Nathan Lubawy has bladder dismotility and renal failure. He wears an alarm that reminds him to use the bathroom because the nerves surrounding his bladder don't function correctly.

Yet last Friday, when his mother, Elizabeth, told him to go, he blew her off.

Because last Friday, Nathan was in the middle of a football game.

Nathan, who has Down syndrome, was one of 26 athletes participating in the Football Camp For The Stars, a two-day camp at Thomas Jefferson High School specifically for football fans ages 15-30 with Down syndrome.

"Nobody has anything like this," Elizabeth Lubawy said. "This is fabulous."

The camp originated four years ago in San Jose, Calif., with Mike Machado, the head coach of Valley Christian High School. The first year, the camp had around 10 athletes. As it grew in popularity, athletes traveled from as far away as Michigan to attend.

"I did it for our guys, at our school," Machado said. "I did it for our guys to learn about people who are different."

The camp caught the attention of Jim Tomsula, the defensive line coach for the San Francisco 49ers, a native of West Homestead and a graduate of Steel Valley High School in Munhall. Tomsula's daughters attend Valley Christian and told him about the camp. Once he saw it in action, he wanted to bring it home.

"We're watching it and it's like, 'Wow, man!'" he said. "And then it's football, and Pittsburgh. And that's where I'm from. It's a no-brainer."

Tomsula and his wife, Julie, enlisted the help of George Novak, his coach at Steel Valley and now the head coach at Woodland Hills High School, and Bill Cherpak, the head coach at Thomas Jefferson and Tomsula's high school teammate.

They also contacted Sheila Cannon, the program coordinator for the Down Syndrome Center at UPMC, to ask for help. Cannon said the program was perfect because football camps for special-needs people were rare.

"This is something that their fathers, their brothers, their cousins, everybody does football. And you're always on the sidelines," Cannon said. "This is their opportunity to do something that they love."

The athletes stretched and tossed footballs in the evening as the sun set, with the NFL Films theme song playing in the background at times, and caught passes as they dove into a set of mats. Machado told the coaches not to go easy on the athletes, Tomsula said.

"[Machado] said, 'Look, we're not going to have gloves on. We're not going to be walking on eggshells. These are boys who want to play football. We're going to coach them,'" Tomsula said.

Later, with the Pleasant Hills Middle School cheerleaders chanting for them by name, the athletes juked in and out of cones en route to a touchdown. End zone dances followed, and one athlete channeled his inner Terrell Owens when he grabbed a cheerleader's pom-poms and started dancing.

That awareness of the game was not uncommon. Patty Oberst of Johnstown said her son, Dan, was the manager of Westmont Hilltop High's football, basketball and baseball teams and loves the game.

"He understands everything about sports," she said. "The coaches always say that if there's four coaches on the field, that they actually have five, because Dan always yells out plays."

The Camp For The Stars featured some stars -- Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Steve Breaston, a Woodland Hills graduate, 49ers linebacker Scott McKillop, a Kiski Area High School and Pitt graduate, and Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt came to see the athletes on Thursday.

"As soon as they saw those guys, their eyes got real big. They were all excited," said Nate Bullock, a rising senior football player at Woodland Hills and one of the many "buddies," or volunteers from the Woodland Hills and Thomas Jefferson football teams who were paired with the athletes.

After a pre-game pep talk in the locker room, the athletes ran onto the field as Cherpak announced their names. A game of flag football followed. The flags didn't stop them from playing tough: They ran hard and dog-piled on top of fumbles. A live WPIAL officiating crew, called to action by Tomsula's family, refereed the game.

"That was our main goal, put them on the stage," Cherpak said. "Just let them have that experience."

For the parents watching, the chance for their children to enjoy the spotlight delighted them.

"It's the thrill of a lifetime to get to see your child do something that he's normally watching others do," Patty Oberst said. "This is their turn to shine and I can see how much it means to them."

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