Milestones are meaningful to any parent. They are a way to mark time, measure progress and offer a chance to reflect on a child’s journey.
There are countless moments over the years that can mean just as much, but milestones and the ceremonies that mark them have a way of bringing everything together, of turning still pictures into video, of weaving memories into stories.
Jack Devlin’s coming-of-age moment — graduating from the University of Iowa — was exactly what it is supposed to be for him and so many others matriculating this time of year : a great time, shared by friends and family, one that won’t soon be forgotten.
“It was a lot of fun,” says the 22-year-old, back in Toronto after his graduation weekend earlier this month. “I mean, I’m pretty sure it lived up to the hype of being like the greatest party in town … I didn't really think I’d be at Iowa for four years but it just means a lot to me knowing that I graduated from a program like REACH and it just feels great.”
There was so much of everything running through the minds of long-time Toronto Raptors play-by-play voice Matt Devlin and his wife Erin Devlin as they attended a ceremony for Jack, their eldest, that at times never seemed possible.
“On graduation day I was reflecting on when we had started seeing some developmental things not happening for Jack and we were going through all the testing with the geneticists and seeing the different doctors everywhere,” says Erin. “We started that process when he was about 18 months. And by the time he was two, we knew that we were looking at a life that would encompass physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy at a minimum. We knew that that would just be a part of every week, every other day and all those things.”
To this day, the Devlins don’t have a handy, catch-all description for how Jack is different than his younger brothers, Ian and Luke — each accomplished students and athletes — or other more neuro-typical people his age. After visiting specialists across the United States and having tests of every description done, Matt and Erin eventually came to accept that he was — in his own way — exceptional.
“There was never a diagnosis,” says Matt. “He was just Jack, and that's kind of the way the doctor put it to us. Like, ‘are you gonna be OK if he's just Jack?’ and we're like, ‘yes!’”
But Jack being Jack required a tremendous amount of input, support, and — on the part of a pair of then first-time parents working around Matt’s always on-the-move broadcast duties — considerable amounts of faith and belief that there was a future where their son could belong, could be independent and could enjoy things so many take for granted.
“You fight the good fight to be heard on a daily basis,” says Matt about raising a child with special needs. “I'll never forget being in a child psychiatrist’s office and the doctor saying the things that Jack wouldn’t learn and couldn't do, how he wouldn’t be able to read or adapt. You run into all those hurdles. And I said, ‘No, it's our job as parents and as educators to create an environment where he can learn.'”
Slowly, piece by piece, step by step, the Devlins did just that.
One of the reasons they were eager to come to Toronto when the Raptors play-by-play role opened up in 2008 was that there were more resources to accommodate Jack’s needs than in some of the smaller markets he had worked in previously.
But Jack’s development was a painstaking process, and school was often the place where so many issues would come to a head. There were some bleak moments.
“School for Jack was hard. It was hard to wake up and face every day,” says Erin. “He generally was always a punctual guy. He would get up and get ready … that was the easy part. It was that ride to school where the face started to change and the anxiety started to kind of rear its head.
“Inevitably I would have a call by, I don't know, 10 o'clock in the morning and often multiple times a day,” says Erin. “And I’d be called in for those special meetings with the teachers about behavioral things that would manifest because he was struggling and wanted any way out of those classrooms.”
Everyone stuck with it, Jack included. Meanwhile his brothers — Ian, who recently committed to play NCAA hockey at Princeton, and Luke, who will be playing at Cornell — did their part by being decidedly low maintenance.
“I never knew one assignment that Ian or Luke had,” says Erin. “I mean, I always went to the parent-teacher interviews. I always kept at least abreast of how it was going. Yeah, but very early on that was on them because we had to devote so much energy on Jack.”
The rewards came, eventually. Jack learned to read and write. He was outgoing and popular with his peer group and beyond. He became the manager on his brothers' hockey teams. He was Jack: outgoing, fun-loving and happy.
But as Jack progressed through high school, there was still the nagging question of ‘what next?’
They learned of the University of Iowa’s REACH (Realizing Educational and Career Hopes) program — described as a “comprehensive transition program for students aged 18-25 years old with intellectual, cognitive, and learning disabilities” — through a family friend. It opened in 2008 and remains one of the few programs of its kind in North America. There are only 65 students in REACH and it is wait-listed.
Students live on campus in traditional residences with support from student mentors enrolled in the college of education at Iowa. They take academic-style courses, but also labs on subjects like cleaning, self-advocacy, money management and cooking.
