Sept. 15, 2014
Megan Lunsford
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The new team member for the Mountain Lions isn’t exactly what you’d expect.
Head coach Jeff Culver announced his latest signing on Sept. 8: 12-year-old Kavan Brown was welcomed into the Mountain Lion family in the skybox of the Gallogly Events Center.
Brown suffers from a genetic disorder known as Shwaehman-Diamond Syndrome, which is a type of bone marrow defi ciency that affects other parts of the body as well.
An organization known as Team Impact assisted in pairing Brown with the UCCS men’s basketball team.
“They match up kids like Kavan with teams all over the nation,” said Brown’s mother, Angela Bird. “The idea is that they will learn from each other.”
Prior to the official signing, Culver expressed his enthusiasm for having Brown on the team.
“He’s going to join us as much as he can,” Culver explained. “He’ll be around for some practices, get-togethers and games. He’ll just be a member of the team.”
“They didn’t even have to ask, we were ready to say yes,” he added.
After being officially signed on to the team and welcomed to the Mountain Lion family, Brown took part in a small question and answer session with his new teammates, who asked him about his favorite video games, cartoons and foods.
When asked about his favorite superhero, Brown replied, “I’m not really a fan of that stuff, but my sister really likes Captain America.”
Brown spent the remainder of the afternoon playing ball with his new teammates and UCCS mascot Clyde.
“We’ve been looking quite a bit for that extra piece to the puzzle here,” said Culver, “We think we’ve found him.”