“I said I’d be honored. I said it right away,” Cecil told the local paper.

Bratton’s decision was a touching one that made sense for a number of reasons. Because the senior’s girlfriend is only a sophomore, she is not eligible to attend his prom, leaving him open to another date. And while Bratton could have taken someone else, he said that if he hadn’t agreed to escort Nelson, he almost certainly would have spent the entire dance just hanging out with his friends.

As for matching up such an odd-couple, said that she felt the duo was a perfect pair.

“He sets such a good example, and I love Breyonna,” stated Dianne Slawson, the personal helper who looks after Nelson at Central High, “She’s got the guts of a bear.”

A year and a half ago, he and Cayden started participating in triathlons together. Conner swims while pulling Cayden in a raft, bikes with his little brother towed behind him in a trailer, and pushes that trailer when they run. Over the past 18 months, the pair from White House, Tennessee, traveled up and down the East coast to compete in races. Seeing the brothers working together has inspired onlookers, while bringing Conner and Cayden closer than ever. Their amazing determination and spirit is why the Long brothers are the 2012 Sports Illustrated Kids SportsKids of the Year.

Watch the inspiring story of brothers Conner and Cayden Long below in this short:

It was spring of 2011, and Conner’s and Cayden’s mom, Jenny, was flipping through an issue of Sumner Parent magazine. As Conner looked over his mom’s shoulder, an advertisement caught his eye. It was for an event for kids that included swimming, biking, and running: the Nashville Kids Triathlon. Conner asked his mom if he could try it. Then he asked if Cayden could do it too. “You never want to tell your kid no,” Jenny remembers, “but . . .”

Conner insisted, and the Longs decided they would find a way to get it done. They talked to race organizers, and they reached out to Mandy Gildersleeve, a youth triathlon coach from Florida, who helped them get the necessary equipment for the race.

That first race together, in June 2011, started with 100 yards of swimming. (The swimming leg was Cayden’s favorite, as he laughed and smiled the whole way.) Gildersleeve carried Cayden out of the raft and to the trailer for the hilly three-mile biking leg of the race. In this race, Conner would bike alone while Gildersleeve rode alongside him with Cayden hitched to her bike. Conner didn’t like that arrangement one bit. The whole ride he kept telling Gildersleeve to let Cayden ride with him. Finally, after they cleared one last large hill, Cayden’s trailer was hitched to Conner’s bike. “And he just took off,” Gildersleeve remembers.

Then came the half-mile run, and after a total of 43 minutes and 10 seconds, the Long brothers crossed the finish line, with Cayden smiling in his trailer and Conner triumphantly pumping his fists in the air. “That was my favorite moment,” says Conner. “Because I knew we could finish that race.”

Since then, Conner and Cayden have competed in a total of 14 races, from triathlons to fun runs. When they go to races now, they are celebrities. People approach them for pictures, or simply stop to tell them how inspiring they are. Their Facebook page is filled with encouraging messages from strangers, some of them parents of special needs kids.

Many see Conner as a hero, but he doesn’t quite understand the hype. For him, these races are just a chance for him and his little brother to have some fun. “When we went out for the first race this season,” Conner says, “Cayden [had a look on his face] like ‘I’m so happy to be back out here, I can’t believe we had to wait this long!’”

And Cayden definitely has fun. He smiles and giggles throughout races. He’s even become a bit of a prankster. “We were warming up for a race once, and Cayden was really interested in this bright-colored van across the street,” says Gildersleeve. “He started to wheel himself towards it, so I said ‘Cayden, please stop.’ Instead he just started going faster. I thought I was going to have a heart attack! Right before he got to the curb, he stopped his chair. He turned around and looked at me with this huge smile and started laughing. He knew exactly what he was doing.”

Even if they don’t realize it, the Long brothers are an inspiration to others. Many people would have looked at Cayden and assumed he’d never be able to compete in a race. So when the Long brothers finish a triathlon, it’s a reminder that kids with special needs can participate in many of the same activities that other kids do everyday.

As for the future, the Long brothers have no plans to stop racing. The Long family is trying to start a non-profit organization to inspire more people, help the Longs travel to races, and, as Cayden gets bigger and heavier, upgrade their equipment.

ESPN E:60 also did a feature about the brothers. You can watch it here.

“I do think over the next three to five years we’ll be able to paint a much clearer picture of how genes and environmental factors combine” to cause autism, said Geraldine Dawson, a psychologist who is chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

The effort has been infused with new urgency by a recent federal report that found autism disorders are far more common than was previously understood, affecting 1 in 88 U.S. children. Better diagnosis is largely responsible for the new estimate, but health officials said there may actually be more cases of autism, too.

