One School, One Team, One Family.

The past two years have been full of emotion for Penn State students, fans, and alumni. Following the discovery of a scandal that attempted to rip this community apart from the moment it was revealed, Penn State and its football team faced the challenge of moving forward into the future in a way that would prove to the rest of the world what an amazing institution filled with bright and passionate students it is. For a countless number of years, Joe Paterno was the face of Penn State football and served as a symbol for the institution as a whole. After the scandal and Paterno’s death, however, Penn State was void of this symbol. It needed a new leader… someone who could be a strong role model, someone capable of standing strong against adversity. Bill O’Brien has proved to be the perfect fit to this role over the past year. Most people credit O’Brien for his prior football experience, and for his commitment to the team and to Penn State as a whole. Yet most do not credit him for his experience with handling adversity and coping with difficult issues; most have absolutely no idea that his son has a disability.

jack-obrien

Diagnosed at just 13 months of age, Jack copes with a neurological disorder called Lissencephaly. This disorder causes him to have as many as ten seizures per day, and prevents him from functioning like a normal child his age. Though he is unable to walk, talk, and feed himself, his parents have fought to keep his life as normal as possible. He attended school with other children his age, and when the O’Brien family moved to State College for the coaching job, Jack’s classmates compiled a scrapbook for him including letters explaining how much they would miss him. Yes, he may not be able to function just like any other child his age. But more importantly, he is able to form social attachments to people like his classmates, parents, and brother that are vital to healthy cognitive and emotional development.

Bill O'Brien, Colleen O'Brien

Unfortunately for Jack, the life expectancy for someone with this neurological disorder is not promising. Even with current experimental treatments and supportive therapies, children diagnosed with Lissencephaly typically do not make it past ten years of age due to increasing severity of symptoms associated with the disorder. Hopefully, expanding research and technology will eventually lead scientists to a cure for this disorder and other neuronal migration disorders; once the specific genes responsible for these disorders can be identified, scientists can begin to contemplate approaches to deactivate or modify those particular genes.

To read more about the O’Brien’s story, go to: http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2012-06-07/bill-obrien-son-special-needs-jack-penn-state-coach-replacing-joe-paterno.

To learn more about Lissencephaly, go to: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/lissencephaly/lissencephaly.htm.

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One Response to One School, One Team, One Family.

  1. Christina Reuille says:

    Wow, I had no idea his son had a disability! I would venture to guess that overcoming his son’s disability is what has made Coach O’Brien such a good coach and a good match for Penn State at this time. I think that the social bonds that Jack forms are probably stronger than those of a normal child because he knows he is reliant on others to help him – which I’m sure made moving that much harder for him. But it’s when I hear stories like this and know that the end isn’t that far away for a beautiful child like Jack that I pray that research will continue and find a cure soon. Miracles happen – hopefully one can help Jack.

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