The gym went dark, spotlights flickered, dance music cranked up and fans stood to cheer. This was an introduction befitting a rock star, which, come to think of it, perfectly describes Michael Sheridan.

This packed house came to honor the “Mayor of Eastview.”

Sheridan, the long-time team manager for Eastview High girls basketball, pumped his fist Friday night as he walked through a tunnel of players until he reached center court. This was his moment, Michael’s moment.

At 9 months old, Michael was diagnosed with Hurler syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that occurs in one in 100,000 births. Hurler patients have an enzyme deficiency that prevents the breakdown of sugar molecules, severely impacting cognitive and physical development. Life expectancy is around 10 years.

Michael is 32 years old now, making him one of the oldest Hurler patients in the world. And there is not a person more beloved within the Eastview community.

“Everybody cares so much about him,” senior forward Maya Jenkins said.

The school played host to Michael Sheridan Night on Friday, Feb. 6, for a game against Rosemount. Fans wore purple T-shirts with Sheridan’s picture and the words “Weathering the Storm” underneath. Rosemount players joined them in sporting the shirt in warmups, as did several other teams elsewhere across the South Suburban Conference.

The night stood as a testament to strength and resilience, and the power of love and kindness.

“My big takeaway from all of this,” said Sheridan’s father, Kevin, “is how the Eastview community has wrapped their arms around him.”

A successful bone marrow transplant at 22 months old gave Michael the best chance at beating the odds. He enrolled at Eastview as a freshman in 2008 and soon discovered a passion, unbeknownst to his parents.

A family friend congratulated them on Michael becoming team manager for girls basketball. Apparently, Michael and then-coach Paul Goetz had made a pact. Michael’s parents had no idea until seeing his name listed on the team roster.

“So then we thought, we should bring him to the games,” mom Kathy said. “We started coming to the games, and the rest is history.”

Michael began attending practice every day, plus games, season after season. He became a fixture on the bench and a vital part of the program and school community.

Small in stature, Michael has a big personality to those in his orbit.

He used to ease tension before a big game by giving Goetz a wet willy in his ear. He’s fond of walking into a classroom and saying, “Hello mammals.”

He loves teasing friends and giving them nicknames. He calls Jenkins “waffle hands” because she dropped passes when they played catch with a football. She calls him “butterfingers.”

“He’s got inside jokes, even if they’re the same inside jokes from 10 years ago,” Eastview coach Molly Kasper said, smiling.

Michael completed a transition program after high school, but none of the adult work programs appealed to him. He told his parents he wanted to work at Eastview High.

Athletic director Matt Percival put him through an interview. Percival and Goetz, who served as chair of the physical education department before retiring, conducted the interview. One of their stipulations for the job was that Michael, a diehard Green Bay Packers fan, couldn’t wear Packers attire every day to school.

He was hired as a full-time volunteer assistant in physical education. He got a desk and keycard access to the school.

Kathy and Kevin were still working as elementary school teachers and worried about logistics. Goetz told them that Michael was free to stay all day, every day, and that he would have plenty of support.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Kathy said. “I had never seen or heard of anything like it in my life.”

Michael found a home at school, adored by all within the hallways. A janitor made sure to cut his food for him at lunch. A former Lightning girls basketball player flew back from college during her freshman year to take Michael to homecoming.

Jenkins, the senior forward, serves as a certified personal care assistant for Michael. She has given him rides home and trips to the mall. Students and staff rush to greet Michael whenever he walks through the doors.

“He could ask for chocolate milk out of the drinking fountain, and I think they would make it happen for him,” Goetz said.

Now in her 11th season as coach, Kasper said her fourth and final job interview was to meet Michael. She had an ace up her sleeve. She’s a Packers fan, too.

“He sealed the deal,” she said.

The enormity of Michael’s standing at Eastview shone brightly when the family needed a comforting embrace.

Doctors discovered a brain tumor the size of a pear after Michael began experiencing stroke-like symptoms in 2016. The tumor was likely linked to the full-body radiation he underwent before his bone marrow transplant as a toddler.

Well-wishers flooded Michael’s hospital room as he awaited surgery, so many that the room warmed like a sauna. The entire girls basketball team came. Then the dance team. Gophers quarterback Mitch Leidner brought a group of teammates. Eastview staff stopped by. Even Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson called to chat with Michael.

All told, the hospital made 120 visitors badges that day. They made 80 more the next day.

“They said they’ve never had anybody have that many visitors in the history of the hospital,” Kathy said.

Michael recovered and returned to work. Kasper told her players to “show up the way he shows up.”

The best part about being team manager? That’s easy.

“Going to state,” Michael said.

He knows that feeling well, having made 11 trips in his tenure, including state championships in 2014 and ’18.

He notes that he also loves Kasper and the players. He is an encyclopedia about Eastview girls basketball, able to recall on the spot former players’ jersey numbers, birthdays and college choices.

“If it’s important to him,” his dad said, “then it’s there.”

Michael’s involvement in school and the basketball program has slowed down of late. More brain tumors required another surgery this past November. He has been undergoing daily radiation. His parents try to bring him to school for a few hours a day.

“When he walks through that door and he sees the first teacher,” Kevin said, “he just lights up.”

Kevin had so many questions after learning about his son’s diagnosis. What would his life be like? Will he be able to drive? Will he get married, have kids, make it through school?

“As it became more and more clear both his gifts and what the limitations are, you grieve those things that he’ll never do,” Kevin said. “But, man, I would not have imagined this kind of an outcome.”

The outcome was on beautiful display Friday night, a gym filled with people there to celebrate his son. Michael Sheridan became a team manager to feel a connection and ended up becoming the mayor of a community that loved him right back.