Russell embraces #KevinStrong movement: Community rallies around Whitt as he battles cancer

Yahoo

11-05-2025

RUSSELL Kevin Whitt scrolled through his phone, scrambling to relive a precious memory of his son on the Russell baseball player's Senior Night.
'I'm not real techy at all,' Whitt said, searching his smartphone for the correct category. 'How do you get to the videos? Oh, here we go.'
As Russell took infield to prepare for a home game against Fairview, Whitt press play on a video from August 2014.
'See the horses, we don't have them anymore,' he narrated the video. 'I was coming up my driveway here on my way home from work.'
In the video, as he approaches the garage, a young Jared Whitt is seen standing in the grass near the driveway holding a pair of baseball gloves. He was eager to play catch with Dad.
Whitt then showed another video from that same year. In the recording, Jared Whitt says, 'Want to pass with me daddy? I know you're awesome.'
'See, I was working down in the barn trying to rebuild something the cattle had torn up, and he sent me that video,' Whitt said, choking back tears while sitting in a wheelchair next to the fence in front of the first-base-side bleachers on Thursday.
'That's my boy,' he said.
'Overwhelming support'
Longtime best friend Brad McClave wheeled Kevin Whitt onto Russell High School's baseball diamond during pregame festivities. Russell honored its six seniors — Avery Lother, Kyle Mokas, Hayden McGuire, Frankie Brinkman, Elijah Hankins and Jared Whitt.
Every player and coach wore #KevinStrong T-shirts — provided by Print My Threads.
'This is just surreal,' Kevin Whitt said prior to first pitch. 'I had no idea.
'They do all this crap without me knowing,' he said, half-jokingly with a light chuckle. 'I show up and the whole team is in my shirt … which is not fair. They should warn me about stuff like that.'
As Whitt noted, there was not a dry eye on that field on Thursday, May 8.
On April 23, the 54-year-old Whitt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver.
An operating-room orthopedics nurse at UK King's Daughters, Whitt worked that day. It was a Wednesday. He wasn't feeling well. He had experienced pain in his legs since the baseball team's Myrtle Beach trip in early April, and his sides were hurting, too.
Whitt operated on two total knee joints on April 23.
Deana Milum, a director of surgery at UKKD, met Whitt in the hallway.
'She knew I was feeling bad,' said Whitt, a nurse since 1997. 'She said, 'you're done. You're clocking out and going to the ER.''
Three hours later, he learned of his earth-shattering diagnosis.
Whitt is well-versed in the condition he's facing.
'The pancreas has a head and a tail,' Whitt said. 'The head is the business end and the tail is not the business end. You can have cancer on the tail and never know it. That's what I have, which moved to my liver, and I never saw a sign or symptom until I got blood clots in my legs at the Myrtle Beach trip.'
Since then, two drugs to stop the blood clots have failed. He's now injecting Lovenox shots into his midsection twice a day.
Within 90 minutes of texting McClave the news, McClave was at Whitt's bedside. He zoomed in from Winchester, where he had been working.
McClave and Whitt bonded over hunting, fishing and macaroni and cheese back in the late 1990s. They were both nurses at King's Daughters. Both are in a duck-hunting pack called the Duck Camp Group. McClave and his wife, Michelle, are steady friends and supporters of Whitt. When McClave visited immediately upon receiving the grim news, he stayed with the Whitts for five days.
When Whitt arrived at home that evening of April 23, he said six or seven of the baseball-playing Red Devils were there.
'That's the kind of kids these guys are,' he said.
Whitt said the bunch of six seniors are 'the tightest group I've ever seen in my life.'
'They're best friends outside of here,' he added.
Whitt said he bets he had 300 visitors in his room before the calendar turned to May.
'The community support, my work support, baseball support, it's been unreal,' Whitt said.
Susan Whitt, Kevin's wife, said she is beyond appreciative.
'It's been overwhelming the love and support that everybody has shown to us,' she said. 'We have calls, texts every day — what can do for you? What can we do for you? Honestly, right now, we're just asking for prayers … that we can find a clinical trial he can get in to help give him more time.'
Kevin Whitt will travel to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Monday to explore more options.
'I'm going to fight,' Whitt said.
Family bonds
With a tri-fold poster displaying cherished photos of Jared Whitt and his family sitting on a table behind the backstop, just a few feet above stood Hope Robinette — Kevin and Susan's daughter, and Jared's sister — in the press box. She sang the National Anthem prior to Thursday's game. Robinette is graduating from Kentucky Christian University this weekend with a bachelor's degree in nursing.
The family of four is close-knit. Baseball has always been at the center of the father-son bond.
