“For those of you that aren’t returners, this is Seth,” Illinois Wesleyan University volleyball head coach Kim Nelson-Brown said, gesturing to the man behind her. “He works with football and then with us in volleyball during the fall season, so make sure you get to know him real well. He’ll be with us a lot.”
First-years watched as the rest of the team’s faces lit up in excitement. Many of them immediately went over to give him a hug and a high-five. He was instantly beaming, a huge smile plastered across his face as he returned the gestures. The rest of the first-years observed the interactions with curiosity and awe, and couldn’t help but smile in return.
Bauersfeld, more commonly known as Seth, doesn’t fight villains or slay dragons like those common storybook heroes–he is an individual with a disability who has the power to capture people’s hearts with one of his bright smiles, big bear hugs and a contagious enthusiasm for life.
“I love helping people,” Seth said. “It’s what God wants me to do.”
Before IWU he worked with Heartland Community College’s baseball team for a few years until he graduated in 2010.
He became part of the Titan family when his oldest sister, Leah, brought Seth to many events before she graduated in 2007, allowing him to build various connections within the Titan community.
“We all know he’s a Titan at heart,” said his mother, Jennifer Bauersfeld. “Even his sisters all know that this is the lifeblood of him.”
His connection to the volleyball team itself and to the work he does runs deeper than in the other sports programs. He’s constantly active and especially loves shagging balls during practices and games. If a ball goes flying, Seth is the first person to run after it, shouting, “I got it!” He also feels closer to the team and to the girls due to the fact that he has three sisters.
“He claims you girls as his family,” Jennifer Bauersfeld said.
As the Titan volleyball women run into the gym after changing into their jerseys, Seth stands there cheering by the court with a big smile on his face, his hands outstretched to give all 22 players high-fives as they enter.
“Woo! Let’s go Seth!!” you can hear the players cheer and shout as they match his contagious energy. The sound of loud claps echo through the arena, each girl’s hand finding Seth’s.
Seth began working with the women’s volleyball program in 2015 shortly after meeting now-retired IWU football head coach Norm Eash at a service for Calvary United Methodist Church in Bloomington. He worked with football first but was led to the women’s volleyball program through former Titan volleyball player Kyleigh Block, and through Assistant Coach Mary Frahm, who lived in the same town as Bauersfeld. It was a great fit from the start.
“You can tell by the smile on his face the moment he walks in the gym how much he enjoys being there. How do you not smile when you see him smile?” Nelson-Brown said. “We talk all the time within our program to surround yourself with people who make you better and who lift you up. Seth does that for us, and he does that for me personally,” she said.
And his impact on the women’s volleyball program is still growing.
“I think it’s just so fun to have him a part of the program,” assistant women’s volleyball coach Tyler Brown said. “I feel like he is always sharing how much our program means to him and vice versa, and seeing how much more involved our team is with Special Olympic activities and supporting Seth, I think that’s been cool.”
Even with volleyball now in the off-season, Seth still sends frequent texts to Brown, letting her know how much he misses the team. He also writes letters to the coaches and invites the team to important life events. Just last season, he invited the whole team to attend his baptism, and everyone was more than happy to be there to support him. At the event, as Seth spoke on a prerecorded video about his faith and his reasons for the baptism, the beginnings of tears were shining in the eyes of all players. Then, after the baptism happened, the church erupted with a roar of shouts and cheers from all of his community, showing their endless support and love to someone who gives so much of himself to those around him. Everyone there knew how committed Seth is to the things and people that matter most to him. He makes it to IWU almost every day for practices and home games in the fall season, despite living a half an hour away from campus.
“We will do anything to make it possible for him to do this kind of thing, because that’s what he thrives on,” Jennifer Bauersfeld said.
Seth’s impact goes beyond volleyball, too. When he was in elementary school, Hannah Meharry was a guard on the women’s basketball team at IWU. For one of her classes she was tasked with interviewing a family who had a child with a disability. She went to the Bauersfeld’s home, and they learned later that she was nervous because she had never really dealt with a person who had a disability.
One game at the end of the season was a critical, must-win game. Meharry didn’t know that Seth was at that particular game. The team ended up losing and when she came out of the locker room, Meharry was visibly upset, but then she saw Seth, and he gave her a hug.
“That night on social media, she wrote the most beautiful, heartfelt thing about how she had learned something from him that night,” Jennifer Bauersfeld recalled. “People had said it her whole life, that it’s just a game, and what really matters is the relationships, not the end result. But, she hadn’t internalized that until after this game, and seeing Seth afterwards was the most beautiful thing. I thought, ‘Seth, you make a big difference,’” Jennifer Bauersfeld recalled.
Despite her initial nerves due to her inexperience with individuals with disabilities, Meharry became such a good friend of Seth’s that he was an usher at her wedding, and on her resume, she still lists what she had learned from him and had taken to heart that night after the game.
Recalling this memory and friendship with Meharry, Jennifer Bauersfeld smiled at Seth as he pulled out his handkerchief.
“You make a difference just by being you,” she said.