Oxford, Miss. – The name, image and resemblance ruined university athletics. If I heard it once, I heard it much more than once. The coaches whispered on this subject. Fans howl about it.
At a certain level, I understand.
Players bounce from one campus to another, sometimes twice the same year, sometimes from front and back to the same institution. A season, a guy has a uniform. The following season, the same guy plays against this same uniform. It is difficult to follow. And the fact that these developments altering the landscape often come down to a little more than what the school offers the most money via Nile has led to a segment of confused and frustrated fans because all this is still quite new and in sort of bananas.
Again, I understand.
But can I tell you a story about Jaemyn and Brandon?
Because little in life are all bad or all Good – null included. Of course, some of the complaints of the criticism of sampling against the system are valid, I recognize, and some of the changes that Nile has brought to college athletics are not great, I admit it. But little in life are all bad or all Good – null included. So let me tell you a story about Jaemyn and Brandon.
Jaemyn is Jaemyn brake fieldA student graduated at OLE MISS which is on average two -digit for a SEC team ranked 16th in the survey of the 25 best Associated Press. Brandon is Brandon Hill, a 16 -year -old junior in Oxford High in Mississippi.
Jaemyn and Brandon met in Virginia-Western.
And if you are one of those people who are convinced that Nile ruined university athletics, I hope you will tell me about this story about them, because it is a story about a young man named Jaemyn who maxims his Via Nile value to improve his own life, obviously, but also to change the life of a teenager named Brandon, who has moved to Mississippi to take advantage of the environment that Jaemyn can offer.
“I have always been like a big brother for people because my brother took me under his wing – and other people also did it for me when I was younger,” said Jaemyn. “It has always been natural for me to gravitate to people who need someone to admire. So I just played this role.
And could he have done this without zero?
“No,” replied Jaemyn quickly. “Not a single piece.”
Jaemyn and Brandon met about eight years ago at Huntington Prep in Virginia-Western, where Brakefield has become a five-star hope like the previous stars of Huntington Prep Andrew Wiggins, Thomas Bryant and Keldon Johnson while playing for the coach Arkell Bruce.
Brandon is Bruce’s nephew.
“Brandon was essentially like our team manager,” said Jaemyn. “He was still around his uncle. So he was still around the team. »»
Brandon had, at the time, growing up in Virginia-Western without his father in his house (or even in his state) in the same way that Jaemyn spent the first part of his life growing up in Wisconsin without his father at his home (or even in its state). This shared experience helped connect them.
“I see a lot of me in him,” said Jaemyn.
Photos provided by Jaemyn Brakefield
Ask Jaemyn who was the male model at the start of his life, and the name you get is Andrew Knaack. It was the big brother to which he referred earlier – a 39 -year -old veteran who served in Iraq and is 15 years old. When Jaemyn was young, once again, his father lived outside the state. It was Andrew who shot basketball with him, launched football with him and generally showed him attention.
“Jaemyn is a person so much of a good heart,” said Andrew. “He wants to give and give and give. Because, you know, his childhood, growing up, was not easy. There were so many people who helped him. And I think it’s his way of restoring and paying it to the next person. »»
After Jaemyn left Huntington Prep to register for Duke Under the coach of the Memorial Naismith renowned temple, Mike Krzyzewski, he made a duty to stay in touch with Brandon. When Jaemyn was transferred to Ole Miss after a season, the same thing. When the two had free time, they jumped on their PS5, played Fortnite and discussed. Jaemyn would encourage Brandon to focus on school, exercise, do all the things we would like to make a teenager. Then, after Jaemyn concluded an Nile lucrative contract last year to return to Ole Miss for a fifth university basketball season, and after realizing that Brandon was perhaps not as focused on the school Or in good shape as it should be back in Virginia-Western, an idea appeared in the head of Jaemyn.
Why not move Brandon to Oxford and change his situation?
“At first, it was just an idea,” said Jaemyn. “But then, I could just see joy on his face – and I could hear it in his voice, how excited it was to make a change.”
Brandon hesitated to leave his friends.
But, after the last school year, he did.
“Mississippi is only a much better environment (for me) than Virginia-Western,” said Brandon. “In Virginia-Western, there is nothing to find in addition to problems, really. It’s just, like a bad environment. So I just wanted to come here and take a new start.
This is what Jaemyn offered to Brandon.
A new start.
So now, thanks to a nice Nile affair, Jaemyn and Brandon live together in a two -story house in Oxford. They wake up at 7 a.m., meet below and have breakfast. Jaemyn deposits Brandon in Oxford High at 8:15 am. He collects it at 3:45 am. When Brandon gets into the car after school, Jaemyn still has two questions locked and charged.