If autism’s causes remain a mystery, “you’re not going to be able to stop this increase,” said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a researcher at the University of California, Davis who is leading a closely watched study into what sparks autism disorders.

In the past week, a spate of studies released during National Autism Awareness Month has offered tantalizing new information about potential causes. Research published in the journal Nature widened the understanding of the genetic roots of some cases and confirmed the elevated risks for children with older fathers. Another study, released online Monday in Pediatrics, suggested maternal obesity may play a role.

To be sure, finding the causes of autism — an umbrella term for a variety of disorders that delay children socially or intellectually — remains daunting. The causes are believed to be complicated, and not necessarily the same for each child. Some liken autism to cancer — a small word for a wide range of illnesses. In many cases, autism can be blamed on both genetic problems that load the gun and other factors that pull the trigger.

It has been a growing public concern for two decades, as studies have found it to be more and more prevalent. The U.S. government dramatically increased funding for autism research in the last decade, and now budgets about $170 million a year through the National Institutes of Health. That’s only about a quarter of what NIH will spend on breast cancer research and $50 million less than what it will spend on asthma.

But more than a half-dozen foundations and autism advocacy groups have been adding to the pot, putting annual research spending in recent years at more than $300 million. About a third of that has been devoted to finding autism’s causes.
The lion’s share of money for finding a cause has been spent on genetics, which so far experts believe can account for roughly 20 percent of cases. The earliest success was in the early 1990s and involved the discovery of the genetic underpinnings of Fragile X syndrome, a rare condition that accounts for just 2 to 4 percent of autism cases but is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability in boys.

The focus on genetics has been bolstered by dramatic improvements in gene mapping as well as the bioengineering of mice with autism symptoms. Dozens of risk genes have been identified, and a half-dozen drug companies are said to be working on developing new treatments.

“We’ve made some very significant progress on the genetics end of this search,” said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Scientists have used autistic mice to test new drugs. Among the most promising is a small, white, strawberry-flavored pill that is so experimental it doesn’t have a name. Developed by a Massachusetts company called Seaside Therapeutics Inc., the drug is aimed at a problem area in the brains of autistic children, where neurons connect and conduct signals through the nervous system.

It’s a bit like the way tree-hopping ants might cross the twig ends of one tree branch to another. In Fragile X syndrome, scientists have noted the branches are thinner and the twigs too numerous. The experimental drug thins the twigs and strengthens the branches, allowing a more solid and centralized bridge.

The same problem hasn’t been as visible in other types of autism, but many believe the phenomenon is somewhat similar.
The drug was deemed successful in mice and is now being tested in children and adults. In small, early studies, the drug made a striking difference in small groups of Fragile X children, causing hermit-like youngsters to start hanging out in the kitchen to chat with their mothers, said Dr. Paul Wang, Seaside’s vice president of clinical development.

Now it is being tried in a preliminary study of about 150 children with a range of other autism disorders, including Asperger’s. The results are expected to be presented at a scientific conference in the next year.

“It’s going to be an exciting time, we hope,” when those results come in, said Dawson, from Autism Speaks.

But even genetics enthusiasts acknowledge that genes are only part of the answer. Studies of identical twins have shown that autism can occur in one and not the other, meaning something outside a child’s DNA is triggering the disorder in many cases. Some cases may be entirely due to other causes, Dawson said.

That broad “other” category means “environmental” influences — not necessarily chemicals, but a grab bag of outside factors that include things like the age of the father at conception and illnesses and medications the mother had while pregnant.

For years, the best-known environmental theory involved childhood vaccines, prompted by a flawed 1998 British study that has been thoroughly discredited. Dozens of later studies have found no link between vaccines and autism. But there are other possible candidates. In all cases, these are “association” studies — they don’t prove cause and effect. They merely find connections between certain factors and autism. And sometimes these conclusions can be skewed by other things researchers failed to account for. Some study results expected within a year:

» Hertz-Picciotto’s study of 1,600 children in Northern California is comparing autistic children, youngsters with other developmental disabilities, and those who have no such diagnoses. Some results have been released already, including the recent finding that suggests a link between autism and a mother’s obesity. An earlier part of the study found that children born to mothers living less than two blocks from a freeway were twice as likely to have autism — presumably because of auto exhaust and air pollution, the researchers speculated.

