As the Hopkins basketball team stood in shock, taking in the loss of their final game of the season, another member of the team had a different reaction and touched the hearts of viewers.

Grant Petersen, senior, was not only happy, but jumped for joy as the second place medals were awarded to him and his teammates.

“I was so happy,” Petersen said.

Petersen was born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition which affects over 400,000 people in the United States, according to the National Down Syndrome Society.

After a picture of Petersen and his post-game excitement was published on Twitter, it became an instant hit and was trending nationwide in less than 24 hours.

Kids and adults from all over the country began to tweet, “#getgrantonellen,” in attempts to have Petersen featured on The Ellen Show.

His sister, Alli Petersen, sophomore, was very excited about all of the support her brother has been receiving.

“When I saw all of the tweets, I was like, ‘Yeah! Lets do this!’ and I wanted everyone to tweet it because Grant really deserves this and it would be pretty cool,” Alli said.

On Monday, March 17, “#getgrantonellen” was one of the top trending topics in the United States.

“It was insane, I realized that people actually care so much about Grant and they have since he was little,” Alli said.

Lukas Jorgensen, senior, has known the Petersen family since he started school at WJH. Jorgensen met the Petersen family early in his seventh grade year and has been friends with them ever since.

“The first time I met him was in gym class and he was ironically playing basketball,” Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen has always admired Grant’s enthusiastic behavior.

“He’s happy just to be a part of the team and regardless of whether we win or lose, he’s always a happy guy,” Jorgensen said.

Grant’s excitement has inspired countless tweeters, bloggers, and professional reporters. In Grant’s eyes, the boys basketball team won the tournament. And in regards to getting on The Ellen Show, Grant said, “I’ll have fun there.”