LAVACA (KFSM) — The world of high school sports has certainly changed in recent years. Not nearly as many students are playing.
Some have to work. Some would rather sit inside and play video games. Others make excuses and quit.
When Dylan Ellison started playing sports, no one would have blamed him if he decided not to play sports but quitting has never been a thought for the Lavaca senior.
"Never crossed my mind one bit," Ellison said.
Dylan has never looked to take the easy way out even though it probably would be easier to do so some days. The Golden Arrows athlete was born with radial longitudinal deficiency, or in more simple terms, Ellison is missing his radius bone in his right arm. It would be easy to make an excuse with that kind of limitation but making excuses is not what Dylan does.
"He never uses it as a crutch or an excuse," Lavaca football coach Brian Schlinker said. "He’s going to find a way to do something and it’s amazing. He’s just an amazing kid."
"I have never once heard him make an excuse," Golden Arrows baseball coach Mark Headley said. "Not anything. It’s real easy to make excuse and that’s what a lot of people are doing these days and he doesn’t ever do that."
Ellison started on the offensive line for the Lavaca football team that reached the playoffs in 2018 and no matter the task in front of him, he'd find a way to get it done.
"Kid like that, showed up everyday, no excuses," Schlinker said. "Wanted nothing handed to him. No special treatment. He was just one of the guys."
"Just any way you can," Ellison said. "You get so caught up in the moment you just don’t realize what you’re doing. When you’re in the game you just don’t realize I have this, you have that."
Playing football is one thing. There are teammates around to help out if needed but baseball is an entirely different challenge. You are kind of all alone, especially in the batter's box but that's no issue for Ellison.
"I got him in the lineup and he started hitting and I was like man, he’s one of the most consistent hitters we have," Headley said.
Since becoming a mainstay in the lineup, Headley said Ellison is hitting better than .350 and has Lavaca in the regional tournament on Thursday where a win would put the Arrows in the 2A state tournament.
So if you add it up - Ellison led Lavaca to the postseason in the fall on the football field and has done the same on the diamond this spring. Not to mention he's shown society in the process that fighting a little adversity doesn't mean you have to quit.
"Can’t never comes up with Dylan," Schlinker said. "If we’re doing an exercise, he’s going to find a way to do it."
"We’ve got so many that have quit for various reasons and he’s battling through that and not only battling through it just getting on the field, he’s succeeding at it," Headley added.
Ellison tries to be your typical high school kid. He likes sports, music and of course girls. But he's had to overcome a lot along the way but the senior said he wasn't going to miss a chance to do as much as he could.
"Being able to when I’m 30 coming out here and telling my kids when I came out here, I did everything I had," Ellison said. "You should try to do the same."