BUTTE — On the final play of the West all-star team’s football practice Tuesday afternoon, Kasey Morley took the handoff, cut up the sideline, left tacklers swiping at air and scored a touchdown.
It’s a tradition that now stretches back almost a decade. Morley scored his first all-star touchdown in 2016 as a patient ambassador for that year’s Montana East-West Shrine Game, which raises money for Shriners Children's Hospital in Spokane, Wash.
“Very hard not to cry — it’s a very proud moment,” said Kevin Morley, Kasey’s dad. “Kasey wasn’t born with normal hands and stuff, so the chances of him actually running with a football and scoring a TD and getting to score a TD in a real football game are slim to none. So, just means a lot to our family.”
Kasey Morley’s experience exemplifies the Shrine Game’s motto: Strong legs run that weak legs may walk. When Kasey served as patient ambassador in 2016, he was a patient at Shriners Hospital. It was in Spokane that Kasey would get his new thumbs, which would allow him to do things like shoot hoops and hold a football.
“It’s really awesome,” Kasey said of his touchdown-running tradition. “I mean, like, I’ve had fun with it ever since I started.”
And after Kasey ran in his touchdown this year, Kasey’s West teammates and coaches recognized him for his selflessness and perseverance with a “We Not Me” sticker.
“A 'We Not Me' sticker is like when someone is doing something for the better of the team and not for themselves,” explained West all-star Jace Koshatka of Missoula Sentinel. “It’s like taking yourself out of the picture and doing it for the team just because, like, you love them.”
Kasey called his all-star experience “really meaningful since they dedicate it to me.”
“Every day there’s still thoughts that go through my mind that he might not be able to do this, that or the other,” said Kevin Morley. “And then he always proves me wrong, so I’m one proud dad.”
