MIDLAND, Texas — Ashton Crocker is a 25-year-old high-functioning autistic man living in Midland. He is currently epileptic and has Stage 3 kidney failure.
He hasn't let this stop him from playing all kinds of sports.
On the softball field, he can spin a knuckleball like Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox.
When he goes onto the basketball court - his favorite sport - he'll man the point guard position with the hopes of meeting Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry.
That's not all he plays. Soccer, track, volleyball - you name it, he has probably played it.
While he hasn't always played in Midland, he has taken part in sports wherever he has lived, which makes competing in the Special Olympics a no-brainer.
"He used to play in Austin when he lived there with his mom and all them," Crystal Marshall - Crocker's mother-in-law - said. "Then he met my daughter, moved out here and we signed him up for and transferred him out here. It was about two years ago.”
Competing in sports helps him make new friends and work as part of a team, something he may not have gotten the chance to do if he didn't play.
He is not the only one who benefits from Special Olympics. Everyone and anyone who comes out to compete at the Fall Classic gets the chance to compete.
“They just get out there and do what they can. Disability, no disability, they are out there, they are on the field and they are participating." Marshall said. "It helps them get out the house come out there and watch everybody. They get to make friends they get to talk to everybody and work together as a group.”
Competing in these events have brought him out of his shell in a way that only sports can.
“He's very talkative now. He used to be kind of shy and know that he is out there, he has come around to making new friends," Marshall said. "He'll just go up to someone now and start talking to them.”
While making new friends and competing is the name of the game, nobody will blame Crocker for wanting the ultimate prize: victory.