A photo of two high school athletes praying together following their football game in Sherman, Texas, is touching hearts across the country.
Gage Smith, a wide receiver at Sherman High School, made several key plays to help lead his team to victory during a game against Mesquite West.
After that win, he took a knee to pray with his opponent, Ty Jordan, whose mother is battling cancer.
Smith told KXII-TV – “I just had a moment with him praying over him, his mom, and his family.”
The high school senior said at that moment he was not thinking about the score, he just wanted to show compassion saying — “When you’re playing the game, you’re playing to win, and the other team is the enemy. But afterward, you still have respect for the other opponent. Football brings people together in so many different ways, and that was just one example of it that night.”
Smith and Jordan first met while playing on a select 7-on-7 team, according to the station.
Following the game on Friday, Jordan’s aunt posted the touching image to Facebook, where it went viral. It’s been shared more than 150,000 times.
She wrote with the post — “This melts my heart.”
J.D. Martinez, the head football coach at Sherman High School called Smith a leader on and off the field. Martinez said his wife took the viral photo and shared it with Smith’s mom, who then passed it on to Jordan’s family.
Martinez said, “He’s that type of kid all the time. It’s just not in front of the cameras or anything like that. He’s like that every day.”