Photo by: Louis Brems
Out in Iowa the state association recently had a very interesting question asked of them. When high school XC runner, Tyler Gerdts with his family and the school's AD, came to the association requesting to have Tyler's dog, Hugo, be allowed to run with the team.
Tyler, who suffers from Autism, is very accepted at his school and on the team. The only issue is with his disorder is that it causes him lose focus sometimes and that has proved very dangerous. One instance cited was him getting lost going for a 9 mile run through two towns instead of just a 3 mile run around the park.
That is where Hugo comes in. Hugo, after years of training, greatly assists Tyler in staying focused and training. With the precedent being set in Ohio, Iowa agreed to allow Hugo onto the team. There were a few stipulations added such as both are non-scoring members of the team, but still he was allowed to be listed as an official student-athlete on the team.