Jerry Horvath had just been dropped off at the basketball court by his dad, Charles. After waving goodbye, Jerry began doing what most kids do at that age. Playing. By all nine-year-old accounts, a good day. But minutes later, as he dribbled the ball up the court, an unexplainable sadness set in, powerful enough to stop him dead in his tracks. As kids asked what was going on, he couldn’t shake the voice inside telling him that something horrible had just happened.
And that voice was right. As Jerry would find out in the coming hours, his father had suffered a massive heart attack right after dropping him off, dying instantly, and changing Jerry’s life forever.
“When that happens at such a young age, you feel abandoned,” Jerry said. “You go through all of these weird things, and try to rationalize the situation with a nine-year-old brain, and you end up drawing some wrong conclusions. But to you, those conclusions are facts, and just how things are.”
The world where his father encouraged and believed in him, watched and participated in all of his activities, was gone. It was replaced by one in which he questioned his own value of worth, where he learned how hard it was to grow up without the support his father had provided; an experience he hoped he could eventually help a youth experiencing a similar situation navigate through.
“The guys I looked up to when I grew up were the ones who did things with their kids,” Jerry said. “The adults who supported the kids in their life. I didn’t have that anymore, and wanted to grow up to be like that. To find out what’s important, what matters to them, and support them in that.”
For approximately one year, Jerry has had the opportunity to do that through his relationship with his 11-year-old Junior Partner, Alan. And that relationship has impacted them both.
“I know the difference of having the support and not having it. Being able to fill that gap was extremely important to me,” Jerry said. “I think more than anything, what Alan gets out of this is confidence. That he’s really worthy, and that a male adult looks at him as a valued kid. And I’m sure I’m getting more out of it than Alan, because it’s a role that I wanted fulfilled in my life. So, selfishly, I’m filling that gap on some level. You know, you can’t save the world, but you can help out by spending some time. And thankfully, Alan is the one I get to spend that time with.”
