Flashes’ Bennett hurdles autism

KENT — Despite the crushing blow of her son’s diagnosis of autism and predictions that he would never walk or speak, Sonja Bennett refused to accept such limitations.

Kalin Bennett, a 19-year-old freshman basketball player at Kent State, didn’t sit up until he was 2, didn’t take his first steps until he was 4, didn’t talk until he was 7, when “Mama” finally escaped his lips. But Sonja still set ground rules for Kalin and wouldn’t allow him to say “can’t” around their Little Rock, Arkansas home.

Instead, she replaced it with the mantra: “I can. I will. I shall.”

“I was always hearing everything he wasn’t going to do and they’re telling me, ‘Come to grips with it, Mrs. Bennett.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m not going to. I’m going to work with him’ and that’s what I did,” Sonja said Wednesday after Kent State’s season-opening victory at the M.A.C. Center.

Sonja kept Kalin in communications classes, even after he stopped stuttering. He’s now enrolled in a drama course and chats with anyone, from children he’s inspired to reporters from CNN and ESPN. Sonja encouraged him to play four instruments — drums, base guitar, lead guitar and keyboard, with drums his favorite. She moved to Kent, finding a place five minutes away as he told her, “I can’t do this without you, mom,” and she said, “Don’t worry, I’m right there.” She plans to start a podcast for mothers of autistic children that Kalin named “Hoops and Hearts.”

Sonja Bennett said her determination is rooted in the fact that she lives with one lung. Her toughness was honed by her grandfather, gospel recording artist Horace Walters, who died three years ago at 102.

“I was trained not to give up, to always fight. So I had that fight in me, I just put it in him,” Sonja said of Kalin.

Bennett remembers some of those conversations with his mother when “I can’t” slipped out.

“It was terrible,” Kalin said. “Some way she would get me to do it and she would say, ‘I thought you said you couldn’t do it.’’’

A year ago, Bennett became the first athlete with autism to sign a Division I letter-of-intent to play a team sport. He debuted on Wednesday against Hiram as Sonja, her sisters LaTonya Green of The Colony, Texas and Subrena McCoy of Little Rock, and his father Gerald Bennett of Dallas cheered from the stands. Connecting on a left-handed hook, Bennett is believed to be the first player with autism to score in a Division I game.

“I’ve been bawling all day today. I’ve just been so excited for this day and thanking God that we made it,” Sonja said. “Just another check mark on his list. He’s happy, overjoyed.”

But there are more goals on the list to check off. He wants to play in the NBA. He wants to inspire people around the world. He wants a yacht.

That means he must hone the talent that attracted Kent State coach Rob Senderoff and assistant Matt Sligh, who recruited Bennett out of Link Year Prep in Branson, Missouri, and become a productive college player. He must develop his 6-foot-11 body — supported by size 20 feet — that recently dipped below 300 pounds. He must bounce back from surgery on his left shoulder to repair an injury that dates back to his days at Little Rock Christian High School.

“We couldn’t just throw him to the wolves,” KSU basketball sports performance coach Brice Cox said. “His strength was behind his size. We have to work on his spatial awareness, his ability to control his own body. We had to teach him how to move. We call it basically like barbecue. We slow cook it. The longer it takes to cook, the better it’s going to taste.”

“There’s no limit to what he can do,” Sonja said. “He’s already told me, ‘Mom, my next step is the NBA’ and I never said, ‘Well….’ I said, ‘Let’s go get it, son.’”

“I can. I will. I shall.”

Gerald Bennett knows what basketball has already done for Kalin and where it could lead.

“He told me when he was 14, ‘Dad, I want to play in the NBA,’” said Gerald, who played defensive tackle at Austin Peay State University before a football injury prompted him to join the Air Force; he later moved into a career in law enforcement. “When he was 8 he came to me and said, ‘I want to play basketball.’ Sports gives you the opportunity to come outside yourself because it’s bigger than you.”

Gerald said when Kalin took up the sport, his circle of friends was small, but the game “opened him up personality-wise.”

“He looks at the other players, those are his brothers, this is his family, and he’s really serious about that,” Gerald said. “It’s not just on the court. He hangs out with these guys, he spends all his time with them, he sweats with them. He thrives off that.”

Bennett was headed to Arkansas-Little Rock before coach Wes Flanigan was hired as an Auburn assistant before the 2018-19 season, prompting Bennett’s commitment to Kent State.

