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6th grader drafted by Morgan State Bears

Posted at 11:31 PM, Apr 07, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-07 23:31:48-04

Friday was draft day at Morgan State and the Bears were ready to meet their new teammate. 

The rookie has already made an impression. 

"His outlook is great, his attitude is phenomenal," said Morgan State head football coach Fred Farrier. 

Devin McConnell, 12, is a 6th grader at Glenmount Elementary School and the newest member of the Morgan Bears. His draft day story is not a typical one. 

It began when he was just 9 years old. Doctors found a tumor in his brain the size of an egg. He needed surgery and weeks of radiation to address it. 

"It's not completely gone, because it was on his carotid artery," his mom Dawn Braxton said. "So they shrunk it as much as they could.'

He's not entirely out of the wood. Devin goes to the hospital every three months for an MRI, but he did bounce back. 

Friday, with the help of non-profit Team Impact, Devin became an official member of the Morgan State football team. H

"It means a lot to be drafted by the Morgan State family and to be a part of brotherhood," Devin said. 

He'll now get the change to attend practices and games with his team. He'll learn from them and coach Farrier believes his team will learn from Devin. 

"When you have a young man who's really been through true life trials and tribulations where he can have a positive outlook, and walk around with a smile on his face and be energetic at practice and that type of thing, if he can come out to practice and be energized and have a great day, we absolutely can do the same thing," Farrier said. 

And Devin's really excited to be a part of the team. 

"I think it's going to be really nice to actually go behind the scenes of Morgan State" he said. "I don't know of any other child who go to do this."