Josh Gerrits looks and acts like any average six-year-old boy.
He's a bit short for his age, and sports his golden blonde hair in a plain vanilla hairdo. He enjoys playing sports with his friends, and attends first grade in Madison. Like many Wisconsin youngsters, he wants to play football for the Packers when he grows up.
But life for Josh Gerrits ceased being "average" the day after his birth. That's when doctors diagnosed him with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), which simply means the left side of his heart didn't fully form, making it impossible for his heart to pump blood to his body.
"It's not compatible with life," Josh's mom, Deb Gerrits, said. "He needed immediate intervention."
So Josh's parents took him to Milwaukee Children's Hospital for the surgery. He spent a lot of time in that hospital over the next six years. Too much time, probably.
But that's where Josh found his silver lining. It came in the form of a message about "Buzz's Bunch," a program for special needs children set up by Brent "Buzz" Williams, a relatively unknown coach recently hired to lead Marquette's men's basketball team.
Through Buzz's Bunch, Josh had the chance to attend Marquette's Dec. 28 game against Presbyterian. He got his picture taken with Marquette players, and had the chance to shoot baskets with the team before the game.
The program is perfect for Williams, a down-to-earth son of Texas who loves sweet tea and speaks with a deliberate southern twang. A one-year assistant at Marquette, he lucked into the head-coaching job when Tom Crean bolted the program.
It was a high-stress job, but before he got down to focusing on wins and losses and on X's and O's, Williams knew there was something he had to do first.
"I started (Buzz's Bunch) the day after I got this job," Williams said. "I told Mike Broeker, our deputy (athletic director), there was only one thing I wanted to do."
Too often Division I basketball coaches are one part coach, two parts snake-oil salesman, spinning lies like an embattled politician. But when Williams says he wants Buzz's Bunch to be his primary legacy at Marquette, you have to believe him.
You can't ignore the passion in his eyes as he talks about the young girl who needs the help of a trained dog because she can't control her muscle movements. You can't ignore the frantic hand gestures and the excitement in his voice as he plans for the future of Buzz's Bunch (Williams said additional day camps and annual banquets are in the works).
You can't ignore the smile that creeps onto his face as he describes his guys — players like Lazar Hayward, Wesley Matthews, Dominic James and others — shooting baskets with the kids.
Because he doesn't want to exclude any children from Buzz's Bunch, Williams refuses to narrow the focus beyond "special needs" children (or, as he says, children "unable to function in a normal capacity"). Instead, he plans to constantly rotate children through the program (the older ones graduating Menudo-style) while always adding new members.
For Josh, and kids like him, the program is already paying dividends.
"It just really is so nice that (Marquette) is reaching out to kids and families," Deb Gerrits said. "The kids have to go through so much in their lives…to be able to have some fun things built in there is just such a breath of fresh air."
Many of the kids involved in Williams' program will never outgrow their special needs. Josh, for example, might need treatments for his HLHS for the rest of his life, and it's likely he'll need a heart transplant at some point.
But thanks to Buzz's Bunch Josh's life was — for at least one day — well above average.