Noblesville star hopes to inspire others with diabetes: 'Something I have to be proud of.'
NOBLESVILLE — It was the summer after Aaron Fine’s freshman year at Noblesville. His father, Matt, was driving Aaron and his friend, current Illinois guard Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn, to an Adidas basketball tournament in Birmingham, Ala., when Matt found himself pulling over to gas stations about every 45 minutes down the road.
Not exactly making great time on a 7-hour drive.
“My dad was about ready to kill me,” Aaron said.
It is a humorous story now, though in the days that followed that trip to Alabama, Aaron and his family became increasingly worried. In the week leading up to the trip, he felt lethargic. He was downing fluids, leading to the frequent stops on the trip to Birmingham. Out on the basketball court, he did not perform up to his usual standards.
“I didn’t know what it was,” Aaron said. “I didn’t have any energy, so I didn’t play as well as I probably usually do. My AAU coaches were blaming it on bringing Dravyn, saying we were up in the hotel all night. I was like, ‘No coach, I promise we weren’t.’ I just didn’t feel great.”
Aaron and his family started Googling the symptoms and kept coming back to diabetes. There was no history in the family. “I thought, ‘There’s no way,’” Aaron said. “It was one of those worst-case scenario things. I just thought I had a bad virus or something.”
A trip to the doctor after his return from Birmingham quickly confirmed it, though: Type 1 diabetes. “Of course, in the moment,” Aaron said, “it felt like the world was ending.”
Fine, a 1,000-point career scorer and senior leader for Class 4A second-ranked Noblesville (20-2) going into this week’s sectional at Noblesville, lost 17 pounds before gaining it all back after a three-day hospital visit. It was on the second day at the hospital when the doctor told Aaron his family what to expect moving forward.
It put Aaron’s mind at ease.
“They laid it all down like, ‘This is what you have deal with now,’” he said. “So, we learned all about it. It completely changed the way I live. It’s second nature to me now. I realized it was not going to end my basketball career and not going to cause me to die in two years. I just have to take care of it. If I do that, I can have a normal life.”
Fine was self-conscious at first. Because his pancreas does not produce insulin, he has an insulin pump. But during games, he sometimes will have to give himself a shot (or two or three) to manage his blood sugar levels. Matt Fine, an assistant coach on the Noblesville staff, can track Aaron’s levels from a monitor he wears during games and practices.
Noblesville coach Scott McClelland alerts the officials prior to each game so they are aware. At practices, student manager Blake Koven helps, too, keeping Gatorades and candy bars nearby in case. Only once this season has McClelland inadvertently looked while Aaron was pricking his finger to check his blood sugar levels.
“I’ll check on him at practice, just asking if he’s OK,” McClelland said. “Not only do we need him full energy, but we need him full go mode because it can negatively impact his energy. But he’s so good now about checking his numbers and Matt and Blake and our trainer are aware of it, too, so I’m never too worried about. For me, it’s just a matter of asking him if he’s feeling OK."
Aaron missed the last two games of the regular season during his sophomore year when his blood sugar was abnormally high for about five days. But other than that outlier, it has been business as usual for Fine on the basketball court. This season, he is averaging 18.1 points, 3.6 assists and 3.6 rebounds. His 3-point shooting is up to 41%, a career high.
“One of Aaron’s greatest characteristics is that he always wants to be in the gym,” McClelland said. “The just loves being in the gym, working on his game. He’s really grown in his leadership the last three years.”
Almost three years after his diagnosis, Fine is comfortable sharing his story. He welcomes it. Earlier this season at a Sunday youth league game at Noblesville, an elementary school boy told Aaron he was also a Type 1 diabetic.
“At first, I was like, ‘I don’t want somebody to see me doing this,’” Fine said of giving himself shots. “But now I think it’s something I have to be proud of. I have to deal with something like everybody else. It’s another hurdle I have to overcome, and I have to be OK doing that around other people. Maybe I can inspire somebody else who is diabetic.”
Other athletes with type 1 diabetes are former Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and former NBA player Adam Morrison. Fine is inspired by current Baltimore Ravens’ tight end Mark Andrews, a three-time Pro Bowl selection. When Fine was diagnosed, he read about Andrews’ story and has continued to follow him.
“He’s somebody that I look up to,” Aaron said. “I’m hoping to be somebody that maybe little basketball players in Indiana look up to.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Noblesville basketball's Aaron Fine hopes to inspire others with diabetes
