Ira Blumenthal, a native New Yorker, has been around the game of lacrosse for his entire life. As a retired consultant with Coca-Cola, he has spent the past 30 years in Atlanta, helping to grow the game at different levels. Through all his experiences, Blumenthal says he’s never met a person with more passion for lacrosse than Mark Ryan.
The strangest part of that is that Ryan has never played lacrosse.
Born with Down’s Syndrome, which causes developmental delays and mild to moderate intellectual disability, Mark, 31, has never played on any sports team. But that hasn't stopped him from becoming an avid sports fan. He follows all the teams, knows all the players, recites all the stats, and roots hard for his favorite Atlanta squads. His website - www.markryansworld.com - is an encyclopedic testament to his sports fandom.
But as much as he loves football, basketball, and baseball, nothing holds a tighter grip on Mark’s heart than lacrosse.
“This kid loves to study the game,” Blumenthal said. “He will sit and talk to referees about why they made a call. He knows the game and understands the game. It’s uncanny. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that knows so much about the game. He loves lacrosse.”
Blumenthal first met Mark Ryan when he was serving as an assistant coach for Harrison High School’s newly established boys’ lacrosse team. Blumenthal was an HHS parent, with three sons who attended. His youngest, Ryan, was a standout player on the basketball team, and quickly befriended Mark, who served as the team manager.
“Harrison is a pretty big school, about 2,000 students, and Mark was involved in lots of extracurricular activities, especially sports,” Ryan Blumenthal said. “He was manager for both the football and basketball teams and then migrated over to be manager for lacrosse. He just lives and breathes all sports, but lacrosse quickly became his favorite.”
Mark’s mother says that her son’s passion for lacrosse did not happen by accident.
“When he first joined the lacrosse team, those players were really the ones that took Mark under their wing and made him part of their lives,” Susan Ryan said. “They just included him in everything, so that’s where his love of lacrosse really comes from.”
As a student at Harrison, Mark was enrolled in the school’s special needs program, but he was known by virtually everyone in the student body. His charismatic and engaging demeaner made him one of the most popular students at Harrison, to the point that he was selected as Mr. Harrison High School and as Prom King.
“Mark never met a stranger,” Ryan Blumenthal said. “He’s just a unique personality. He cracks jokes all the time and he’s very funny. But he’s also very caring.”
A few years ago, Ira Blumenthal accepted a request to serve as an assistant coach with the men’s lacrosse club program at nearby Kennesaw State University. To his surprise, when he arrived at the first practice, he found that Mark, having graduated from HHS and now enrolled in a special program at KSU, was the team’s manager.
There’s nothing that escapes Mark’s attention as team manager. He handles all his duties with great efficiency – from managing uniforms and equipment to field set-up, from filling water coolers to setting up the scoreboard. “He’s just incredibly reliable,” Blumenthal said.
Mark says the reason he enjoys being the team manager is really quite simple. “I like being part of the team.” 
Mark’s faithful service through the years has endeared himself to players, coaches, and school staff. He is such a fixture locally that he still serves on occasion on Harrison’s lacrosse sidelines, 13 years after he graduated from the school.
“I don't know if it's because of his disability or just because of his demeanor, but everyone that sees him falls in love with him,” Ira Blumenthal said. “All the referees want to get a picture with Mark. It's just incredible. He's become like a mini celebrity down here.”
At KSU, where practices are mostly in the evenings, there is always a rotation of players that volunteer to drive Mark home after practice. They take care of him, just as he takes care of them.
“The kids are just so great to him and make him feel like a part of the team,” Susan Ryan said. “They are not feeling sorry for him. They just include him in everything.”
“I have not seen anyone at any place that didn’t embrace Mark and go out of their way for him,” Ira Blumenthal said.
Once a friend of Mark’s, always a friend.
“We have a big group of friends that he keeps in contact with, and he has this gift where he can rattle off everyone’s birthday and their favorite movies,” said Ryan Blumenthal. “He’s a big Disney and Marvel fan and he knows every release date of every Disney movie. Even the old ones.”
As life has gotten busier for everyone through the years, there’s not as much time to hang together on weekends or attend games and movies together, as they did in high school. But many still try to find time to connect with Mark for dinner (Moe’s Southwest Grill is his favorite) or a movie. Or they can always find him on the sidelines at Harrison High School and Kennesaw State.
“He’s just one of those special people you want to be with as much as you can,” Ryan Blumenthal said. “He’s brought a lot of light to everybody.”
