Everyone needs a distraction. Everyone needs heroes. Enter World Cup 2010. Enter Tim Howard, intense focus and breathtaking tenacity. Considered one of the world's best goalkeepers, he was the cornerstone of the Team USA. Howard was injured when a player slammed cleats-first into his ribs at full speed. Howard continued to play for almost an hour in, what he told the press, felt like "agony."

Howard was an early standout. He remains the youngest player ever to receive Major League Soccer's "Goalkeeper of the Year" award. Later he played for Manchester United, one of the most successful clubs in the history of English football. He now plays for Everton, where he is "worshipped" by the fans.

But his start in England was not without its bumps. You see Tim Howard has Tourette Syndrome and has since he was 9. TS is defined by multiple motor and vocal tics lasting for more than a year.

When he arrived in England, the lovely British newspapers called him the most horrific names and described his neurological condition in the most ignorant manner. Their medieval taunting made my heart break for Tim and his family. But his lifelong history of overcoming obstacles helped him yet again. He just outworked everyone else. In his very first season with Manchester, Howard was voted best goalkeeper in the entire Premier League, and assisted his team to its first football association cup in years. I wonder if the editors ate their headlines then?

"It's just a battle of the will," says Howard. However, the downside for TS sufferers is that repressing tics during times of necessity often causes them to pay severely for it soon afterwards, in intensely multiplied episodes when they are "off."

According to the National Tourette Syndrome Association, (www.tsa-usa.org) TS often goes undiagnosed, but as many as 200,000 people may have it. According to the National Institutes of Health, as many as one in 100 people may have milder symptoms, like chronic cough or facial twitches. Most people with TS get better, not worse, as they age and many outgrow it. And contrary to media hype, it is uncommon to swear or utter racial slurs, and often contrary to the individual's personal beliefs.

Parents of children with TS in Georgia can find support at www.georgiatourette.org. And anyone interested in advocating for statewide legislative changes can join the FaceBook group "Special Education Advocacy in Georgia."

Howard may be exceptional, but he is not alone. Major League Baseball player Jim Eisenreich, who won two World Series rings, also has Tourette Syndrome. Unfortunately, he also suffered from the same ignorant attacks from fans and media, which necessitated a three-year leave. He came back even stronger.

Then of course in Cobb County we have Brad Cohen, a best-selling author whose life's story was made into a Hallmark movie "Front of the Class." He's a public speaker and has been on "Oprah." Yes, with Tourette's. Most important, he's working in the profession he loves, rising from teacher to assistant principal and always staying in Cobb, which makes me especially proud of my county. And like Tim Howard, he's a husband and father.

My favorite scene in his movie shows Cohen's perseverance. After initial interviews, word of his condition went around the schools of Georgia, and his phone stopped ringing. So he stopped waiting for things to come to him and took matters into his own hands. Making a list of every school in metro Atlanta, he hand-delivered resumes, even leaving them with janitors. After 40-plus interviews, the now-former principal of Mountain View Elementary in east Cobb hired him.

Later, accepting an award for Teacher of the Year, Cohen thanked all the usual people, but mainly thanked his Tourette Syndrome. I don't find that surprising. It taught him to "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty." That's a famous quote by a famous third-grade "flunkie," who later twice failed the entrance exam to Royal Military Academy. Prime Minister Winston Churchill didn't do so bad for himself, either.

JoEllen Smith is an education activist and freelance writer in east Cobb.