Four-year-old Grayson Armstrong rode into Eagles Stadium last Friday not as a spectator, but as an honorary member of the Boulder City High School football team. Grayson, who was diagnosed with Batten disease at the beginning of 2026, took part in the pregame coin toss, traded fist bumps with players from both Boulder City and visiting Eldorado High School, and lasted the entire game without crying, showing claps and smiles instead as the Eagles rolled to a 21-0 win.
The tribute came together as part of a night the school organized specifically to honor Grayson and raise awareness of Batten disease, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Batten disease is a very rare genetic condition found in children, according to Cleveland Clinic, and it causes cells to collect waste instead of getting rid of it, leading to seizures, vision loss, and problems with thinking and movement that worsen over time. There is currently no cure. Nationally, the broader family of disorders known as Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses affects an estimated two to four out of every 100,000 live births in the United States, per data from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, underscoring how uncommon Grayson's diagnosis is even among rare pediatric conditions.
A Family Deeply Woven Into Boulder City Athletics
Grayson's ties to the program run deep. His grandfather, Mike Armstrong, is both an Eagles assistant football coach and the head coach of Boulder City High School's boys track and field program, according to school athletic records. His mother, Jessica Armstrong, teaches and coaches soccer at Foothill High School in Henderson, and her own soccer players showed up with eight handmade signs supporting Jessica and Grayson. Grayson entered the stadium alongside his twin sister, Thea, and his parents, Jessica and Rhett Armstrong.
Boulder City senior Otis Rush dedicated his entire football season to Grayson, and the team as a whole adopted the mantra “not gonna happen” for the week leading up to the game, according to Mike Armstrong. Boulder City Principal Amy Wagner said Grayson and his family are part of the Eagle family, while the student section sang the school's fight song as players lifted Grayson out of his wheelchair during the pregame ceremony.
New Coach's First Full Game Becomes a Season-Defining Moment
The August 28 win over Eldorado marked the first fully completed game for new head coach Chris Render, whose official debut two weeks earlier against Valley High School was cut short by rain and lightning with Boulder City leading 14-7. Render was named Boulder City High School's varsity football head coach in January after four seasons on the Eagles' staff, including three as defensive coordinator, following 12 years coaching at Basic High School in Henderson, according to the Boulder City Review. He took over after Frank “Bubba” Mariani coached the Eagles through the end of the 2025 season, which ended 6-6 with a home playoff win over Democracy Prep before a 39-6 quarterfinal loss to top-seeded Virgin Valley.
Boulder City High School Student Council Advisor Laura Hobbs helped organize the tribute, which also included students Rory Cunniffe and Melody Arcos dressing up as characters from “Lilo & Stitch,” Grayson's favorite movie, to greet him and his family during the pregame walk onto the field. Grayson gave high-fives to his teammates before kickoff and was acknowledged by players from both squads throughout the night.
‘Overwhelmed by the Love’
Jessica Armstrong said the event exceeded her family's expectations, telling the Review-Journal that her family was overwhelmed by the love and support shown to them. The Boulder City community has rallied around the Armstrongs since Grayson's diagnosis earlier this year, and the family has set up a Facebook page and Instagram account to document his journey, along with a GoFundMe account to help cover medical appointments and trips.
Grayson turns 5 in November. While enzyme replacement therapies such as Brineura have won FDA approval for one subtype of the disease known as CLN2 — first cleared in April 2017 and expanded in July 2024 to cover pediatric patients of all ages, including presymptomatic infants — Batten disease as a whole remains fatal with no universal treatment. Families like the Armstrongs often turn to groups such as the Batten Disease Support and Research Association, which maintains patient registries and helps connect families to clinical trials for the broader group of disorders, according to research compiled in the National Institutes of Health's PMC database.
For one Friday night in Boulder City, though, the football field belonged to Grayson. As Boulder City High School, a Clark County School District campus of 616 students whose motto reads “Success is an endless flight,” closed out its win over the Eldorado Firehawks, the score read 21-0 — but for the Armstrong family, the real victory was watching Grayson claim his place among the Eagles.
