After years of dreaming about becoming a USC football player, Jake Olson, a blind long-snapper from nearby Orange Lutheran High School, woke up and had his dream become a reality — he practiced with the Trojans on Tuesday.
Olson, who lost one eye at 10 months and the other at 12 years old, was brought around the program years ago by ex-coach Pete Carroll. Steve Sarkisian, the current coach, told the Los Angeles Times in April that Olson would one day play for USC. On Monday night, Olson tweeted that he was about to become a Trojan.
Olson was born with retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the retina. He lost his left eye as a baby and went through multiple operations to try and save his right eye, which eventually was removed.
Before he lost his sight, Olson – a lifelong USC fan – had been introduced to Carroll and developed a bond. Carroll invited him to watch practices, encourage players on the sidelines and in the locker room, and even attend strategy meetings.
When Olson was told in 2009 he would require surgery and lose his vision altogether, he asked to go watch USC play at Notre Dame, and also to go see practice the night before having the operation.
“There were nights of crying and stressful times when I couldn’t get the thought of going blind out of my psyche,” Olson told the LA Times. “But every time I was up at SC or talking to one of the players or just being around, it was just pure fun. And truthfully, pure peace.”
Just five days after that surgery, Olson played center in a flag football game for his middle school – with a little help from his teammates.
“I learned quickly that I need to use other senses and realized that by using these other senses that things were possible,” Olson said. “It wasn’t limiting, it was just a different way of doing it.”
When Olson got to high school, he asked Orange Lutheran coach Chuck Petersen near the end of the 2012 season whether he could join the team. He was told to come back after the season was over, and that’s exactly what he did, working diligently to learn to long-snap. He eventually became the starter, with teammates guiding him onto the field and helping him line up with the ball.
“We didn’t see him as a blind person,” kicker Jerry Fitschen told the Times. “We saw him as a football player.”
Now it looks like he’s going to be a USC football player.
Olson received a Swim With Mike scholarship, awarded to physically challenged athletes. But since the NCAA views it as an athletic scholarship, he couldn’t be termed a walk-on, and USC didn’t have a roster spot left in the 2015 recruiting class.