![]() Gaff didn't want to say much because he knew he would have lost it. It was tear-jerking in the locker room after the game, too. "It was one of those moments that gives you chills and makes you emotional to see that." "A year ago I am sitting in the office and they don’t teach you to handle situations like this in the coach’s manual. "I sat and down and it was like, holy heck, this kid is about to shoot a free throw," Gaff said. "They kept trying to get me the ball so I could score."īrown got in again during the night-cap against Fort Wayne Dwenger, where he scored his first varsity points on a pair of free-throws. "(My teammates) were more happy than I was to get in," Brown said. He was ready to play.īrown made his first varsity appearance in Saint Joseph's first of two games this past Saturday against Munster, where he played for just over a minute. "If not, put on your travel gear."īefore last weekend's Homestead Holiday Tournament, Brown made the call. "I told him If he was ready to play to put the jersey on," Gaff recalled. Brown had been practicing every day with the team. That moment may be here soon.īefore this season started, Gaff had a talk with Brown, now a junior, about him playing again. To watch it was a plus one, a step forward."Ī step toward one day playing on that court himself. "It was a tight game, but they won that for me. "I don’t know that there are a lot of people in this world," Gaff said, "willing to fight as hard as he fought to get back on the court." Free-throws remembered foreverĭuring Saint Joe's home opener last season, Brown watched from the school's cafeteria that overlooks the gym, as his team beat South Bend Adams. Shooting the ball, however, came back a lot easier. Brown's right side of his body still lags behind from the accident, and isn't as strong. He used that ball to begin dribbling with his dominant left hand. More: Man, 19, charged in October shooting of Tyler Brown in South Bendīack in September Brown got his driver's license, doing that on his own.ĭuring his time in the hospital, Brown's teammates brought him a signed basketball that he keeps in his room. Now back at school, Brown has a para professional who writes everything for him. He is still working through learning how to write again. ![]() until being sent home at 7 p.m., watching her son progress through physical, speech and occupational therapy sessions three times a week.īrown had to relearn how to walk. Lee would stay at the hospital form 7 a.m. Some days I couldn’t even put food in my mouth, or my mouth was so dry from no water. Sometimes I cried, just questioning why me and why I had to go through this. "I couldn't drink regular water," Brown said. He had to learn how to eat and drink again. Someone threw me on a stretcher, and I don’t remember what happened after that."īrown had a tracheostomy and feeding tube put in his throat. "My dad called the police," Brown recalled some of the details. Brown was shot in the left side of the head. 7, 2021 when shots were fired from a passing vehicle. 7, 2021.īrown was getting driving lessons from his father the night of Oct. That's where her son Tyler's life forever changed on Oct. To this day Mia Lee tries at all costs to avoid the intersection of Johnson Street and Elwood Avenue when driving around South Bend's Northwest side. Gaff knew all of that, which was why the this call was more important than anything else at that moment. He wouldn't have been able to tell that just two weeks earlier his sophomore guard, just 15 years old at the time, was clinging to life after suffering a stray gunshot wound to the head. He wouldn't have known Brown had part of his skull removed. If Gaff hadn't known, he wouldn't have been able to tell Brown had just recently awoke from a week-long coma. Brown's wide smile extended to both ends of Gaff's phone screen as they talked.
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