Tristan Brackett's mom almost didn't make the call.
Christine spotted a Special Olympics flyer at a Publix in spring 2023. She wasn't sure the program was for athletes on the autism spectrum. She called anyway. Two weeks later, Tristan was signed up for four sports.
He was 14. He'd never played softball.
Now he's 17, finishing 11th grade at Mills E. Godwin High School in Henrico County, and heading to Special Olympics Virginia Summer Games on June 5–6 to play center field.
Coach Terry put him there. It stuck.
Christine describes her son as someone who can seem checked out during practice, quiet, in his own world. But that changes on game day. "He shows up," she says. "He shows out."
That pattern shows up across sports. Tristan competes year-round: soccer, pickleball, bowling, basketball, tennis, swimming, and this spring, track and field for the first time. He ran the 100-meter dash and threw shot put without having done either before. He figured it out.
Christine calls him a sponge. "Few words, but a lot of words." He watches, absorbs, then acts. It's the same quality that will help him when he graduates, moves through Godwin's transition program as a super senior until age 22, and works toward vocational training at the ACE Tech Center at Hermitage High School.
Special Olympics has been part of that path. Learning to listen to a coach is practice for listening to a job coach. Showing up on game day is practice for showing up at work. Christine sees it clearly even if Tristan wouldn't put it that way.
What he would say: basketball is his favorite sport. Christine suspects softball is close behind.
Either way, he'll be in center field on June 5th. Watching the whole field. Waiting.