» A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study involves 2,700 families nationwide. The researchers are interviewing parents and poring over medical records to look for common threads among autistic families, as well as doing genetics tests and checking hair samples for mercury. Much of the focus is on illnesses, medications, nutritional deficiencies or other problems during pregnancy.

» A study by Pennsylvania researchers involves 1,700 families in various regions of the country. Scientists are doing brain-imaging to look for changes over time in the brains of infants who have an older autistic sibling.

» A large Scandinavian study is examining patient registries in six countries for prenatal risk factors.

As study findings are reported, researchers are hoping to see repetition — confirmation, that is — that certain factors are playing significant roles. Even so, scientists are still casting nets. Said Coleen Boyle, a CDC official overseeing research into children’s developmental disabilities: “We’re at the infancy of just understanding how these factors relate to autism.”

The tournament will include Men’s and Women’s adult teams. Women’s teams will play in Open A and B Divisions. Men’s team will play in Open, Over 30 and Over 45 Divisions. Each team will be guaranteed three 18-minute games plus a chance for additional playoff games. Divisions will be grouped with some playing in the morning to early afternoon and others playing in the afternoon to early evening. Schedules will be determined prior to the tournament. Adult team registration fee is $200 and space is limited.

During the adult tournament, there will be a TOPSoccer skills and drills clinic for children with autism and other disabilities from 1:00-2:30 p.m. All fields will be dedicated to the TOPSoccer clinic during this portion of the tournament. Players and coaches from the Philadelphia Union will be on hand to participate in the TOPSoccer Program. There is no fee for this program but pre-registration is required due to space limitations.

Autism Science Foundation

The Sound Of Football

E-Soccer’s unique inclusion methodology promotes leadership, social, character, and athletic development for each child in an individualized manner. The San Francisco-based organization respects every child’s ability to be successful and included. Children are taught to learn from one another.

Each individual E-Soccer group consists of a head coach, assistant head coach, and a combination of personal or junior coaches as needed. Children are placed in an individual group according to age, ability, and individual goals in a way to provide optimal group learning and individual participation. It is encouraged that parents take time to get to know the head coach of your child’s group and communicate your child’s needs and goals.

Similar to our curriculum, E-Soccer maintains a very liberal view of competition. E-Soccer is offered free of charge for all families.

Special Needs Soccer is using the dynamic methodology of “crowd sourcing” ideas for our National Curriculum. Meaning, we are looking for contributions from any individual who believes they have a winning idea for our program and is willing to share their thoughts. No matter how big or small your ideas are, we want to hear from you. We have already received dozens of submissions from people just like yourself who want to contribute to this ground-breaking initiative, so don’t be shy! Please contact us today!

My name is Dan Brotman and it is my desire to launch a National Special Needs Soccer Program…

Soccer is arguably the simplest sport to play, yet it is physically challenging in terms of fitness, with its constant action. For a Special Needs program, this is the perfect combination for individual and team success. However, for a Special Needs Soccer program to triumph, it has to be meticulously crafted by a team of top physical therapists and soccer trainers to create the quintessential curriculum.

I am proposing to bring together a select group of special needs physical therapists who have extensive experience in sport-specific activities and marry them to best-in-class soccer trainers to develop an age-appropriate curriculum. A framework will initially be developed by the assembled experts and then specific training methods will be methodically tested to ascertain which drills work best for particular age groups. The framework will then be enhanced into a beta curriculum based on the findings and be tested for another period with various ages of Special Needs kids. The kids will participate in a Special Needs Soccer league and will be trained in accordance with the beta curriculum. The extensive testing and evaluation of the curriculum will continue to finely tune the program to ensure that each child has a rewarding and memorable soccer experience.

Once the curriculum is standardized, it is my desire to disseminate, free of charge, a complete Special Needs Soccer Package to any soccer club or organized entity so they can start their own world-class program. The idea is to give soccer organizations around the country a comprehensive system so that a Special Needs program and be easily accomplished.

In order to ensure we have the necessary resources to accomplish this historic endeavor, I have begun the fundraising process. One of the venues that I’m currently using is Pepsi Refresh, a wonderful charitable endeavor that has poured millions of dollars into neighborhoods, communities and programs around the country. Please let me know how we can rally our community to Vote for our Special Needs Soccer Program:

http://www.refresheverything.com/specialneedssoccer

Pepsi Refresh is a democratic program that funds ideas based on a Voting paradigm. The more votes we obtain, the better the chance that our Special Needs program gets funded.

Please contact me at your convenience to discuss this National Special Needs Soccer program in depth, and feel free to forward this email to anyone who would support this unique initiative.

Best Regards,

Dan Brotman