Tim Corbin gives emotional response on tragic death of 10-year-old fan Asher Sullivan

Vanderbilt wore helmet stickers during an SEC Tournament opening win over Florida on Tuesday night to honor late fan Asher Sullivan, who died recently after being swept into a storm drain. And Commodores head coach Tim Corbin had a solemn, emotional reflection on honoring Sullivan, who was just 10.

Speaking during his postgame press conference, Corbin shared that the family had been watching Vanderbilt play in the hospital even as Sullivan took a turn for the worse. Corbin admitted it was hard to even fully capture what the Sullivan family — who had another son, Declan, go through leukemia treatment — has endured.

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“It’s just something that we thought about and we put together as quickly as we possibly could,” Corbin said. “Obviously it’s such small change, but it just shows kind of a response to the family, what they will continue to go through during this time. That’s just a very tragic situation that I still can’t — no one can wrap their mind around it. But yet that family is just glued to what we do from a baseball standpoint. As difficult as it was when Asher passed away, they were watching the game the entire time as he was going through that. And I just, I talked to the kids about that. And I said ‘That’s passion.’ You think about it, that’s real passion for a family just to be absorbed in what you’re doing while they’re going through that, I just — I can’t get over it.

“So, it’s a small thing that we’re doing and we’ll continue to do it and hopefully we can get Declan down here at some point, too, because he’s a special young man, too, who’s already been through his own deal and now losing his brother, we would like to help him out.”

Corbin shared some of what he learned about both Asher and Declan, who he got to know as he was being treated for leukemia at the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

“Well he’s been around our program before. Just from what I’ve seen of him and known of him: Happy, smiley, much like you would think a 10-year-old child would be,” Corbin said. “Declan I had more experience with because I visited the hospital when he had leukemia. So, you know, just for this family to go through all of this, it checks your belief system some times on really — is this really fair? But there’s nothing fair in life. That’s the way it is.”

And Corbin, though not related by flesh and blood, spoke almost as if it had been a member of his own family caught in an unimaginable tragedy.

“But I love both boys, I do,” Corbin said. “And just again, couldn’t get over the fact that such an innocent thing turned into something like that. That will always be mind-numbing and hard to wrap your mind around it.”