“How did your day go? Brandon told me, laughing.” Do you have homework? “
Curious, I asked Brandon what it is to be questioned on your day every day.
“You don’t know how much it means for a person-just for someone to ask,” he said.
Ole Miss Coach Chris Beard learned of Jaemyn’s plan to move Brandon to Oxford last spring. Even if Beard knew that it was not necessarily his place to intervene, he had the impression that it was worth a conversation. So he and Jaemyn talked about it from all angles before all the final decisions were made.
“The first thing I asked him was,” Hey, your heart is in the right place. It sounds great. But what about a second? You always care about others. And you? “Said Beard. “Obviously, it’s a great story. But I wanted to talk about brake first. And he was like, “coach, I can do it”. »»
And now he does it.
And Beard, for his part, is not surprised.
“Brake is a guy who rises at 7 years old. Not 10. Brake is a guy who goes to bed at 10 years old. Not 12. He is really disciplined – and you have to be because Brake has his own life. He is a full -time student. He’s a dry basketball player, ”said Beard. “Brake is a guy similar to a few guys I have trained – but certainly except, not the rule. He spends his time thinking about life after basketball. As, Brake and I talked about his professional basketball career, which he will certainly have. But it’s a guy who already thinks in advance (and going beyond his player career).
“An example, in the decision of last summer to play his last year and go to the higher school or something else, when he was in his conversations, image and resemblance, there was more than Value (monetary) (discussed} “, continued Beard.” He expressed interest in learning real estate. People in town.
This is Jaemyn Brakefield.
It’s not just a academic basketball player you see on television. He is a university basketball player that you see on television who thinks in advance, trying to use his zero money for good and voluntarily assumes a great responsibility because he appreciates the way people did it for him when he was raised by a single mother who had his first child, Jaemyn’s brother Andrew, at the age of 13.
Jaemyn could simply enjoy life as a student in one of the largest university cities in our country. Instead, he raises a 16 -year -old child, trying to guide someone whom he recognized as someone who needed advice and trying to help someone in the same way as his older brother and Others helped him.
“I can’t think of anything so powerful,” said Beard. “We had special players to supervise someone, a cousin or something like that. Have a Christmas break with them. But, literally, you speak, Brake goes to PTA meetings. This is the best example I can give you. The brake goes to PTA meetings. »»
The truth about being an adult, better than I can say as the father of three sons, is that your actions have a real impact on the young people around you, whether you realize it or not. This is not something you learn as a boy or girl until you are much older. This is not something that you understand as a parent until it is too late.
Jaemyn saw both sides.
He loves his mother and his father, learned things from both and appreciates the time he spent in the Wisconsin with his mother, and in Mississippi with his father, and in Virginia-Western with a basketball program .
As Andrew noted, growing was not easy for Jaemyn. But, as Jaemyn noted, it would have been even more difficult, if not for Andrew, who, by the way, also moved to Oxford and now lives only 10 minutes from Jaemyn and Brandon.
In simple terms, Jaemyn has never forgotten all of this – how his older brother tried to be there for him when he was younger, as best he could, and now Jaemyn tries to be this same type of model Strong for Brandon. Without the money that his name, image and agreement provided to Ole Miss, none of this would be possible. But with that, it happens. And, according to all the accounts, it goes incredibly well.
Brandon has lost 50 pounds since his move to Oxford.
His notes are increasing. He plays football. His smiles are big. He looks at people in his eyes when he speaks to them in a way he was not doing before. It adapts well to Mississippi and often rebounds in the rebel training center, where it essentially has full access and is treated as a part of the team.
“People all the time are like,” guy, you have changed his life “, said Jaemyn. “But what I tell them in return is that he has changed mine more than anything. He made me more mature. To be able to help someone grow – that’s what it is. To be someone’s big brother and take them under your wing and help them, that’s what it is. “”
Jaemyn Brakefield has a match in Missouri SATURDAY. He continues a master’s degree. He continues a Final Four. He wants to be a professional basketball player and, unless injuries, will be.
He has more things than most 24 -year -old children.
So, before we finished talking, I asked Jaemyn the same kind of questions he asked Brandon every afternoon when he comes to school. I asked him questions about his day, I asked him how he was going, then I asked if he regrets taking this great responsibility while pursuing another diploma and continuing a Final Four.
“Of course,” said Jaemyn, and my ears went up.
“Sometimes” he continued, “I wonder … if I should have done it earlier.”