Blind Teen May Play For USC Football Team He Inspired in 2009

— -- When faced with losing his second eye to cancer at the age of 12, Jake Olson wanted to watch his last University of Southern California Trojans football game in person and take it all in. He got his wish and met the team.

Now a high school senior and totally blind, he may play for them.

The California teen was diagnosed with retinoblastoma when he was 1 and lost one of his eyes, ABC News reported. Although the cancer came back eight times, he was able to beat it until he was 12 in 2009. That year, doctors told him he would lose the other eye.

Though the thought of being totally blind scared him, Olson's one wish was to see the Trojans play one last time.

"I want to take in as much as I can," he told ABC News at the time.

USC head football coach Pete Carroll heard about it and invited Olson to practice.

"I got to sit next to Pete Carroll on the bus, which was awesome. I got to see them practice, which was awesome," Olson said. "I got to go into the locker room and everyone was partying. It was just awesome."

On the eve of his surgery, he was on the USC football field with the team. Carroll told him they loved him, and wanted to see him after he recovered. The next day, the Olsons sneaked his favorite player, Kris O'Dowd, into the hospital to wish him well.

"The nurse came in and gave him his IV and that's when Jake just broke down, just emotionally broke down and his parents broke down. I broke down," O'Dowd said. "I went up and gave him a kiss on the head and just told him, 'You're the strongest kid I've ever known and keep being who you are and everything will work out.'"

He was right.

Olson went on to write a book, "Open Your Eyes to a Happier Life," and even got to play on his high school football team at Lutheran High School of Orange County.

"I was going to have to give up that dream of playing on the field," he told ABC News last fall. "It was something that being blind you couldn't do."

But the coach and the rest of the team worked with Olson to figure out how he could snap the ball. Olson's teammates clap and tap his leg to guide him.

"My heart pounds twice as fast every time," Olson said.

This fall, he's headed to USC on a full scholarship through Swim with Mike, which was founded at USC 35 years ago to help send disabled athletes to school. He's one of 60 students to get a Swim with Mike Scholarship this year, 12 of whom will go to USC, Swim with Mike founder Ron Orr told ABC News.

Orr said Olson was at the annual recruitment dinner in February, and after all the new players were announced, the Trojans' new head coach said there was "one more Trojan." It was Olson, who isn't an official member of the team yet, but Orr said the coach hopes to work with the NCAA to allow him to snap the ball soon.

"It was quite a moment," Orr said. "Jake Olson got up there with his dog and brought the house down."