Kayne Finley got the opportunity to work with the LSU swimming and diving team when he came to LSU this fall. Finley helped out the team as an assistant manager doing small things like getting water and talking with the coaches before practice. But all the while, he is battling brain cancer.
Finley is was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare form of brain cancer that attacks the brain stem. As the DIPG progresses, Finley said via Instagram that he had to return home to Florida and will not finish his freshman year at LSU.
In the post, Finley said, “It is with a heavy heart that I annouce I will be leaving my dream school of LSU and returning home to Florida instead of continuing my freshman year here in Baton Rouge.”
The LSU swim team continues to embrace him as a manager and a friend while he is back home.
“He represents hard work, determination, unrelenting spirit, and positive attitude, all ideals we want to have our team members reflect,” said diving coach Doug Shaffer. “To have him around is a blessing to us.”
Finley was diagnosed with DIPG on November 23, 2016 when he was a senior in high school.
Finley went through radiation treatment during December and over the summer, along with an experimental clinical trial.
While the diagnosis could have limited Finley, he knew he wanted to go to college and he knew he wanted to help animals. This led him to LSU. Finley said he hoped to work with the School of Veterinary Medicine, despite being an undergraduate.
“When I got accepted to LSU, the doctors wanted to get me to LSU,” Finley said. “It is different than what I thought. I thought I would be out more, not in a wheelchair.”
Along with studying to go to vet school, Finley had the ambition to be involved with the LSU swimming and diving team.
Swimming runs in Finley’s blood. His brother swims at Florida State and Finley swam from elementary to high school and his club team was coached by the father of Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte.
LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer was more than happy to make it happen.
“When I met Kayne in June, I thought it would be a good opportunity for him once he got on campus and got settled,” Geyer said. “So far this semester, he helps out in any way he can.”
Finley’s work as a manager on an LSU sports team and his family’s connection with the swimming world has garnered him widespread support from both the LSU sports community and the swimming world.
During LSU’s football game against Syracuse, Finley did the coin toss at the center of Tiger Stadium.
“It was a little stressful,” he said, “Going out into the stadium is not always easy especially when you are in a wheelchair.”
Finley’s support from the swimming community has come in large part due to the #CannonballsForKayne campaign, which was started by his family to raise awareness for DIPG and gain funding to combat it.
#CannonballsForKayne has sought to do that by getting swimmers and nonswimmers to do cannonballs into a pool and post it on social media.
“When I was in the hospital, my club’s assistant coach, Kristin Lochte-Keeler, asked what they can do to support me,” Finley said. “My mom said, ‘Well, they can do cannonballs.’ We started a group on Facebook, and that turned into a page and that turned into the Cannonballs for Kayne Foundation.”
The #CannonballsForKayne campaign has been done by swim teams including national universities like Penn State and Florida State and smaller schools such as West Georgia. Olympians like Lochte, Elizabeth Beisel, and Nathan Adrian have also done cannonballs.
LSU has embraced the campaign during its season. Before starting its meet with Pittsburgh and Virginia on October 20 and 21, the LSU swimming and diving team did cannonballs before the meet.
After the Tigers meet with Tulane and Loyola, the swimmers and diver jumped into the pool. They were followed by their coaches and swimmers and divers from Tulane and Loyola.
Finley was awarded a swimming and diving team letterman’s jacket after the meet. A letterman’s jacket is normally reserved for members of the team and while Finley is not an athlete on the team, he is a member of the team.
“I don’t think there was a dry eye in the stands,” said Shaffer. “You saw Tulane and Loyola’s reaction to the story and they were all on board. I had not been in the pool since I competed in 1987 and I did a cannonball. It was something I wanted to be a part of.”
