'College is about life’s lessons': Bellarmine basketball adds young leukemia patient to team
Jonathan Saxon
The Bellarmine men's basketball team added a new member Thursday, holding a signing ceremony with 7-year-old Seth Walsh.
Seth is a leukemia patient from Mount Washington who was matched with the Knights through Team IMPACT, a national nonprofit that pairs children with chronic illnesses with college sports teams.
“College is about life’s lessons,” Bellarmine head coach Scott Davenport said. “College basketball is about life’s lessons. Seth is bringing life’s lessons to this basketball program. Today, Seth Walsh made this basketball program and everybody associated with it better. We will be here for Seth.”
Seth, who was presented with his own jersey at the end of the Knights' youth basketball camp, will be connected with the team in a mentor-mentee type of fashion and will get to spend time with the players during practices and meals and attend as many games as he can throughout the upcoming season.
Seth didn't have too much to say during the ceremony, but he did say "being on the team" would be cool.
Seth’s parents, Michelle and Trevor Walsh, were thrilled to see that the Knights and so many others were happy to support their son through the partnership with the team.
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“He’s gone through a lot, so to see him out and just get to do something different and fun is really special,” Michelle Walsh said.
Trevor Walsh said the experience has “been pretty amazing.”
“There’s been so many people from so many different areas that have offered to help. Just seeing that many people reach out has been amazing. He’s really excited about this. He loves playing basketball.”
And Bellarmine's players hope they can learn from their newest member.
“It emphasizes that there’s a lot more to what we do in our program than just playing basketball,” senior guard Juston Betz said. “He fits right in, and it’s been really cool to be a part of because it’s so much bigger than anything else we’ll do this year.”
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Reach Jonathan Saxon at JSaxon@gannett.com or 502-715-1393 and follow him on Twitter at @TheSleepyScribe.