The football season may be over for the Altoona Mountain Lions, but the friendship between number 51 and his number one fan is just beginning.
Senior Jake Lindner spends part of his school day helping out at Penn-Lincoln Elementary. That’s where he met 7-year-old Isaac Lopez.
“Every day at lunch I get to come and see Isaac,” Lindner said. “I’ll come down and give him a high five. He says ‘hi’. A few times we’ll talk about the Monday night football game. He’s come to see me at a few of my games.”
A home game is where the first picture of the two was taken. It was a night Jake said he will never forget.
“It was my senior night. Now, we got killed – I think it was like 62 nothing – but just seeing him, like getting to take the picture with him and see how happy he was to just be around this atmosphere, it was awesome,” Lindner said. “It made the night a whole lot better.”
“It makes my day,” said Isaac’s mom, Angela Reeseman. “He just gets this big smile on his face and for Jake to actually take the time, to stop even at the end of a game after a hard loss and talk with him, it just amazes me.”
Reeseman posted the picture on an Altoona Facebook group page, and it took off.
“You don’t see that many teenagers actually take the time to mentor or be nice to a little kid,” she said. “I just wanted to share my appreciation to him.”
Lindner said Isaac is the role model in this friendship.
“As young as Isaac is, just being around him, the way he goes through life, the way he always has a smile,” Lindner said. “He’s always jumping up as high as he can to give me a high five. It’s great to be around him. He has a great energy and I’ve learned a lot from him.”
Isaac just appreciates having a new friend.
“Jake is a really nice guy and I like him because he plays football and I like football so much,” Isaac said.
“He’s always waiting there with a smile, with his hand up,” Lindner said. “He’s awesome.”
Come spring, the roles might be reversed between the two. They talked about Jake coming to cheer Isaac on at his baseball games.
