IN THIS MORNINGS RICHMOND RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH.
MCELROY Special correspondent
What I learned in sports this week is my career has introduced me to some really special people.
Like the night Angelo Dundee told me Muhammad Ali stories until 1 a.m. Or the time at VCU’s 2011 Final Four game when I ended up sitting with President George H.W. Bush and his family.
Maybe someday I’ll write a book, and if I do, it’ll certainly include a chapter on the day in March 2012 at the Siegel Center when I met Kendall Bayne, a bright bubbly 16-year-old preparing to cheer on the team she loved, the Cave Spring Knights boys basketball team, which was in the high school state championship.
We all love “our teams” right? But how many love us back?
The Cave Spring boys team did love Kendall. They’d dedicated their season to Bayne, who’d been diagnosed months earlier with Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.
In doing a game story for the television broadcast, I was to meet Kendall. Maybe it was wrong, but I anticipated a sad, sickly girl. I didn’t expect a bright, bubbly, young woman to come bouncing over, saying, “Nice to meet you, I’m Kendall.”
I don’t remember every thing that was said. But I remember her smile and a personality that lit up an arena, never mind a room.
My thinking was, “Nobody could be this beautiful, happy and energetic and have a rare form of cancer.”
But how couldn’t she be excited? She was in high school and her team was in the state championship. They needed her.
That’s who Kendall Bayne was; a person who knew this world needed her smile for as long as she could give it.
Thursday morning, the cancer took Kendall’s 19-year-old smile from us.
Kendall and I kept in touch here and there over the years, along with following each other on Twitter. It’s where I was able to see there were more basketball games and birthdays, as well as dances and a graduation from Cave Spring in 2014 — a place that wasn’t just a high school, but rather a huge family.
There was even a day when she served as Mike London’s guest coach at a Virginia football game.
Hours after hearing the news Thursday night, I thought more about that day I met Kendall.
She told me about her treatments and travel. Knowing from my time in hospitals as a child with Crohn’s disease, I couldn’t imagine the bills that were piling up, so I slipped her a $20 bill and told her to take her dad, Jere, to lunch.
She said, “No, I couldn’t.”
I said, “I insist.”
Kendall returned minutes later with one of the purple “Fight like a Knight” T-shirts worn by her Cave Spring family. I asked her if I could make a donation.
She looked at me with that great smile and said, “No. I insist.”
I still have that shirt.
Along with the memories of the day I met an incredible young woman named Kendall Bayne.
Wes McElroy hosts a daily sports talk show from 6-9 a.m. on WRNL (910).
MCELROY Special correspondent
What I learned in sports this week is my career has introduced me to some really special people.
Like the night Angelo Dundee told me Muhammad Ali stories until 1 a.m. Or the time at VCU’s 2011 Final Four game when I ended up sitting with President George H.W. Bush and his family.
Maybe someday I’ll write a book, and if I do, it’ll certainly include a chapter on the day in March 2012 at the Siegel Center when I met Kendall Bayne, a bright bubbly 16-year-old preparing to cheer on the team she loved, the Cave Spring Knights boys basketball team, which was in the high school state championship.
We all love “our teams” right? But how many love us back?
The Cave Spring boys team did love Kendall. They’d dedicated their season to Bayne, who’d been diagnosed months earlier with Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.
In doing a game story for the television broadcast, I was to meet Kendall. Maybe it was wrong, but I anticipated a sad, sickly girl. I didn’t expect a bright, bubbly, young woman to come bouncing over, saying, “Nice to meet you, I’m Kendall.”
I don’t remember every thing that was said. But I remember her smile and a personality that lit up an arena, never mind a room.
My thinking was, “Nobody could be this beautiful, happy and energetic and have a rare form of cancer.”
But how couldn’t she be excited? She was in high school and her team was in the state championship. They needed her.
That’s who Kendall Bayne was; a person who knew this world needed her smile for as long as she could give it.
Thursday morning, the cancer took Kendall’s 19-year-old smile from us.
Kendall and I kept in touch here and there over the years, along with following each other on Twitter. It’s where I was able to see there were more basketball games and birthdays, as well as dances and a graduation from Cave Spring in 2014 — a place that wasn’t just a high school, but rather a huge family.
There was even a day when she served as Mike London’s guest coach at a Virginia football game.
Hours after hearing the news Thursday night, I thought more about that day I met Kendall.
She told me about her treatments and travel. Knowing from my time in hospitals as a child with Crohn’s disease, I couldn’t imagine the bills that were piling up, so I slipped her a $20 bill and told her to take her dad, Jere, to lunch.
She said, “No, I couldn’t.”
I said, “I insist.”
Kendall returned minutes later with one of the purple “Fight like a Knight” T-shirts worn by her Cave Spring family. I asked her if I could make a donation.
She looked at me with that great smile and said, “No. I insist.”
I still have that shirt.
Along with the memories of the day I met an incredible young woman named Kendall Bayne.
Wes McElroy hosts a daily sports talk show from 6-9 a.m. on WRNL (910).
