communicate, learn, interact with others and behave. There are different degrees on the “autism spectrum,” and Lewis is on the high-functioning end.

This past Saturday, Lewis sat inside the locker room at Westinghouse and talked about everything from what his teammates and coaches mean to him, his school and what football has done for his life. He gave straightforward, mostly short answers to questions and laughed some. “I think I was around 5 when I was diagnosed with (autism),” Lewis said matter-of-factly.

Lewis attends Pace School in Churchill, a school whose mission is to “provide individualized education with mental health, behavioral and autistic support services that empower students.”

Lewis has attended Pace since he was 11. He can play sports at Westinghouse because Pace is a special education school that doesn’t have sports and Westinghouse is Lewis’ home school in Homewood.

Lewis takes turns living at either his mother’s or grandmother’s houses in Homewood. He walks home from football practice every evening.

When asked if Pace School has helped him, he simply answered, “Yes. A lot.”

But so has football. Lewis never played football until his freshman year at Westinghouse — and it wasn’t even for the Westinghouse team. He played for Homewood’s 14-and-under youth league team for Young, known to just about everyone as “coach Blue.”

“I lived on his street and I would see this kid always bouncing up and down the street, full of energy,” Young said. “He was big, too. I knew he wasn’t quite like the other kids, but at the time, I didn’t really know he was autistic.

“I knew his dad and told his dad that he should come and try football. His dad finally said he would bring him up to a practice.”

A player was born.

Young put Lewis in some drills, and “he was running just as fast as the running backs — and he was huge.”

Young said Lewis was unsure about the game at first but picked up on things quickly, eventually started to fit in and started to play.

“I had a conversation with the staff that we had to take it a little easy on him because the learning curve for him might be a little different than everyone else,” Young said. “The biggest hurdle was the players because, you know, kids can be mean. There were a couple incidents, like sometimes Byron just wouldn’t stop after a play. Kids would say, ‘Why don’t you just chill?’

“But we had a conversation with the kids and said Byron is just special. The kids don’t know what autism is. We told them it just means he learns a little differently. After that talk, the lights clicked on with the other kids. It was something that was so warm-hearted to see. From that day forward, he was their brother.”

Onto the ‘House

In the spring of Lewis’ freshman year, Young was at a community event that was also attended by Green. Young approached Green and told him he had a freshman on the Homewood team that wanted to play for Westinghouse in the following season.

Green wanted to meet Lewis. “What I remember was he shook my hand and his hand pretty much engulfed my entire forearm,” Green said with a laugh. “I didn’t know if he would be able to play for us, but I knew we needed to find a spot for him to be involved with the team in some way.”

That spot was as a lineman. By last season, Lewis was starting.

“He’s probably one of the most lovable kids I’ve ever coached,” Green said. “I hope and pray that people who lead other programs create an environment that is inclusive for a lot of different people to be part of. … I know there aren’t too many programs in this country that would be a good fit for Byron. To know I’m part of one that is for him is greater than any accomplishment I could ever achieve on the field. It makes my heart smile.”

Lewis said Westinghouse football has changed his life.

“If I wouldn’t play football, I would just be at home all the time playing my video games,” said Lewis, who counts Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers as his favorite player.

Teammate Collins said, “What we take pride in is looking out for Byron, but we look out for all of us. Byron is real protective of us, too.”

Much of the credit for Lewis’ development should go to Green, whose disciplined style of coaching has turned around Westinghouse’s program. But Green is about much more than wins, wanting to develop players as people and also helping put Westinghouse players into colleges. Green also said line coach Mike White has been instrumental in Lewis’ development.

At preseason training camp this year, Lewis would always want to lead grace before team dinners.

“Honestly, it took some time for our coaching staff to get acclimated to him, trying to feel him out to see how much he can handle mentally and physically,” Green said. “But he blew us out of the water with how much he can comprehend concepts. If you didn’t know, you’d never think he has a diverse ability. He could teach some of our defense. That’s how well he comprehends it.”

Torisky said, “Oftentimes, it is the autism that can be an asset. It lets them focus to a greater extent than the neurotypical person might be able to.”

The future

With Lewis’ size, athletic ability and talent, Green believes he could play on the college level.

“Ability-wise, I think he could definitely play on the FCS level or maybe Division II,” Green said. “The challenge is finding a place with a program where he could succeed off the field, too. We’re trying to work on some things.”

Lewis said he would like to play in college. “If I don’t, I’ll just probably get a job,” he said.

But for now, there is a City League championship to think about and then the state playoffs. At Westinghouse, it’s a band of brothers, and Lewis is right in the middle.

“This team means family,” Lewis said. “There’s a brotherhood. I love this team. I love this game. It’s just everything to me. And it’s fun, too.”

Lights, camera, action.

© 2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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