The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

5r3j jjkwjc mb 0 v 16 economist sunlsuntribune health saturday oct 15 2005 football brings out best in boy staff photosusie kockerscheidt christian filtsos who has cerebral palsy plays fooftball with sister markella 6 mom elizabeth and dad aries as pooch chip referees christian plays for the markhambased york region raiders from page 1 had football teams then one day last summer his oppor tunity came while watching a toronto argonauts game at rogers centre christians uncle ange varsamis introduced him to marty deveny a coach with the york region raiders which play out of markham you should come and play on the team next year mr deveny a stouffville resident said i want to play this year christian responded the mount albert boy excitedly called home from the stadium mom i get to play football he said mr deveny approached the football league for approval and coach rob emslie and his 15yearold son volun teered to help christian make the team but his parents who had watched their little boy put up with so much adversity resisted christian kept asking his parents the same question can i go to football but they told him they would have to ask permission from the doctors i know they wili say no he said christian finally said to the doctor can somebody listen to me i want this the doctors knew howhard he had worked the desire he had in doing this on own is incredible mrs filtsos said christian begged and pleaded ill do anything christian said to his mother finally the doctors said ok christian was in it was symbolic of all his hard work in therapy repetition of physical motions helped christian get needed messages to his brain slowly slowly he gained stabil ity and function when christian joined the team in july most of the boys welcomed him but at least one teammate struggled with it how is he going to play for this team he cant even walk a teammate said another child responded you know what he is a teammate we dont treat teammates that way we have to give everybody a chance for christian it was all about getting into a real game he had practised but was growing impatient am i going on am i going on he asked one of his coaches but practice came first when he started he could only run about eight to 10 feet before losing his balance it took him 15 to 20 seconds to pick himself up after falling but as always he worked hard to overcome the challenge and his coachs didnt give him special treatment i bark at christian look i yell at everyone hes one of the guys he is not intimidated he doesnt request or require extra assistance his eyes light up when you praise him and he tries harder every time mr deveny said finally after more than a month of practice he was called into a game in august he ran out onto the field and got into his defensive position the play was called christian helped sack the qb everybody clapped for christian the coach cheerleaders and every team mate i was taken aback when i heard everyone chanting his name mrs filt sos said they were encouraging my child he set his sights on football he made it happen for himself hes had to work hard since he was eight months old for everything this was his reward early diagnosis of cerebral palsy and aggressive intervention made christians amazing progress possible his mother said but mrs filtsos believes her sons chance to play football helped him push him even further christians confidence has skyrocket ed she said after that first play christian was clearly elated this is the best day of my life he said l to our valued customers we apologize icr any inconvenience caused by an error in our flyer dated september 30 october 06 productsamsung 5disc dvd51 surround sound home theatrethis product is advertised on p 1 of our september 30th iyer with the wrong imageskuhtp38 10059842best buy- avis de correction litmaiujmiiaj to our valued customers we apologize for any inconvenience caused by an error in our iyer dated october 07 october 13 dlink xtremog wireless router this product is advertised for 4999 after a 70 savings 40 instant savings 30 maillrf rebate on p 17 of our october 7th flyer in fact it is 4999 after a 50 savings 20 instant savings 30 mailin rebate skudi624 10030147