February 26, 2018

Monday, February 26, 2018

The ‘Go-getter’

Journey from a Detroit hospital to Rupp Arena Rick Childress news@kykernel.com

The little-known extra member of Coach John Calipari’s 2017 recruiting class sat staring down the first baseline in the Detroit Tigers stadium last summer, in his bat boy uniform. “He’s going to college on Monday,” one of the TV announcers

for the game said as the broadcast cameras zoomed in on the bat boy. “He’s going to Kentucky.” AJ Harris, the 78-pound, 4-foot, 10-inch, soon-to-be member of the basketball team was not coming to be the new starting point guard. He was personally recruited from Detroit by Coach Calipari to be one of their freshman basketball managers and a journalism major at UK.

“He’s had some very crazy things happen, but obviously God has continued to keep him, because he’s still here.”

PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES AND JORDAN PRATHER

- Andrea Harris According to AJ, journalism is “the plan B.” He hopes to be a coach, and he already has a good resume. He was his high school’s basketball manager, a Detroit Tigers bat boy for two years, coaches and referees in his intramural league and is getting good experience watching Calipari several times a week. But he almost didn’t come. AJ’s long medical history, his dietary restrictions and his weaker immune system worried his mother who was apprehensive about letting him move five and half hours away to a place they’d never been before. See ‘GO-GETTER’ on page 5

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