On a chilly and sunny spring morning, a handful of EIU football players stood on the EIU logo right in the middle of O’Brien Field.
There were no cleats to lace up, no pads to strap on and not a whistle to be found.
This time, the players and a couple of coaches welcomed Bryce Weiler and 25-30 participants from the Beautiful Lives Project’s Field of Dreams program onto the field.
Eastern’s task: teach the participants, all of whom have some sort of disability, how to play football.
“I’d love to teach them how to throw a spiral,” redshirt junior quarterback Cole LaCrue said.
The group of participants split up and were free to roam around the field to take part in different drills that were set up.
One of the stations had participants throwing tennis balls and playing catch with two players, and another had both redshirt sophomore kickers Nico Carrier and Drew Schiller setting up a kicking net and teaching participants how to kick a football.
Pads were set up on the far side of the field for footwork drills, and there was also a net for participants to practice their throwing accuracy.
Large smiles were plastered on most of the participants’ faces as they all took part in the event.
“They’re having fun, and they’re enjoying life,” LaCrue said. “To them, there’s no setbacks. It’s a beautiful thing to listen to and a beautiful thing to be around.”
Mostly everybody crowded around the throwing net in the last 20 minutes of Wednesday’s event. Each participant took turns trying to throw a football into one of the holes in the net.
Each time a ball went into one of the holes, everyone cheered. During the event they weren’t isolated because of a disability; they were accepted as part of the team.
“I think our participants today are very inspirational, not just to myself, but to our players and our community,” head coach Chris Wilkerson said.
Weiler, the co-founder of the Beautiful Lives Project, is a blind person who was born four months premature. A complication at birth caused his retinas to detach, and for all the life that he can remember, Weiler has been without his eyesight.
Blindness doesn’t stop Weiler though. His drive to continue to live his life despite his disability has driven him to take up sports commentary and is why he co-founded the Beautiful Lives Project.
Weiler wants to give other people with disabilities a chance to actively participate in sports and activities and power potential, according to the project’s website.
Weiler works with different athletic programs from around the country to organize these events.
“Eastern Illinois football, players and coaches, do a great job with this event,” Weiler said.
Eastern has been an important school for Weiler, he said, ever since Marty Simmons was hired as head men’s basketball coach. Simmons allowed Weiler to be on the bench when they were both at the University of Evansville.
That gesture meant a lot for Weiler, who also spoke about it when the Beautiful Lives Project last visited EIU when it got together with both basketball teams in October 2025.
“That experience showed me the power of sports and the power of giving individuals who have disabilities opportunities,” Weiler said.
LaCrue said one of his biggest takeaways from the event was to be grateful for everything.
“The opportunity to be out here and learn these people and get to know them and just be a friend to them,” LaCrue said. “I think it’s huge for us.”
This is the third time that the project has worked with the EIU football program. The last event was held in 2024, as the event was unable to happen last year due to inclement weather.
The Beautiful Lives project will be back to Eastern in the fall to do another event with EIU basketball, according to Weiler.
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
