#10VE, KIP
Scholarship cements loving legacy of athlete from The Haverford School
It’s an attitude, a certain reverence for the memory of a young friend taken too soon.
Call it “The Kip Effect.” This past week, especially, it’s been in full swing.
Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the death of 17-year-old James Kilpatrick Taviano, or “Kip” for short. A senior athlete at The Haverford School, he was killed in a two-car accident on Smithbridge Road, not far the family home in Concord.
He was just days from graduation.
Kip, who widely considered a role model for youth on and off the lacrosse and football fields, was bound for Furman University that fall to live out his dream of playing Division 1 lacrosse.
In remembrance Monday of his passing on May 28, 2013, friends from all over wore purple, a suggestion by friend Mary Kate Williams and welcomed by Kip’s parents, Jim and Ellen Taviano, as a nod to Furman’s school colors of white and purple.
Ellen Taviano said Friday that she saw posts on social media from friends wearing combinations of purple/white T-shirts and caps with what has become her son’s legacy logo - #10ve – from places like South Carolina, areas in the Midwest, and even as far away as Greece. Most were closer to home.
The images warmed her heart, as well as the hearts of Kips dad, Jim Taviano, and his sisters, twin Maggie, who is finishing up her first year of law school at Villanova University, and Emma, who will be graduating later this month from Garnet Valley High School.
#10ve is a take on the No. 10 jersey Kip wore for The Haverford School, as well as when he played for the Brandywine Youth Club in Concord. A year after his death, Concord Township and the BYC dedicated a lacrosse field in his name, known as “love” or 10ve field.
On Thursday night, about 100 people gathered at Barnaby’s in Havertown, laughing and sharing one Kip story after another – all to benefit the James K. “Kip” Taviano Scholarship Fund through The Haverford School, as well as future athletes in the Concord community where Kip played growing up.
Today, family and friends will host the fifth and final Kip Taviano #10ve Lacrosse Celebration at 10ve Field in the Concord Township Municipal Complex on Thornton Road in Glen Mills – an event that celebrates the game both by teaching and playing, as well as reacquainting old friends and teammates. Proceeds again benefit the scholarship fund.
Since the inaugural event in May 2014, the lacrosse celebration has raised more than $100,000, solidifying the endowed tuition assistance fund established in 2016 in Kip’s name at The Haverford School.
A perfect fit
Bobby Gibson, a senior at The Haverford School, gets it – the Kip Effect.
As the first recipient of the James K. “Kip” Taviano Scholarship Fund, he wants nothing more than to emulate the qualities that earned Kip a legion of loyal friends, and to make Kip’s parents, as well as his own, proud.
Bobby, 19, never met Kip, though they may have crossed paths from time to time.
“I was in eighth grade when Kip died,” he said. “I do remember it.”
Mostly, Bobby remembers watching friends of his who did know Kip, dealing with the loss.
Chosen by the school, Gibson’s family began receiving supplemental tuition funds when Gibson transferred to The Haverford School as a junior.
The school describes the fund this way:
“Established in 2016 by the family, classmates, teammates and their parents, coaches, teachers, neighbors and friends of James “Kip” Taviano ’13 in his loving memory, this fund provides tuition assistance to a student of need who would otherwise not be able to attend The Haverford School, with a preference for a deserving student-athlete who exhibits strong character, friendship, citizenship, and sportsmanship in all that he does, just as Kip demonstrated in his life.”
Getting that scholarship, Bobby said, was life changing. The new school was a perfect fit, both academically and athletically.
Like Kip, he played football and lacrosse. He also played hockey. He described himself as more a B student, with a few As.
“It was huge for our family,” Karen Gibson, Bobby’s mother, said of the financial assistance. Both she and his father, Bob Sr., get emotional whenever they talk about it. Bobby is the middle of three children.
“The opportunities it made possible for Bobby is priceless,” she said. “My husband says we are blessed … We definitely are.”
Bobby understands the gift he’s been given, and he wants to fill “the big shoes” left by Kip.
“That’s so important,” he said.
From what he’s learned, Kip was a silent leader, and he loved life. The way coaches still talk about him, Bobby believes is a testament to the kind of person he was.
“People hold him in high regard,” he said. “I felt honored to get this
scholarship,” Bobby said.
Her son has always worked hard, but in the last two years she’s watched as he enjoyed expending the efforts in a way he hadn’t before.
“He is a different Karen Gibson said.
Karen tells the Tavianos how grateful they are every time they meet.
“They’re so amazing how they took a tragedy and made an opportunity to people,” she said.
Bobby will be attending Hobart and William Smith Colleges in the fall. He plans to study business.
“In the broad spectrum,” he said his plan “is just to be happy.”
Game day
child,”
The lacrosse celebration Saturday is rain or shine, with events beginning at 8:30 a.m. Events include: • Boys Youth clinic, led by former U.S. Men’s National Team Head Coach Richie Meade, The Haverford
School Head Lacrosse Coach John Nostrant, and National Lacrosse Hall of Famer and Garnet Valley Head Lacrosse Coach Frank Urso.
• Girls Youth Clinic led by NXT Coach and former University of Delaware and Garnet Valley All-American Coley Ricci.
Visit www.10ve.net for a full schedule for the day. Follow the group on Facebook at Kip Tav 10ve and on Twitter @10veEvent.
Speaking for her family, Ellen Taviano said they are so thankful to the friends who have volunteered countless hours planning and running the lacrosse celebration, many of whom were Kip’s friends who now have jobs, and other responsibilities.”
“It’s time now to end it,” she said. “It’s just a natural progression.”
She said the family still intends to bestow more to the future athletes in the Concord community in Kip’s memory.
“We have to decide how,” she said.
Meanwhile, she’s happy just knowing all the love that continues to flow for, or because of, Kip.