CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina wide receiver Tylee Craft died Saturday morning following a lengthy battle with cancer, the school announced.

Craft, 23, of Sumter, South Carolina, was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer on March 14, 2022. The UNC community had rallied behind him with the #TyleeStrong hashtag since his diagnosis. He had undergone numerous treatments, but the cancer spread through his body and brain. Still, he had enrolled in graduate courses toward his master’s degree in applied professional studies and graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports science/sports administration.

UNC honored Craft during Saturday’s football game against Georgia Tech. It also happened to be the team’s annual Cancer Awareness Game. Friends and family members wearing shirts bearing Craft’s name and number were recognized during an on-field ceremony.

Wide receiver J.J. Jones wore Craft’s jersey with his No. 13 and last name during the game. Additionally, the UNC men’s basketball team wore shirts bearing Craft’s name and number for its intrasquad scrimmage at the Smith Center following the football game and had a pre-scrimmage moment of silence in Craft’s honor.

“This young man fought so hard for his two and a half years,” UNC coach Mack Brown said. “The doctors told us he outlived what he should’ve. And he did it with the spirit, he did it with a smile on his face, he didn’t miss a meeting, he didn’t miss practice, he coached these other incredible young people.”

Brown told reporters he didn’t learn of Craft’s death until after the game but sensed something had happened after sharing an emotional hug with Craft’s mother at the end of the first quarter.

“I think the family feels the love and they’ll continue to feel the love,” Brown said. “What we’ve got to do is be strong, and pray for strength for us as leaders, to help these guys on the field and off the field. … So more than ever before I have got to step up and be stronger for them and make sure that I can help them manage the stuff and move forward in their lives.”

Craft had been struggling with debilitating back pain, so UNC’s athletic training staff took him to the hospital in 2022 for more testing to determine the cause of it. That’s when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. He immediately began an aggressive treatment of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

According to UNC, when Craft was diagnosed, his family said doctors told them he was just weeks away from dying.

In 2022, Craft was recognized with the Disney Spirit Award, presented annually to college football’s most inspirational individual or team. He was also one of five college athletes named to the Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Team that year.

“Tylee meant so much to so many and affected us in ways we’ll always be thankful for,” the football program’s statement said. “He was 1-of-1 and, while he won’t be with us in body, he’ll be watching over us with his endearing smile and endless positivity.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Victor Hedman and his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates spent the better part of a week in North Carolina keeping a watch on what was going on back home as Hurricane Milton roared ashore.

Now, with the storm past along with their regular-season opener, they can finally get back home and figure out what’s next.

The Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in Friday night’s season opener for both teams to cap a long stay in the Raleigh area, their haven to get out of Florida ahead of Milton’s arrival. Tampa Bay’s premature departure meant spending days skating to get ready, spending time with their families in an extended stay in a new place and hoping for the best back home.

“I think most of the guys have gotten reports about their own properties,” Hedman said, adding later: “It’s good to have a few days to kind of get everything together.”

This week’s storm left at least 10 people dead as of Friday night amid flooding and tornadoes, while the number of customers in Florida without power was roughly 1.9 million, according to poweroutage.us. The Lightning’s preseason game against Nashville on Monday was canceled, and the team instead headed to the North Carolina to get out of the area before Milton made landfall.

Jon Cooper, who has coached the Lightning to two Stanley Cups, wasn’t sure exactly how his team might respond Friday night with disrupted routines and worry.

“Outwardly as a coach, you want to be optimistic, but sometimes you’re a little nervous inside,” Cooper said. “So you weren’t exactly sure how things were going to go. But I do know the guys really wanted to play a hockey game.”

Other than Jordan Staal’s goal, Cooper liked the way Tampa Bay played in the first period. A strong third period that included three goals — the go-ahead one-timer and two empty-netters — from Nikita Kucherov pushed the Lightning to victory.

“I think everybody’s so locked in right now,” Kucherov said.

The game between perennial playoff teams offered a welcomed distraction and normalcy in an abnormal situation, at least.

Many of the players had family with them on the trip, and Cooper let the team have Wednesday off as they geared up for opening night. Cooper also grabbed the chance to venture over to Duke in nearby Durham to reconnect with Blue Devils men’s lacrosse coach John Danowski, Cooper’s coach at Hofstra during his own playing career (1986-89) that included scoring 74 goals and winning two conference championships.

Danowski offered a tour of Duke and its venerable Cameron Indoor Stadium men’s basketball home, and Cooper said he also got to meet retired Blue Devils Hall of Fame men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski — the winningest coach in that sport’s history with 1,202 wins in a career that included five NCAA titles and 13 Final Fours.

Next came a visit to nearby North Carolina since the Lightning were staying in Chapel Hill, home to the Tar Heels basketball program that has won six NCAA titles and is known for its notable basketball alums.

“We saw the many hundreds of pictures of Michael Jordan everywhere and found a pretty cool establishment there,” Cooper told reporters earlier Friday. “It was good, we had a good time. For me, though, I didn’t realize how close Duke and North Carolina were from each other, and I see why there’s such a rivalry.

“It’s the things you have to do when you’ve got a little extra time on your hands.”

The Lightning and Hurricanes were originally slated to play again in Florida on Saturday, though that game was postponed due to Milton recovery. That means Tampa Bay won’t play again until hosting New Jersey on Tuesday.

“I don’t know if anybody on the team has power,” Cooper said after the win. “Everybody’s probably be going back to Tampa and staying in a hotel. … This will be the first time that anybody gets to see what damage has been done with their own eyes. Is there water in your house or not? So that’s going to be trying. We’re not out of the woods yet with some of the adversity we’ve got to face.”

The team won’t skate Saturday and will aim to return to work Sunday, hopefully with some certainty about what’s ahead.

“We’re super excited to get back home and hopefully get our lives going again,” Hedman said, “and hopefully we’re done with the storms this year.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) -From western North Carolina to central Florida tens of millions of Americans have seen the full force of mother nature.  Hurricanes Helene and Milton left behind destruction that will take years from which to recover.

A locally based charity is ready to help those struggling get back to some type of normalcy and people can help.

The international relief organization Friend Ships will be making trips to both North Carolina and Florida to provide help to those recovering from hurricanes Helene and Milton.  

Items will be flown to North Carolina and a disaster assistance team will go to Florida to deliver supplies and help however they can.

Friend Ships’ Murray Douglas says they all have hearts for service.

“We’re sending an advance team in this weekend. With the information they’ll be bringing out, we’ll be able to pinpoint a little bit more accurately where we’re going, what the actual needs are in that area are going to be,” he said.

They were packaging donated loaves of bread for distribution locally and to hurricane victims. They say it’s fine to continue to bring supplies to their headquarters at Port Mercy in Lake Charles because they plan to make several trips to hurricane-stricken areas.

“Yes, we still need supplies. Our team will be going as soon as possible. Just a couple of things we’re waiting on before we load up and head toward Florida. But we still have a team here processing donations that we can get to both Florida and North Carolina,” he said.

The team will consist of about a dozen Sea Hawks who can help feed people, clean up, distribute commodities. Murray says they can usually do whatever needs to be done.

Friend Ships accepts various supplies from paper goods, ramen soups and hammers and nails to cover roofs. They are taking steam carts to both Florida and North Carolina.    They also use an Amazon wish list to make donating easier.

They also utilize commercial trucking services donated to assist in transportation of goods to those in need.

Friend Ships has permanent volunteers but can always use those who want to help on site locally for short periods of times.

Several other local organizations are accepting donations of essential supplies and funds for the victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.                

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