When Jay Courie and Will Shipley found out that KJ Henry’s father, Keith, required a kidney transplant, they immediately sprung into action.
Shipley talked with Courie, who does the Clemson sophomore running back’s marketing representation and he wanted to help organize something for the Henry family. On Sunday, they put together a player-led autograph session, which served as a fundraiser to help raise money for Keith’s kidney transplant.
“It was just a problem at hand and we wanted to get to a conclusion and help in any way that we possibly could,” Shipley told The Clemson Insider Sunday. “Jay Courie came to me and asked me if we wanted to do something and was just quick to jump to it.”
KJ announced on Feb. 9 that his father was in need of a kidney. Not even a month later and his teammates, led by Shipley, were able to host a player-led fundraiser Sunday.
“We both thought that was such a great idea,” Courie said. “We put this together and we thought this would be a good way to do it. We just had so many players that were willing to come out and give their time for KJ. I just think it’s a great show of team unity and how much they care about each other. As you’ll see, this is just a great group of young men.”
According to Courie, KJ was so happy and so excited that people were willing to do this and take their time to do this for him and his family.
In addition to KJ, Shipley was joined by nine of his fellow teammates: Jordan McFadden, Xavier Thomas, Beaux Collins, Marcus Tate, Phil Mafah, Jake Briningstool, BT Potter, Davis Allen and Cade Klubnik.
“Probably the biggest problem was limiting how many players could come,” Courie added. “Not so much how many could get here, but how many we had to tell no.”
As Courie previously indicated, not a single player is earning a dime, all the proceeds earned from Sunday’s fundraiser will be going to the Keith Henry Fund. Something like this could have probably happened before NIL, but there still would have been a lot of compliance hurdles in the way.
NIL definitely made an event like Sunday’s easier to have.
“Everybody was just so quick to jump to it and to be able to get something set up in a short amount of time with a good crowd, a great panel,” Shipley said. “We’re all really pumped and just glad we could get something together so quickly.”
“All of us love KJ like a brother,” Shipley added. “His family is our family. That’s something that spreads throughout our locker room. I think anyone could say that for anyone in this room, anyone back in the facility. We love each other on the field and off the field.”
Courie has already had conversations about making further charitable efforts in the future.
“He’s just a tremendous young man,” Courie said of Shipley. He’s a servant leader. He cares about his teammates. He cares about everyone. He’s just got incredible ethics and leadership qualities. He’s pretty special and he’s not a bad football player either.”
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