In Sports and In Life, We Persevere

This has been a very intense few weeks. It has been very numbing, depending on your point of view. It is everywhere. Culture, politics, sports… there is a lot going on and it has been a lot to process. Maybe it is just me, but things have been heavy lately. It is an emotional time, it seems. Depending on your point of view.

Hopefully you, the reader, have been doing well, but for those that have not, things improve. We have to work for it, but they improve. Things can get better and just know you are not alone.

What do I mean by that? I do not know. Sometimes I just do not know. An outlet, maybe. A chance to relieve pressure. A chance to cheer on those that you support. It is not easy and as I wrote, it has been heavy.

Senseless hate in the south. The morally appropriate bringing down of a flag in South Carolina. The Supreme Court ruling in favor of everyone. World Cup fever. Wildfires in Southern California forests during a drought. Manhunts in New York.

And how about a lot closer to home… for UCLA, emotions have been up and down as well. There was the unfortunate incident with Sean Combs. Norman Powell and Kevon Looney of UCLA Basketball made it to the NBA. Thomas Welsh is representing the USA in the FIBA U19 World Championship Game against Croatia. Ally Carda of UCLA Softball throws a no-hitter in the Softball World Cup. Several UCLA athletes are participating in the University Games in South Korea.

It is a lot to take in.

But then some things takes our attention off all of that in a way we could not have imagined.

This week, the college football community found out something unthinkable. Brandon Huffman, National Director of Recruiting for Scout.com, had penned a heart-breaking letter that had a nothing to do with recruiting or football and everything to do with his 6-year old daughter Avery Huffman who was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Potine Glioma (DIPG). She has an inoperable brain tumor.

For those that are loosely knowledgeable about college football recruiting, you might have heard of Brandon Huffman. He is fabulous on Scout. He has great insight and analysis on the nation’s top recruits. His word is as good as college football gold. But that is when he is writing about recruiting.

When he wrote about one of the things that is most near and dear to him, trying to explain to us what he is experiencing with his daughter, it changes the direction in our way of thinking. Though, like many, I do not know Mr. Huffman personally, I feel I know him through his words. That is why his words about his daughter were so moving and painful to read. This is really happening to him and his family.

As I wrote above, you are not alone.

The Huffman Family is not alone and in the last week, Jim Mora, UCLA and the college football community have come together to help.

With a strong push from the aforementioned, the GoFundMe campaign for Avery Huffman has raised over $146,000 dollars. It is just short of its goal so if you have the means to help, please do.

Coach Mora has gotten a lot of positive attention for it, but really, that is not what this is about. It is about caring. He is a very emotional person. Mora has his own charity with his wife Shannon Mora that helps at-risk youth. He has been very emotional about the death of one of his players, Nick Pasquale. He is a human being that just cares. Like everyone who gave to the Avery Huffman campaign, he cares. Even those that we see as rivals, care.

This says something about the human spirit. Forget about what colors you and I wear, when it comes down to it, we are just skin and bones. Our games mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. It is about living life.

If the last two weeks have taught us anything, it is that we need to keep fighting, no matter what obstacles we have in front of us.

We need to Fight, Fight, Fight! We need to Fight On! We need to Beardown! We need to Win The Day! We need to Hook’em! We need to Roll Tide! We need to Play Like A Champion Today! We need to be #AveryStrong! We need to do whatever it takes to keep going.

That means something on a day like the Fourth of July, especially with our sense of pride as a humans and/or Americans. It is pride in where you came from. Pride in where you are going. Pride in what you are doing. It is about trying to figure out the best way to go about life despite what ever challenges we have. We need to keep going. We are stronger than this and we are not alone. Just remember that there is always someone out there to help.

Anyway, that is all I have to say about that. Thank you for reading my babble. We now return you to our regularly scheduled topics.