Bennett Boyles, welcome to the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame. (Photos courtesy Pat Kelley)
The rock outside CHS speaks for us all.
Bennett and his basketball teammates hang out. (Konni Smith photo)
Hall of Fame inductions are normally about looking to the past.
Today, we’re looking to the future.
I want to put a little different spin on today’s ceremony, in which we welcome the 62nd class to be enshrined inside the hallowed digital walls of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.
So, let’s open the doors and welcome the youngest inductee in Hall history, and one of the bravest, Bennett Boyles.
After this, he’ll be found up at the top of the blog alongside his athletic brothers and sisters, under the Legends tab.
Bennett is an 11-year-old basketball player, son of Coupeville High School grad Lucienne Rivera, and he has a boundless future on the court and off.
He’s a smart kid, a fun kid, a well-liked kid, a talented kid.
He is also battling through something no one of any age should have to deal with.
Bennett has been fighting (and fighting is the right word) inoperable tumors on his brain stem, undergoing weeks of radiation therapy.
His mom, whose sweetness of spirit still shines years after I first met her at Videoville, his little sister and his family have been with him every step of the way.
So has, in spirit, the community he has called home since birth.
Through fundraisers, through prayer, Coupeville has rallied around Bennett and his family, covering them in love.
Cancer affected my two families — my blood relative one and the other that was comprised of the people I worked with for 12 years in the video store business.
I have seen the fight, and I have seen the fight won.
As important as medicine is, a huge factor often is sheer willpower.
You can not give in to the darkness. You have to know that others love you, and you have to take their strength and make it your own.
So, Bennett, and I want to speak directly to you right now — what I’m giving you today is an invitation.
An invitation to prove my faith in you as an athlete, as a fighter, is very, very justified.
I’m putting you in my Hall o’ Fame because your spirit is unbeatable, because you can, and will, win this fight.
Your induction is deserved and you can stand, shoulder-to-shoulder, with any of your fellow Hall of Famers.
For what you have accomplished in the first 11 years of your life and what you will accomplish in the many years to come.
You will walk back out on that basketball court again, wearing the red and black of Coupeville.
I believe this, we all do, and you should too.
You are us, we are you, and together, we all are one Wolf Nation.
I have my notebook and pen ready, and I will be in the stands the day you return to the court. I promise you that.
Every day that you fight, know we are all by your side.
You are not forgotten. Ever.
You are not alone. Ever.
Bennett, you are a Hall of Famer, every step of the way, every day.
We love you, man. We believe in you. And we will see you on the court again, very soon.
In honor of Bennett’s Hall o’ Fame induction, please consider helping him and his family in their fight by popping over to:
https://gobennett.givingfuel.com/go-bennett
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