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The night before, a young man named Marcus Luciano had perched at the top of the stands with an old VHS camera. "I thought it was neat, to be honest with you," he says.īut that wasn't that. McElwain's dad, Dave, went to work that day and proudly told his colleagues at the New York State Tax Department that his boy made the sports page. So that was that, and everyone at Athena seemed fine with it. Photos: Assistant coach Jason McElwain at Greece Athena High.The next day, Johnson grabbed the paper and thumbed through seven pages before finding McElwain's name buried in a nightly prep roundup, his name absent from the headline. The crowd rushed the court when it was over, and he was scooped up by a sea of arms. They just kept feeding the ball to J-Mac. Four other subs were on the court that night, some of them seniors who rarely got to play, but they did not feel compelled to take a shot.
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But the crowd had been chanting his name since the opening tip, and when he swished his first 3-pointer, the place exploded. He weighed barely 100 pounds, was swimming in his jersey, and a white sweatband hung awkwardly above his ears.
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McElwain did not look as if he belonged on the court. He'd just inserted his student manager in a basketball game - an autistic kid named Jason McElwain who had never played JV or varsity - with four minutes to play. Jim Johnson was convinced he had a great story for them. 15, 2006, a late-night call came into the sports desk at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. "He's one of my favorite coaches," Layne says. Jason McElwain, left, gets senior forward Trevor Layne loose during a practice. They pack up the table, grab some sandwiches from the deli and head for the gym. The coach checks the time and says they need to go. Tonight, Athena will honor the coach, and commemorate the anniversary of a basketball game that changed many lives, none more so than McElwain's and Johnson's. McElwain is his assistant, his second son, his amped-up alter ego on the sidelines. He is a 27-year-old bound by routine, and for most of the past 10 years, he has always had Johnson at his side. Everything is going to change soon, and some wonder how McElwain will handle it. In a few hours, the Greece Athena boys' basketball team will play their regular-season home finale, one of Johnson's last games as head coach. They are trying to sell their books, but seem preoccupied. His blond hair is receding, so he shaves his head. McElwain, however, elicits a double-take: He was a boy then, and has since grown about 6 inches. Who'd believe it has been 10 years? Johnson looks as if he has been preserved in a time capsule, right down to his taut physique and 2006 haircut. You know a moment is big when it spawns two books, a career on the motivational speaking tour and one transforming friendship. An anniversary was approaching, so Jason McElwain and Jim Johnson set up a table at a grocery store last week, waiting to sign books near a barista stand.