A Goal to Remember: ThunderRidge's Adam Hess Has a Moment

On May 4, Denver South defeated ThunderRidge 14-4 in a high school boys’ lacrosse game in Colorado. The score was not unexpected, though ThunderRidge scoring first was a bit of a surprise.

The real surprise was the goal scorer — senior attacker Adam Hess.

Hess has autism and a rare neurocognitive disorder called partial agenesis of the corpus collosum. The two halves of his brain have difficulty talking to each other, causing him to have extremely slow reaction time in addition to the disabilities caused by his autism.

Before the game, ThunderRidge head coach Randy Stewart approached Denver South head coach Paul Mahoney to let him know that Hess would be starting the game.

“I told him that I didn’t want any special treatment,” Stewart said. “I said, ‘You can take the ball away, you can stick check him, just don’t blow him up. I don’t want him to get hurt.’”

Mahoney let his Denver South coaches and players know about Hess. They wanted to do more.

“We said, ‘He touches it, he scores,’” said Denver South assistant coach Peter Schaffer. “This was something our kids wanted to do.”

So, Hess scooped up a ground ball behind the Denver South goal, wrapped around the cage, shot and scored his first high school lacrosse goal. His ThunderRidge teammates hugged him and high-fived him and the Denver South players raised their arms in celebration as well.

A GOAL TO REMEMBER@TRidgeGrizzlies senior Adam Hess has autism and a rare neurocognitive disorder.

He scored his first varsity goal for Thunder Ridge with Denver South providing an assist.

Full story: https://t.co/0wdVQVkXzS pic.twitter.com/OJZSrZJaYe

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) May 16, 2023

“The way they went about it, it just felt natural,” said Stewart. “None of my boys knew it was coming.”

It’s been rewarding having Hess on the team for Stewart who is in his first year coaching at ThunderRidge.

“We were low on numbers,” Stewart said. “We only had about 24 players total and 14 of them were seniors, so I thought I better start recruiting. I was hanging flyers in the school and one of the teachers came up to me and said that Adam was interested. I said, ‘I’m down.’ I’ve been coaching about 12-13 years in different settings, and I’ve been a special educator the whole time. I’ve seen success with students that have different needs.”

There are challenges, but the payoff has been more than worth it for Hess, Stewart and the ThunderRidge lacrosse program.

“He's got an emotional therapy dog that was out there freezing during our early practices,” Stewart said. “I was talking to him the other day about how far he’s come. By the end of the year, he was going through both games (JV/Varsity) with no dog.

“It’s been an awesome experience. Our kids just love Adam.”

Hess isn’t the only student with special needs that has been embraced at the school.

“The kids with special needs are so welcomed at ThunderRidge,” Stewart said. “When we had prom, kids were running up to them telling them how good they looked. I’ve never seen anything like that, it’s a special culture that our school has.”

And as Hess has experienced, the support also comes from outside of the school’s walls. The lacrosse field provided an opportunity for the Denver South team to help something special happen – one that resonates with the roots of the sport.

Schaffer simply said, “It’s the medicine game.”