Hill Country teen has winning talent

Horseshoe Bay, Texas - A special needs teenager in the Hill Country is drawing national attention for his prediction of sporting events.

Ethan Vidal is a 16-year-old Marble Falls High School Freshman whose talent is picking winners in college and professional sports. His mother says his talent is a gift -- but it goes far beyond the win-loss column. As a special needs child, Vidal struggled to communicate for most of his life.

"There were a lot of internal things going on," his mother Cassie said. "He didn't know how to express himself."

Since he was born, Cassie has been by his side.

"For 16 years I've been his caregiver, as they say, and I've been the one that's done the hard part," she said.

Cassie helps him fight bi-polar and obsessive-compulsive disorders, mild autism and borderline schizophrenia. She's also been there for the good times, like two years ago, when he asked her to pick horse races while they were at Sam Houston Race Track.

"He was about 14 and I said 'sure,' and I let him pick a few and there were four races he won and I was surprised," she said. "I thought wow-- he didn't know the trainers or the horses from anything, and he just happened to see the numbers, and he's not good at numbers because he's on a first grade level with numbers, but he picked the numbers and he won."

Picking games became part of Cassie and Ethan's routine. They branched out from horse racing to the NFL and college football, and what many say is the most difficult sport to predict-- college basketball.

Ethan's winning percentage in college basketball in December alone was 72 percent, out of 1,170 games. He had a 70% success rate this year in the NFL regular season. He says he has no formula-- he just goes off what he knows.

"San Diego beat the Broncos last time," Ethan said. "And Pittsburgh played Dallas and they lost.

"It's made us a lot closer. It's brought out a lot in him. He's an A-B honor roll student at school, and he's doing very well."

Every day, Cassie and Ethan pick games for at least 20 minutes, all for fun. They play for their time together.

"When I'm in a sad mood, or things are going wrong, he'll hug me and say, 'Mom, are you okay?' and everything's going to be okay, and he'll hug me," she said. "And that's the best medicine I could ever have-- is to have my son hug me when things are going bad. He's very in tune to that. And it makes you see how far they've come."