'It's always been baseball,' Susan Whitt said. 'They'd catch and throw back and forth. Even when he's not playing, they're talking about baseball or watching baseball. Kevin loves baseball and Jared loves baseball, and it's kinda been the bond that's kept them close.'
Dad adores watching Son play.
'It's what I live for,' Kevin Whitt said. 'It's sad that it's coming to an end — only a few games left, and then we hit districts (63rd District Tournament starting May 19).'
Whitt used to throw his son pop-ups over and over. Jared nearly caught a pop-up in T-ball — 'and nobody catches anything in T-ball,' Kevin quipped.
Kevin played a 'little bit' of baseball growing up, but he readily admits, 'My boy is a way better ball player than I ever was.'
Jared Whitt gravitated to the catcher position at a young age. He played right field on Thursday, but his primary position is behind the plate.
'He kinda got typecast because he was so good at it,' Kevin said of Jared catching. 'He blocked the ball as a 12-year-old without a problem; wasn't afraid of it.'
Russell-Flatwoods Little League All-Stars experienced great success with Jared Whitt as a central piece.
While Kevin Whitt coached several teams and served on the RFLL board throughout the years, Chris Mokas was the main coach when it reached All-Star season. Mokas is the father of Kyle, a fellow senior.
The 10U, 11U and 12U RFLL All-Stars achieved district and region titles three years in a row, punching state tournament tickets as unbeaten postseason teams in each of the three summers. RFLL was state runner-up one year, Kevin Whitt said.
Whitt's lasting impact
RFLL put Whitt's name on one of the two lanes in the complex's batting cage.
Chris Mokas said Whitt was 'instrumental in building it.'
'Kevin was riding the backhoe, putting up lumber, whatever needed to be done; it's amazing the amount of work he put into it,' Mokas said.
Whitt said Justin Howell was a huge help in the construction process, too.
'It was our vision as a Little League board to do that,' Whitt said. 'It just needed it, needed a place indoors where we could do hitting practice and pitching, and it's made our league better. … We did all we could with the money we had.'
Russell varsity baseball coach Tim Rice said Whitt has poured that work ethic into the high school complex, too.
'You can't run a program without parents like Kevin and some of the parents we have,' Rice said. 'He can do anything; he helped us build new bullpens, resurface home plate and get it where it's at. He's done so much for us.'
Rice called Whitt a 'one-of-a-kind person' who has had an 'incredible impact' on the boys.
'A lot of these kids have played together since T-ball, and he's like a secondary dad to them,' Rice said. 'All these seniors are super close; their families are super close. It's more a family aspect rather than a friend.'
Mokas echoed those feelings.
'He's one of those people who is just there for you,' Mokas said. 'He's changed the brake pads on my car, saying, 'I'll do that for you; there's no reason to pay to have that done.' He's as good a man you'll ever meet, just salt of the earth.'
Whitt also taught Kyle Mokas how to fish, Chris Mokas said.
'You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who knows Kevin Whitt who doesn't love Kevin Whitt,' Mokas said.
Coach nearly called it
Thursday's Senior Night ceremony was ultra emotional.
Rice said it was the 'most emotional Senior Night I've ever had, including my own.'
Susan Whitt said their 'baseball family means so much to us. … Coming out here and seeing everybody with the T-shirts on, wow. The outpouring has been amazing.'
'Kevin is dear to this senior group,' Mokas said. '… He and I were out there putting up the windscreen and signs on the fence just a couple months ago, and now to see him having to be wheeled out there, oh man, it's just a heartbreaking situation.'
Baseball brings with it beautiful moments that serve as an escape from reality, it seems — though the moments are very real.
With two on base and two out, Jared Whitt approached the plate during the bottom of the seventh inning of Thursday's game.
Fairview was ahead, 4-1. Whitt was the potential tying run.
Whitt worked the at-bat to a full count against talented Fairview sophomore Jace Manning, who was trying to seal a complete-game effort.
Whitt then pounded a pitch to deep left field. Kevin Whitt threw up his hands in celebration as Russell fans rose to their feet. The ball found grass for a two-run double, closing the gap to 4-3. Susan captured video of the big hit. Kevin pointed to his son with both index fingers, arms fully extended toward second base as a gesture that he was proud of his son.
The shot was oh-so-close to being a three-run homer to knot the contest.
'I called it before he went up there,' Rice said. 'I said, 'Jared's going to hit a three-run bomb.' He just missed it. Man, that would've been sweet.'
The game ended on a groundout to shortstop. Russell fell short by a run.
#KevinStrong
For more information on how to support Kevin Whitt in his fight for life, search #KevinStrong on social media.
Fundraisers are planned around the community.
A GoFundMe has also been established. Go to gofundme.com and type in 'Fundraiser for Kevin Whitt.'