BUFFALO — Second-year men’s basketball head coach Nate Oats announced the signing of 7-year-old Darrion Booze to a National Letter of Intent on Thursday evening following UB’s 85-38 win over Nazareth.
Booze was paired up with the UB men’s basketball program through a program called Team IMPACT, a non-profit organization that helps children forget about their illness and become part of something bigger, a team of friends.
Booze was diagnosed in April with End State Renal Disease as his kidneys function at an extremely low level. The kidneys filter waste and excess fluid from the blood and as kidneys fail, waste builds up. Since his diagnosis, he has been in and out of the hospital and is on dialysis every other day. Darrion will soon be going on the kidney transplant list.
Darrion just started second grade at PS 6 Buffalo Elementary School. Darrion’s siblings Jamier Campbell (12), Jamari Campbell (10) and Darrell Booze (5) are excited about this process as well. Darrion’s favorite color is blue and his favorite number is 30. He loves listening to Drake and his favorite athlete is Steph Curry. He enjoys playing basketball and he is a big fan of pizza and watching The Regular Show.
Darrion is super excited to be a part of the UB men’s basketball team and with all that he has been through and continues to fight through, he will be a huge inspiration to his new teammates.
Team IMPACT is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to improve the quality of life for children facing life-threatening and chronic illnesses through the power of team. Team IMPACT children are drafted on to college athletic teams, local to where they live and, in effect, become official members of the team from Draft Day through to Graduation.
At Team IMPACT, they envision a future where the lives of children facing the hardships associated with adverse issues and events will have access to collegiate team-based support in order to significantly enhance their quality of life in a number of ways, including; socially, psychologically, physically and academically. Team IMPACT also strives to provide collegiate teams with increased levels of awareness, sympathy and support for the medial and disease communities.
Established in 2011, Team IMPACT has already matched over 950 children with collegiate teams, at over 450 institutions in 45 states, improving the quality of life of hundreds of courageous children and touching the lives of over 25,000 student athletes. For more information, visit goteamimpact.org.
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