SWU baseball player hits one of life’s major curve balls
Davis Kippen knew he wanted to play baseball from a young age, and he steadily improved as a player, becoming a top recruit for the Warriors during his senior year at Solvay High School in Syracuse, N.Y. The highlight of his high school career was being named Athlete of the Week.
Kippen felt good about this honor, but that was not all he was feeling.
“Me and my coach would be working out three or four hours a day. It was really intense, but then it was taking me five or six hours to catch my breath.”
Doctors diagnosed Kippen with Stage 2 Hodgkins Lymphoma, finding six tumors in his back and four others in his neck and underarm area. On his 18th birthday, he began rounds of chemotherapy.
During his junior year of high school, Kippen accepted Christ as his savior. He also took a challenge to listen to nothing but Christian music for 30 days. Classmates began to notice a change in Kippen.
“I was really respected because I was a good athlete. I was the popular kid, and I was cocky and arrogant,” Kippen said.
Although cancer threw Kippen a curve ball, he says he didn’t feel anger at his situation.
“I came to the Lord way before it, so it was almost like He was preparing me for what was to come. I couldn’t have gone through it as easily – it wasn’t easy – as smoothly as I went through it if it wasn’t for my faith,” Kippen said.
Kippen likes to share a story that took place many years ago at Niagara Falls, located in his home state of New York. A daring tightrope walker wowed the crowds assembled as he walked the tightrope, often carrying a heavy load. The tightrope walker asked the crowd if they thought he could make it from one side of the falls to another pushing a wheelbarrow across the tightrope. They cheered in affirmation, and the daredevil made his way across with the wheelbarrow. He then asked the enthusiastic crowd if they believed he could carry someone in the wheelbarrow across the tightrope. Cheers again. He asked for volunteers and the crowd grew silent.
Not quite as daring – yet still powerful – was the request sent by Southern Wesleyan University’s baseball team via social media using the hashtag #getin4davis – a call for others to rally around Kippen with their prayers as he would find out from doctors in September if he was cancer-free. A Kippen family friend had T-shirts printed with a picture of a wheelbarrow and the hashtag. On Sept. 17, Southern Wesleyan students, faculty and staff gathered at the square in the center of campus to continue lifting up prayers.
That day Kippen received the news that he was free of cancer. He enrolled at Southern Wesleyan for the Spring Semester and began competing as a Warrior.
On Oct. 29, Kippen visited Southern Wesleyan, receiving an enthusiastic welcome from his new teammates and others. He began attending SWU in January.
Baseball teammate Avery Mahon says Kippen’s “no excuses” mentality has resonated with the team.
“I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that Davis considered something so terrible a blessing in his life. He knew the whole time that he was going to fight and he was going to win the fight,” Mahon said. “Cancer has a way of putting life in perspective and Davis has showed us that the things we stress over on a daily basis really aren't that big of a deal in the long run.”
During his junior year of high school, Kippen sensed God’s call for him to serve Him and protect others spiritually. His goal is to someday serve in missions in a country where people desperately seek hope and are in need of a saving knowledge of Christ.
A purpose Kippen sees as a SWU student is helping his teammates and classmates grow in their own faith.
“Now is to connect with those people and have them cherish life, get them to realize that baseball is fun,” Kippen said. “We love it; it’s a big part of our lives; but it isn’t all of our lives.”