Bear Down Wildcats

His blue Arizona Wildcats No. 13 basketball jersey hangs down to his knees. The white undershirt falls loosely off his arms. His blue and red UA hat masks the scar on the top of his head.

Andrew Valdez weighs barely 80 pounds, and he isn’t hungry.

The food comes, but he can’t quite muster the strength to eat his muffu-

letta.

Andrew was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was 3 months old and has been in and out of the hospital for his entire life. He has had more than 30 kidney stones removed from his body, has been diagnosed with diabetes and has searched for a doctor who would tell him he was a candidate for a lung transplant.

He calls being in the hospital “like being in prison” and is still grieving over the death of his mother three years ago.

Life for Andrew, an 18-year-old Tucson native, has been unfairly cruel.

But he proudly wears his Arizona gear for a reason: The Wildcats have made his life better.

Andrew eventually became close with several members on the team, including tight end Josh Kern, cornerback Brendan Murphy, running back Kylan Butler and safety Anthony Lopez.

So when Andrew — small in stature, but large in life — died, it hit the UA football family hard.

On Saturday, still several weeks before they start that stressful fall journey, the Wildcats did their guy Andrew proud.

Kern, Murphy, Butler, Lopez, receiver Nate Phillips and safety Will Parks all served as pallbearers for their friend. Wearing red UA polo shirts with “ADV” on the arm, the six Wildcats slowly escorted Andrew’s casket up and down the aisle at Saints Peter and Paul.

The only sound preventing silence inside the church was the quiet sobbing among the couple hundred or so people assembled for Andrew. Kern, who delivered one of two eulogies at the service, led the way for his teammates with eyes that were so red and puffy, they were hard to see.

He, along with Lopez, read a prayer to the crowd and sat closely with their teammates.

After more than an hour celebrating and reflecting on Andrew’s life, Kern delivered an emotional speech. There were the light parts — when Kern talked about Andrew’s three complaints in life; hospital food, Arizona State and LeBron James — and sad parts when the tight end’s voice cracked, talking about his “brother and second family.”

Kern finished by telling everyone: “We will always remember Andrew by his strength and spirit.”