“Embrace Life”
It’s a saying that Darian Bryant has listened to and embodied during his time at the University of Delaware.
This week, Bryant will take the court for his 92nd and 93rd games as a Blue Hen. Every single one of them, he spent doing whatever he could to help his team win. Taking whatever was dealt to him and pushing through in order to make the next play or pick up his teammate or push through an injury, putting the team before himself.
“It’s a phrase that my mom always tell us, to embrace whatever life brings you. Embrace the struggles, embrace the challenges, embrace the good moments. You never know what’s in the future, so just embrace life,” Bryant said.
There’s no one who has taught Bryant more about life than his mother, JoAnn.
As Bryant’s recruitment was picking up and his college choice was the topic of nearly every dinner table conversation, life dealt a crippling blow.
“I remember it vividly, because when you hear that word, it changes you, fear takes over your body,” Bryant said.
It was a normal day during Bryant’s junior year in high school. His mom picked him up from St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. for about the 30-40 minute ride back to their home in Bowie, Maryland.
Like most days, Bryant would catch a nap in the car since those opportunities were limited between AAU practices and workouts. He was just about asleep when his world was changed.
“My mom took a phone call and I think she thought I was asleep, but as soon as I heard the word ‘cancer’, I sat up immediately. I told her I had to know what was going on,” he said.
JoAnn had been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. The survival rate in 2013 for stage 3 breast cancer was around 60-percent. All Bryant knew was that his world had completely changed.
“I was angry, confused and really kept to myself. I stayed in my room and didn’t really talk to anyone for a few days. At that time, I didn’t really know much about cancer, I just thought that I was going to lose my mom,” he said.
Over the course of the next year, his mom would have a double mastectomy, four different surgeries and in a span of just four months faced 28 rounds of radiation.
“As athletes, we talk about being tough and dealing with adversity. I saw that done in real life, every single day. She was the true definition of a fighter,” Bryant said.
As he was entering his senior year of high school, Bryant remembers clearly the moment he thought he was going to lose his mother.
“There’s a mental picture that always is stuck in my mind and it’s when I went to visit her in the hospital after one of her surgeries and more radiation and she had lost all of her hair and was asleep in the bed. I thought at that moment, I was going to lose her,” Bryant said. “You think about all those moments that she would miss, it was really tough.”
But in the true spirit of his mom, she fought and she fought hard. She came out on top.
“It makes the moments a little extra special to be honest. I didn’t think I was going to have her at my senior night in high school, and now nearly nine years later, I’m going to have her at my senior night in college. Not a lot of people are able to have both parents at senior nights for high school and college. I’m incredibly fortunate,” Bryant said.
Bryant has always embodied the “team-first” mentality throughout his career. He’s been a player that has constantly done whatever the team has asked of him whether it’s making a defensive stop or playing a different position.
Sure, adversity has been dealt to him - transferring schools, a coaching change, nagging injuries - but through it all, he looked to one person for inspiration.
“Through her whole fight, she constantly put other people first. That’s who she is as a person. No matter if it’s family, friends or random strangers, she always seems to put other people first before herself. No matter what was going on in her life, that’s how she is,” Bryant said.
This week, Bryant will take to the floor at the Bob Carpenter Center for his final two games. Before each of those games, he’ll look up and see his mom, who has rarely missed a game of his since he was old enough to dribble, and think of one saying “Embrace life.”