Head Coach Jay Ladner.
Courtesy of Public Info
10 year old Houston native Joseph Fleming adopted the Lions mens basketball team as his team during his battle against cancer, so the Lions have returned the favor by offering him a chance to help coach the team.
“We hope that we have made him feel appreciated,” said Head Coach Jay Ladner.
Fleming got the invitation through a video that the team sent last month to invite him to be an honorary coach for their first game of the season against Southern-New Orleans on Oct. 26. Unfortunately, Fleming has been given only three months to live.
“I’ll never give up hope that somehow miraculously he will be healed,” said Ladner. “But, if the Lord decides that’s not in his plan, hopefully he will live long enough to be able to come over here and we will show him how much we do care about him and appreciate his life and how much we love him.”
The players have learned from Fleming to be thankful for all they have and the opportunity to pursue their goals and dreams.
“I think it was really nice of coach to do that,” said senior guard Joshua Filmore. “I’m sure it means a lot to him to be an honorary coach for a division I basketball team. I think doing this will help us out as a team not to take anything we have for granted because, I’m sure that kid would trade places with anyone of us right now.”
The whole idea of making the video and extending the invite to Fleming came through the relationship between Ladner and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.
“Brett Favre and I grew up together at Southern Miss,” said Ladner. “Brett has a soft part in his heart for the underprivileged and people that are sick. He does a lot of things that people don’t know about as he tries to make their life a little bit more enjoyable.”
Tony Creel is the youth baseball coach of Fleming and is a mutual friend of Brett and Ladner. He informed both Favre and Ladner about what Fleming was going through.
“Brett did his own little personal video toward him,” said Ladner. “He asked me if our team would do one and that is where the idea of adopting him to the team came from.”
Ladner hopes not only to show generosity and character of the Lions basketball program, but he also wants to teach a valuable lesson to his players.
“There is a lot more to coaching than just X’s and O’s,” said Ladner. “Our program is about education. We want our players by participating in our basketball program hopefully that will help them become successful individuals, but by the same token better citizens. We try to talk about character issues everyday. I think it was an eye opening experience and a humbling experience.”
Fleming is still scheduled to be at the first game of the season and will be honored as a member of the coaching staff for the game.
“It makes me more thankful for the ability to wake in the morning and be blessed with great health,” said Ladner. “Here is a young man who doesn’t know if he will wake up tomorrow and would trade anything to be in our spot. If he makes it to the first game, we are gonna throw out the red carpet for him.”