Yash Krishnan Officially Joins UNC Cross Country Family
April 21, 2017 | Cross Country
By Matt Hodgin, UNC Athletic Communications
At the University of North Carolina cross country team practice on Tuesday, all eyes, and cameras, were not on coaches or teammates, but on 8-year-old Yash Krishnan.
Krishnan sat at a black cloth-covered table, his parents at his side and the UNC press-conference background behind them. Krishnan had his own white nameplate, white hat and Carolina-blue pom-pom decorating the table in front of him.
The most important item displayed on the table, however, was an unsigned letter of intent that would make Krishnan an honorary member of the cross country team.
“As you know, at Carolina we cast our nets far and wide to find the absolute best prospects in the world,” head coach Mark VanAlstyne said at the beginning of the press conference to the crowd of team members, family members and news crews.
This was Krishnan's draft day as part of Team IMPACT, an organization that pairs children facing life-threatening and chronic illnesses with universities around the country to be drafted as official members of collegiate athletic teams. Since its inception in 2011, Team IMPACT has matched 1,100 children to more than 450 colleges and universities throughout the country.
For the UNC coaches and student-athletes, this was to make the relationship “official.” However, in their eyes Krishnan was already an integral part of the team.
“I really don't remember a time where he wasn't just ready to jump right in and be a part of the team,” assistant coach Logan Roberts said. “Whether it be helping out with the workouts or taking part in anything that the athletes wanted to go through. He wanted to experience the same thing and wanted to play a part.”
On a normal day, Krishnan and his parents are focused on helping him manage his Biallelic Mismatch Repair Deficiency Syndrome, or BMR – a condition that makes him more susceptible to various forms of cancer. But when he is around the team at practice or at a meet, he's just having fun.
He likes to take the stopwatch from VanAlstyne and time the student-athletes. He even arrived at his first practice having already memorized several names on the team.
“He's always a positive influence,” Roberts said. “It's easy for us to get down about a workout, or even a run, and so for us to have that positivity around makes you feel silly to get upset about something like a race or even a practice; maybe a bad day of class when you realize what he's going through.”
On this day however, it was just about letting everyone get to know him.
His favorite movie is “Space Jam.” His favorite food is Italian cuisine (yes, he said cuisine). His favorite athlete is Michael Jordan, but if he could be any UNC men's basketball player, it would be Joel Berry II. He is proud of his Sports Clips MVP hair cut, and he would not let the crowd leave without knowing his favorite drink – a root beer float.
As excited as Krishnan was to become part of UNC cross country, the coaches and team may have been just as enthusiastic about his signing.
“Joining our team is something that we don't take lightly,” said Roberts. “It's something that is for life. For us, being a Tar Heel means that you will always be part of the family.”
Welcome to the family, Yash.