An ordinary night of football at Seminole Ridge High quickly became anything but Wednesday night.
Lawrence Banks plays wide receiver for Seminole Ridge's JV football team.
He's also on the autism spectrum.
Wednesday night his team won, but that wasn't his only victory.
“I met him this year, and he has made such a big impact on my life already,” says his friend Kara Stoffel.
Kara and her friend Sienna Taverrite had a surprise waiting for Banks as he jogged off the field with homecoming just days away.
“I knew that he wasn't planning on going, so we decided we wanted to ask him,” Kara says.
So on Wednesday night, that's exactly what they did.
“I ran towards the cheerleaders,” Lawrence says. “They put the poster board up and I read. It said, 'Lawrence, will you tackle homecoming with us.' ” He added, “I said yes. Without hesitation.”
The girls say their motivation was simple.
“Lawrence is somebody special to me in my heart, and I'll never be able to forget him,” Kara says. “So I just thought he deserved to go to homecoming.”
“He's such a great person, and he's such a great friend, and fun to be around. It's actually hard to find someone like that,” Sienna says.
