More thoughts about Butch Copelin
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@oklahoman.com
I wrote a story for Friday’s Oklahoman about a mentally handicapped football player from Newkirk named Kyle Copelin. But he prefers the nickname “Butch,” given to him by his grandpa when he was a baby.
My first thought about this is: What an absolutely wonderful family. His parents – Jay and Jill – were so hospitable and helpful to me when I visited Newkirk last week.
I went up to Newkirk to get a feel for how Butch acts in normal high school football situations, such as weight lifting, film watching and practice. He is a truly special kid who just wants to be part of the team.
But watch out or he’ll “stir your chili!”
This morning (Monday), Jill Copelin called me to talk more about some of the things that happened for Butch after the article was published Friday.
She said it was impossible to find a copy of The Oklahoman in Newkirk. Also, the school received several calls from Oklahoma State season ticket holders who offered their tickets to OSU’s Saturday game against Sam Houston State to Butch. We certainly have some wonderful people in our state. But, all of those fine folks were able to keep their tickets because Butch and his dad go to all the games anyway.
Some people at Oklahoma State saw the story, and noticed that Butch is an OSU fan (according to him, he’s going to play for them). So the OSU people invited him to meet Mike Gundy and the players and participate in “The Walk” tradition done before all OSU home games.
Photographer Matt Strasen was able to get a great picture for the paper of Butch with Gundy on Saturday.
Jill Copelin also told me that a history class at Newkirk High School gets several copies of The Oklahoman everyday, and the kids in the class had Butch come in and sign their papers.
I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to write this story, meet this family and spend a day in that community. Newkirk coach Barrett Shupe was a great help, as were all of his assistants.
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