How being a ‘sponge’ at the Danny Rumph Classic helped form St. Joe’s star Xzayvier Brown

It‘s hard to find a duty Xzayvier Brown hasn’t performed since he started attending the annual Danny Rumph Classic as a middle schooler.

His stepfather, Justin Scott, who also is Brown’s assistant coach at St. Joseph’s, is on the board of the Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation and was at the Mallery Recreation Center in Germantown on Mother’s Day night in 2005, when Rumph, one of Scott’s best friends, died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disorder associated with sudden cardiac arrest.

This year’s tournament, which begins Thursday night at the Community College of Philadelphia, will be the 19th edition, and Brown, who starred at Roman Catholic, is closing in on his 10th summer helping Scott — who is married to Brown’s mother, Amber — and his friends run the thing in any way he can.

“Working the table, stats, doing anything they needed me to do,” Brown said. “Rebound, ball boy, mop up the sweat, filling up Gatorade bottles for players.” In recent years, Brown has taken to operating the shot clock.

» READ MORE: In Danny Rumph’s honor, family and foundation work to prevent sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes

When Brown first started coming around, he remembers being excited to watch former 76ers guard Lou Williams. He also enjoyed watching and learning about some of Philadelphia’s best players, some of whom had moved overseas to play professional basketball. Brown was “like a sponge,” Scott said. And in recent years, the annual tournament has welcomed the likes of Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brunson, Jayson Tatum, and James Harden.

The tournament isn’t open to players who are still in college, so Brown, the reigning Atlantic 10 rookie of the year, will have to wait to play in the event. For now, he still does everything he can to contribute.

Last year, Brown and Imhotep Charter’s Ahmad Nowell, who will play at UConn, helped coach a middle school team in the Rumph Classic’s rising stars game. Brown’s journey with the Rumph Classic and foundation helps explain a lot about the person and player who could help guide St. Joe’s to the NCAA Tournament this season for the first time since 2016.

“I try not to take it for granted,” Brown said. “Knowing that they do it for a great cause makes it even better.”

Said Scott: “It’s something that’s important and near and dear to my heart. I think he’s seen that, and it’s kind of rubbed off on him in a sense. Especially as he’s gotten older and he drives and he has his own life … he never hesitates to be there to help out with anything we need. He’s there early and stays until it’s over. At times, it may be tedious or boring or he may not want to do it, I don’t know the answer to that, but he never carries it like that. He’s always there. He’s always helping out.

“He’s just someone you can rely on. He knows how important it is to myself and my friends who he’s kind of grown up around. Secondly, he just loves basketball.”

Just like Scott and the group of Rumph’s friends, who have remained close and help put on the annual event and run the foundation that has provided CPR and AED trainings along with heart screenings for children.

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“More than anything, the foundation has saved lives,” Scott said. “That’s the most rewarding part of it. We were all in the gym the night Danny died. None of us knew what to do. There wasn’t an AED in the rec center, and even if there was, we wouldn’t have known what to do with it to help save or revive him.”

Scott said he and his friends can see themselves in Brown.

“He just loves the game,” Scott said. “He loves to be around it. He loves being in the gym. That’s definitely how we grew up.”

Brown knows, too, that all of this is bigger than basketball. It’s about friendship and taking care of others. Basketball is just the vehicle.

“It’s more than just a basketball tournament,” Scott said. “One, it’s a foundation that raises awareness for sudden cardiac arrest and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. So he’s been to the heart screenings when we do that stuff. He’s gotten his heart screened on more than one occasion, and he’s seen the amount of kids who come out and have heart conditions detected. He’s played on more than one team that has been run out of the Danny Rumph Center that Sharif Hanford, a very close friend of mine and Danny’s, coaches.

“Outside of the tournament, he just sees the bond that myself and my friends have from when we were his age and younger and how that has carried through the game of basketball and the memory of our friend.”

» READ MORE: For St. Joseph’s freshman Xzayvier Brown, debuting on Hawk Hill is going to be a family affair

When Brown finally can play in the event, Scott hopes his stepson’s arrival will help turn things around for the Rumph team, which, Scott said, hasn’t been as competitive in recent years.

“When he’s able to play in it, that’s going to change quickly,” Scott said. “Not just because of the player he is, but the players that are going to want to play with him and his magnetic personality.”

Brown added: “It’s definitely something I look forward to. As soon as I’m able to play ... just knowing how much attention it brings to our city and how much people love the event.”

In some ways it will be a passing of the torch and a full-circle moment for a stepfather and stepson. Not that Scott and his friends are going anywhere. But they will know something they already know now: The foundation and its flagship event are in good hands.