CITRONELLE, Ala. — A moment captured on video during a Citronelle junior varsity football game has struck a chord across the community, drawing more than 3,400 views in a single day.
The clip shows Hunter Robinson, one of two players with special needs on Citronelle’s team, crossing into the end zone for a touchdown in the final seconds of the game against MGM.
With 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Robinson took the field. Assistant coach Jeff Pippin said the reaction from the stands was like nothing he had heard before.
“We had a crowd that was crying, had kids that were celebrating in the end zone, we had coaches that were more excited than the kids were,” Pippin said.
Robinson ran 95 yards to put points on the board — not the first time the team has made room for him to shine. Head football coach Jason Barnett said the gesture began last year, when Pippin, then the ninth-grade coach, spoke with the MGM coaching staff about giving Robinson a chance to carry the ball.
“They said absolutely, let’s do it again,” Barnett said of MGM’s willingness to repeat the moment a second year in a row.
The play brought both sidelines together. Assistant coach JD Phillips said some moments are bigger than the final score.
“You know you forget a lot of the scores, sometimes you forget the results as you get older, but there are moments like that, that are bigger than the game,” Phillips said.