From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached

out to help another in a time of need.

My unsung hero is the kind stranger who helped me get to my grandfather's funeral.

And he just says, today you, tomorrow me.

And I never...

Thank you.

Thank you very much for changing my life.

Today's story comes from Laidi Clots. My high school had always gotten crushed in soccer by the West Hill Warriors.

We saw them as the rich kids from the city.

One of their fathers took work calls on the sideline on the first mobile phone I ever saw.

But my group of friends lived for soccer and we had supportive parents too.

One of our parents parked a hay wagon on the sideline so that they could get elevated video footage of our games.

And by the time we played West Till my junior season, it was time for us to finally beat them.

And I'll never forget, we're already ahead in this game, 2 to nothing, when I dribbled past my

defender near the halfway line and made a backdoor pass to my friend who scored,

which effectively ended the game. And I was so excited. As I ran to celebrate with my team,

I screamed right in the face of West Hill's best player, a tall blonde midfielder named Jeff

Wentland.

And Jeff was a big reason why we could never beat West Hill.

He was skilled and smart and ultra competitive.

I mean, he's the kind of guy who would slide

tackle his grandmother to win. As soon as the final whistle blows for this game

...