Kentucky Girl With Autism Gets Opening Score for High School Basketball Team

A high school student with autism had a debut basketball game to remember when she scored her team’s first basket in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on February 2. Kristian Shouse, a student in Christian County High School’s Function Mental Disability unit, was made honorary team captain for the team’s Senior Night ceremony and wore the number one jersey against Hopkinsville, one of Christian County’s biggest rivals, local media reported. After striking up a friendship with Laderia Gold, a senior girls’ basketball player at Christian County High School, Gold invited Shouse to the team’s Senior Night. When the game began, Gold passed the ball to Shouse, whose first attempt to score sailed right through the basket, much to the delight of the onlooking crowd. Local reporter Chris Jung shared a clip of the touching moment to Twitter. The video had earned 72,000 views at the time of writing. Credit: Twitter/ChrisJungKNE via Storyful