Wiedmer: MTSU and Eli Deml are March magic at its best

Reggie Upshaw
Reggie Upshaw
photo Mark Wiedmer

At some point today prior to 4 p.m. Eastern, 10-year-old Eli Deml will make certain his Middle Tennessee State University blue-and-white ballcap - the one autographed by MTSU basketball star Reggie Upshaw Jr., the former Baylor School great - is positioned perfectly atop his long, golden locks, the bill to the back.

After that, he'll slip his black tuxedo vest over his blue MTSU T-shirt, grab his trusty toy trumpet and navigate his way through Milwaukee's Bradley Center, hopeful he'll once more be allowed to join the pep band prior to the start of the Blue Raiders' NCAA tournament round-of-64 game against Minnesota.

Only then will everything be as perfectly in place as it was this past weekend in Birmingham, Ala., when Upshaw and his teammates rolled to their second straight Conference USA tournament title and the automatic NCAA bid that goes with it. That night, young Eli played his trumpet with the band during the championship game and traded high-fives with Upshaw.

"We could have watched this game on TV," said Eli's father, Mark, from the family's Murfreesboro, Tenn., home on Tuesday. "Middle isn't paying our way to Milwaukee or anything. But after all the kindness that the university and the team have shown us, we felt we had to do this."

Those kindnesses center on Eli, who has high-functioning autism, which in his case means whenever he finds something he enjoys - such as playing with the MTSU pep band - he becomes extremely focused on that one thing. About a year ago, while the Deml family was attending a home game, Eli became enchanted with the band and its dance moves. Over time, the band asked the Erma Siegel Elementary School student to join in.

"Eli just started gravitating towards us at the basketball games," pep band director Allen Kennedy told the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal last week. "The pep band members, they've really allowed him to open up and sing along. We try to share a message of love and want him to be a part of it."

But to be a part of the NCAA tournament meant a very long road trip of 600 miles one way for Mark and his wife, Rachel, and sons Eli, Knox, 7, and Hank, 2.

"We're driving my parents' 32-foot Holiday Rambler RV," Mark said Wednesday afternoon as the family crossed the Ohio River on its way into Indiana from Kentucky. "We hope to get near Chicago tonight, then drive the final two hours or so into Milwaukee Thursday morning."

And while being there to cheer on Upshaw is certainly a big part of it - "It's such a cool little connection they have," said Mark of the hugs and high-fives Eli and the player exchange before every game - a chance to make music with the band is what started it all.

"Eli's just always had a passion for music," said Mark, who graduated from Chattanooga's Notre Dame High School in 1998, then played baseball at Maryville College.

"The (MTSU) fight song is my favorite," Eli said Tuesday.

It has all captured the attention of media outlets everywhere, including CBS Sports Network, which did a 30-second feature on Eli during conference tournament coverage last weekend. Beyond that, when Mark tweeted earlier this week that Eli would indeed be in Milwaukee, just as he had been in Birmingham, the social media reaction was electric, the news retweeted by everyone from the Campus Insider website to the MTSU alumni association to players such as Upshaw.

"My dad teaches children with autism, and to have someone look up to you like that at such a young age really means a lot," Upshaw told the Murfreesboro paper last week. "It makes me feel like I'm doing something positive."

The positive vibes created by the Blue Raiders, 30-4 this season, go far beyond their interactions with Eli. There are our homegrown talents Upshaw and junior post Brandon Walters, who played at Howard. There's news from earlier this week that MTSU, for the second straight season, will be but a handful of teams entering March Madness with a graduation success rate of 100 percent. Academic giants Duke, Notre Dame and Princeton are among the other 11 programs in the field to be so honored.

But it's the relationship between Eli and Upshaw that should make our town most proud.

"Security at the Murphy Center isn't probably what you experience at UT or an NBA game," Mark said. "Before the game, Eli usually waits in the tunnel for the team to exit the locker room. He could probably walk in the locker room if he really wanted to. But as soon as the team comes out, Reggie either hugs Eli, high-fives him or both."

Said Eli: "I like to hug (Reggie). A lot. But I'm not his mother or anything."

A year ago, after the 15th-seeded Blue Raiders shocked No. 2 seed Michigan State and Upshaw's father gave his oldest son a big hug, he had to head home to Chattanooga from St. Louis after that Friday afternoon win, then drive back for Sunday's second-round loss to Syracuse - the Upshaw family hadn't packed enough clothes to last the weekend.

"I guess we really didn't expect them to win," Reggie Sr. said last week.

Mark said his family won't make the same mistake.

"We're planning to watch them play two games," he said.

And which team does Eli expect to win the whole NCAA tournament?

"MTSU," he said.

Whether the Blue Raiders prevail or not, we're pretty sure we know which 10-year-old trumpet player has already won the collective heart of March Madness.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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