Jack’s specialty? Crepes with peanut butter. “They're actually pretty good,” he says.
That there was a university experience available for Jack seemed almost too good to be true. That it was in Iowa, where Erin has family, was even better.
“I remember being asked by a pediatrician ‘what is it that you've dreamt up for Jack?’” Erin recalled. “And I said, well, I don't know, he's only two, I haven't dreamt of anything really concrete other than he has a happy, typical life where he can feel good about himself.
“And then she asked ‘but is there anything specific?’ and I actually said … ‘well, I just would like for Matt and I to load up a van and drive [Jack] off to college and move him into an apartment with his friends, that kind of stuff. I just want him to have that kind of a life; the things that some of us take for granted.'”
The first hint that the family's college dreams for Jack could become reality came in the fall of 2017 when Jack — wearing a Herky the Hawk onesie — ripped open an envelope with his acceptance letter. But there was still plenty of trepidation.
Dropping their oldest off at university or college for the first time is a indelible memory for any parent, with hopes, fears and tears all part of the experience, but even more so in Matt and Erin's case. It was a moment they were never sure would happen. It was a triumph over years of doubts, but featured plenty of concerns: how would their precious, special boy manage without them for the first time?
Perfectly fine, it turns out. It didn’t take long for Jack to carve out his own space within the Hawkeye community, bringing his unique blend of enthusiasm, friendliness, and swagger to every room he sauntered into at the school.
Through shared basketball circles — relationships of Matt’s through broadcasting and Erin’s brother, Ed Conroy, a long-time Division I coach — they reached out to Iowa men’s basketball head coach Fran McCaffery about a student manager role for Jack.
“When Jack first joined the Hawkeye basketball family, he was a little bit shy,” McCaffery said in an interview earlier this year with Iowa’s student newspaper. “He wanted to be involved, but he didn’t know anybody. Our guys took a liking to him right away. He’s not shy for long. He’s got personality, he’s got a sense of humour. I think almost immediately he felt like he was part of the group.”
Matt and Erin's concerns about their eldest son finding his way in the wider world were replaced with wonder as the world came to Jack.
It happened most notably when he stole the show after hitting a hitting a half-court shot before a full house at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Senior Night, the video of Jack being smothered by the men’s team going viral. Amazingly it wasn’t the first time Jack hit a half-court shot on video — there are a couple of others from practices — but this was the topper.
“I'll definitely say the one on senior night [means the most] because obviously it was like the last media timeout of the game and I had been practising for that moment for like two-and-a-half days and obviously it paid off in the end,” said Jack.
But going viral was just a symbol of the impact Jack made during his four years at school. For the graduation weekend, Matt and Erin hosted what was supposed to be a small gathering at a local restaurant for friends and family and REACH program staff in advance of the ceremony itself, but the guest list — at Jack’s request — kept growing.
“One thing led to another and there was like 100 people there,” says Matt.
Members of the men’s basketball team showed up. The university president made an appearance, as did the dean of the college of education. Hawkeye women’s star Caitlin Clark, an Iowa legend — the Big 10 player of the year as a sophomore and in the midst of one of the most impressive college careers of any basketball player, male or female — made an appearance.
“I don't know what other kid leaves college like that, knowing that many people,” said Matt. “The dean of the college of education is telling us ‘yeah, I'm gonna miss when Jack waves to me through my glass wall of my office every day.'
“But you know each kid that goes through that program has their own unique story,” says Matt. “I think they just put so much good out into the world and wherever they go home to it, makes it a better place.”
What’s next?
It turns out that Jack is going home, but home is Iowa City now. He will be a paid intern with the men’s basketball team next season and will live in his own apartment with a friend and a fellow REACH graduate. The two families are going to share the cost of a caregiver who can check in and make sure that some of the finer details of two young men living on their own for the first time are being covered off.
And then Matt and Erin are going to do what any other parent who sends their loved one out in the world does: watch with pride and wonder and hope for the best
Graduation ceremonies aren’t just for the students, it turns out.
“Each parent that was in that room, and each student in that room were told that they couldn't do things,” says Matt. “And so as a parent to see them accomplish this was extremely emotional. Every family — since their kids were little — have had barriers put in front of them along the way, right?
“And it takes the strength of each family to keep crashing through them.”
This month, Jack Devlin and his parents pushed through a big one.
“Every time I go there, I get chills,” says Matt. “I laugh at the line [from Field of Dreams] you know: ‘Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.’ Dreams come true.”
