Words such as heart, courage and dedication get tossed around every day in the world of sports. With Will Kimble, all of the above apply.

Kimble is a fifth-year junior on the University of Texas at El Paso men’s basketball team and he has a defibrillator in his heart. The San Bernardino, Calif., native collapsed more than two years ago, a deadly condition was discovered and he was told that collegiate basketball was over. The courage, dedication and improved heart have taken the graduate student from Pepperdine to UTEP; from an unexplainable collapse to a new outlook on life.

‘It’s like anyone who has something they love,’ Kimble told the El Paso Times last year, ‘And someone tells them they can’t do it anymore.’

After high school, Kimble took his game to Pepperdine. He didn’t play much his freshman year. In his sophomore year, Kimble was a steady contributor for the Waves (5.4 points, 3.7 rebounds) playing 15 minutes per contest in 26 games under first-year head coach Paul Westphal.

Then on Nov. 22, 2002, just one game into his junior season, Kimble, the starting center, fainted. Tests at UCLA Medical Center revealed that Kimble suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

‘I felt like I’d had something taken away from me,’ Kimble said last year to the El Paso Times. ‘It felt like the world has just come down on me. I had invested so much time — and I had worked so hard the summer before.’

He was told his basketball career was over and he had been diagnosed with the same condition that had taken the lives of basketball greats Hank Gathers and Reggie Lewis. Gathers (Loyola Marymount) was 23, Lewis (Boston Celtics) 27 when cardiomyopathy took their lives.

In December of that year, Kimble – whose parents are both doctors – had a defibrillator implanted in his chest, a procedure that was not possible 10 years ago when Gathers and Lewis died. Nevertheless, Westphal wouldn’t take the risk, and Kimble’s Pepperdine playing days were done. He stayed on with the team as a student assistant coach completing his advertising degree.

A year away from the game and a summer league later, Kimble’s athletic ability and bruising size – 6-foot-10, 230 lbs – caught the attention of scouts and coaches. Attention was all. None of the coaches would take the risks involved with the condition: a condition that is explained as ‘causing a thickening of the heart muscle, and can cause a loss of blood to the brain when the heart is beating at a very high rate.’

Only Doc Sadler, an assistant at UTEP, was willing to go the extra mile.

‘You know I think for a lot of reasons, people were not willing to look into it as deep as I did,’ Sadler said. ‘Nobody told us it was 99 percent safe. Everyone said it was 100 percent. He’s been cleared by every doctor that has ever seen him, so that wasn’t that big of a deal to us.’

Not all doctors are in agreement, though. Dr. Barry Maron told The Seattle Times that the device is designed to help individuals with the condition stay alive, not necessarily to play high level sports.

‘The device was never designed to operate in intercollegiate basketball,’ Maron said last summer to The Seattle Times. ‘The reliability and all those factors are unknown.’

UTEP agreed to take Kimble, but it did not become official until the NCAA granted a medical waiver to play as a graduate student.

‘The day that he got the clearance form the NCAA,’ Sadler said, ‘it was a very emotional day for him because the door had been shut by so many people. When he got cleared by the doctors, the final hurdle was the NCAA.’

Kimble cleared the hurdle and he has found a new home in El Paso. In second place in the Western Athletic Conference, UTEP (19-6, 9-4) is on the bubble to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. Kimble has gone dancing once before – his sophomore season at Pepperdine.

Kimble (5.6 pts, 3.7 rebounds per game) has started 10 games for the Miners, averaging 18 minutes per contest. Due to his condition, he never developed into the player scouts and coaches envisioned. His character, though, is what Sadler and teammates will remember most. According to Sadler, Omar Thomas, (19.5 ppg) who leads the team in scoring, dubbed Kimble ‘Tim Duncan;’ Not only for his physical resemblance, but for his leadership on and off the floor.

‘I just took a look at the person,’ Sadler said, ‘He is an unbelievable kid. Will is just a super person, and obviously he knows now what it is like now to have something you love taken away for two years. Will comes to practice every day and enjoys it; he just has a positive impact on everyone around him.’

When Kansas lost, 80-79 (2OT), to Texas Tech on Monday night, just four Division I teams remained undefeated in conference play. Illinois (25-0 overall, 11-0 Big Ten) is the only team with an unblemished overall record. Pacific (20-2) is 14-0 in the Big West and the 19th ranked Tigers haven’t lost at home, either.

Utah is perfect in the Mountain West (10-0) and has rattled off 17 straight victories. Pennsylvania is tops among the smart kids. Penn is a very average 14-7, but remains unbeaten (7-0) in the Ivy League.

The final conference unbeaten is Davidson (18-7). At 14-0 in league play, Davidson has already clinched the regular season title in the Southern Conference.

The headliners are Chris Paul (Wake Forest), Wayne Simien (Kansas) and most of the Illinois starting lineup, but if you haven’t heard of Andrew Bogut, take notice. The 7-foot sophomore and potential first overall pick in the NBA draft leads college basketball in rebounds (11.9) and is third in field goal percentage (64.7-percent). Bogut (21 ppg) has scored 30 or more in consecutive games for the Utes.

Published on February 15, 2005 at 12:00 pm