“This ain’t cocky, I’d say like 13. I was like 6-6, 6-7,” Bennett said Saturday when asked when he set his sights on college athletics. “I was like, ‘Why down here? All the way in Kent, Ohio?’

“First of all, I know I can inspire people. Second of all, I know the coaches have my best interest at heart. Third, I wanted to see more. I wanted a bigger atmosphere. It’s bigger than Arkansas to me. Being able to go to a Cavaliers game or a Browns game. I’ve never been to an NFL game before, so if I get a chance to go there, I can put that on my bucket list.”

Senderoff cautions that Bennett “has a long way to go as a basketball player,” noting that when he arrived he was measured at 25 percent body fat. Senderoff loves old-school big men, but knows they rarely play much as freshmen.

“All of you guys will go away and stop talking about him if he can’t play,” Senderoff said Saturday. “He needs to worry about developing as a player as opposed to the publicity that’s garnered for being the first autistic player on scholarship. That’s obviously an unbelievable accomplishment, but for him that’s supposed to be one chapter in his story. I don’t want it to be the only chapter.

Gerald Bennett understands that, but sounds as undeterred as his son.

“He’s still raw and he’s still being molded. He understands the game, but he’s learning on a different level now,” Gerald said. “Kalin Bennett’s going to be fine. If Kalin Bennett says he’s going to play in the NBA, Kalin’s going to play in the NBA.”

“I can. I will. I shall.”

Gina Campana, Kent State’s assistant director of diversity assessment and research, met with Bennett and his mother last year and explained the support services offered for students on the autism spectrum. Campana said when she started such initiatives in 2014, only Wright State and Marshall University provided anything similar and their programs were not free.

“Kalin was just lighting up, once he felt that connection with me having a son also. He opens up. He’s very charismatic and he can speak very well. He was telling me stories. Then when I got the email from Sonja, ‘Kalin decided Kent State,’ I screamed in my office. People were going, ‘What happened?’ ‘Kalin Bennett is coming to Kent State!!!’”

Sonja said she allowed Kalin to make his college choice and he researched it thoroughly. Bennett said the meeting with Campana was a factor.

“That made it more clear to me knowing this was the place, knowing a support system outside basketball is there for me no matter what,” he said. “When we noticed she had the same experience with her son like my mom had with me, it was an eye-opener and just let me know if I come here, I know what I’ve got and I know what I can do here.”

Thus far, Bennett hasn’t had to rely much on those services. Sonja said the biggest challenge came on the day students returned to school.

“He was a little bit out of his element,” Sonja said. “The awesome thing that happened is the kids just got him and showed him where he needed to go so he didn’t feel alone, teammates and people in his class.

“The team, everybody is just one big family with him and that’s what he has to have, that family atmosphere. He’s loving it and I’m loving it.”

“Kalin helps me just as much as I help him. I’ve learned a lot from him. He can make any bad day good,” Cox said Wednesday. “He lights up the room. He definitely loves life. He loves basketball and being around people.

“He’s a natural giver. He truly wants to make sure everybody in the room is having the best day possible. Usually the first thing he says to me is ‘How are you doing today?’ It’s not like, ‘I have a problem, can you do this?’ He makes sure I’m OK first, then we dive into it.”

“I can. I will. I shall.”

All who have met Bennett realize that basketball is just the vehicle for the higher calling inside him.

“Kalin loves helping people. Right now he’s showing other people, not just autism, he’s saying to anybody, ‘If you believe, you can do anything. You can’t let anyone else say what you will or won’t do,’” Gerald said. “I’ve always told him, ‘You can do anything you want to do.’ He’s built on that and he’s taken it even further. Not just, ‘I can do whatever I want to do, but I want to encourage everybody to try and live their dream.’ He’s living his dream.”

Bennett said perhaps the biggest surprise since his story went public is the Instagram messages he receives from parents that say he’s giving them hope for their child.

“I didn’t think it was like that,” Bennett said. “Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I inspire myself. Every day I’d be like, ‘I can’t do this.’ Years down the road, I can say, ‘I did this, I accomplished this and I helped this person do this.’

“Hopefully I’ll be in a big ol’ yacht or something like that. But right now, it’s going to be good.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/?MRidenourABJ.

CREDIT: MARLA RIDENOUR