Kurt Cummings, right, was the 1995 Post-Journal Boys Basketball Player of the Year and led Maple Grove to a state title that season. He passed away last week at the age of 43. P-J file photo

During a road trip to New York state’s North Country in March 1995, Kurt Cummings hit the trifecta.

First, on a Friday in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D basketball semifinal at the Glens Falls Civic Center, he scored 17 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked three shots to lead Maple Grove past Willsboro.

Twenty-four hours later, Cummings was even better.

Facing Sugar Loaf in the championship game, the 6-foot-5 senior poured in 25 points, hauled in 12 boards and swatted away two shots to lift the Red Dragons to victory, securing the first state hoops crown by a boys team in Chautauqua County’s modern era.

“There aren’t words to describe what I feel,” Kurt, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, said afterward. “This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

Kurt Cummings scored 42 points across two games in Glens Falls to help Maple Grove win the 1995 NYSPHSAA Class D state title. P-J file photo

Sadly, almost 26 years after Kurt’s heroics on that late-winter weekend, those who knew and loved him are doing their best to find just the right “words to describe” how they feel about him after he passed away last week in Florida after a long, courageous battle with cancer.

Kurt, who is survived by his wife, Diane, and two boys, James and Jaxon, was 43.

“I will always cherish our times together and will remember Kurt as a kind and caring person who loved to have fun,” said Jamestown resident Tom Benson, a friend for 20 years. “His quick and bright smile was contagious and made everyone happy. In his short life he made more of a difference than most people do who live until old age, and he will be sorely missed, especially now when the world needs people like Kurt so badly.”

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So, what kind of person was Kurt James Cummings?

Hysterically funny might be first on the list.

So says Chris Koselny, who was a teammate of Kurt at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester in the late 1990s.

“On the court, my favorite memory was when we were playing against Point Park College and Kurt had to guard a player … (who) was a stud,” said Koselny, who is now the varsity boys basketball coach at East Aurora High School. “I think (the Point Park player) had 18-20 points in the first 10-12 minutes.”

Rather than get angry, though, Kurt opted to respond with humor.

“Kurt came off the floor,” Koselny said, “and instead of yelling or getting on us for the lack of help defense we were giving him, he just said, sarcastically, ‘Hey, guys, we are doing great. If we keep it up, we will hold him under 50.’

“It was Kurt’s way of saying, ‘I need help.’ We did not listen very well, because I think (the Point Park player) had 45 that night, or something close to it.”

That Roberts Wesleyan team was coached by George Sisson, who is now the athletic director at Jamestown Community College.

“Whenever there were shenanigans, Cummings was involved,” Sisson said with a laugh.

Never more than during a road trip to Erie, Pennsylvania for a tournament hosted by Gannon University. On the way, the team stopped in Fredonia for a meal. When it came time to return to the bus, the 56-passenger vehicle was not where the driver parked it.

“The bus was gone,” Sisson said.

Until … it was found in the parking lot on the other side of the building.

Yep, Cummings and a teammate had moved it.

“We laughed about it,” Sisson said. “What are you going to do? It was funny. … Kurt was just a fun-loving, easy-going kid. He was the center of fun.”

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Russ and Robin Bonfiglio of Jamestown have been friends of Kurt’s in-laws — Sam and Donna D’Angelo — for 45 years. They are part of a large group of friends that have vacationed together for years, including trips to Hilton Head, South Carolina.

When Kurt and Diane married in 2001, Russ Bonfiglio said Kurt fit in immediately.

“You knew right away what a great guy he was,” Bonfiglio said. “He had a great sense of humor. He was just always happy. He was just fun to be around all the time.”

Added Benson: “Kurt joined our extended ‘family’ of high school friends when he married Diane and we all adopted him as our son. He and Diane immediately started to participate in our many traditional events and parties … and he fit right in, getting razzed and giving it, too. I think he loved being with this group and we had a blast.”

But as much as Kurt, by all reports, enjoyed the vacations, he loved being a husband and father more, and spent years coaching and supporting his boys and their passion for baseball.

“He loved coaching and instructing his kids,” Bonfiglio said. ” … He was a great father, which is the most important thing in life, because he has two great kids.”

Koselny, the Roberts Wesleyan teammate, said Kurt inspired him two decades ago and still does today, “because he never let his diagnosis define him.”

Koselny continued: “He lived for his family, his boys, and Diane. You could tell how much he loved them just by the way he talked about them. That was how he inspired me. He never changed. He did that for them. He never wanted or needed anything else, just to be there for them.”

From Scott and Brenda Lewellen’s viewpoint, Kurt’s ability to inspire was apparent long before he became a dad.

In fact, the Lewellens saw it first hand on the day Kurt graduated from Maple Grove in June 1995. That was also the day that Carrie Lewellen, Scott and Brenda’s daughter, was scheduled to deliver the valedictory address.

The only issue was that she was not looking forward to it. She was nervous.

“Carrie did not want to speak in front of 700 people in the Fred J. Gerber Auditorium,” Scott Lewellen said.

Then Kurt came to the rescue.

“As we entered the school’s big lobby, Carrie peeled off and headed toward the gym,” Lewellen said. “I saw Kurt standing off to one side talking with family and friends, already in his lengthy red gown. I decided to activate a contingency plan for my daughter. I walked over to Kurt and asked if I could speak to him for a moment privately. He said, ‘Sure, Coach, what’s up?'”

Lewellen needed a favor.

“I looked … into his eyes,” he recalled, “and said, ‘I know where you are sitting on the stage. I see that it is only three of your big steps to the speaker’s podium from which Carrie will be giving her speech. … If Carrie falters … I want you to be the friend that you have always been to her. I want you to stand up, step quickly to her side and quietly encourage her to finish. If she balks, shakes her head or is obviously unable to continue, I want you to ask her if you could finish reading the speech for her.”

Surprised, Kurt agreed to the plan.

“Apparently, after I had spoken to him, he had walked into the gym and had immediately sought out Carrie,” Lewellen continued. “He asked her how her speech was and inquired how she was feeling about it. She responded that she was extremely nervous and was not happy about having to give it.”

After Kurt offered some encouraging words, Lewellen said that the former joked, “By the way, does your speech have any big words in it?’

” … Now, 25 years later, Carrie recalls that she had laughed at his ridiculous question because she thought that Kurt was just being goofy – like he could be.”

Then again, maybe it was Kurt’s way of calming his friend in her time of need.

“I appreciate Kurt having our backs that night,” Lewellen said.

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It’s been nearly 26 years since Maple Grove, led by Kurt, returned to its Dutch Hollow Road campus with a 26-1 record and a state championship plaque.

“We never would have won it without him,” said Wally Carlson, Maple Grove’s former longtime coach.

Last week, upon learning of Kurt’s passing, I was reminded of the speech that ESPN SportsCenter co-anchor Stuart Scott gave at the 2014 ESPY Awards.

In the midst of his own cancer battle that would take his life months later, Scott stood in front of a packed house at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles and offered these words:

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.”

Those words could easily have described Kurt.

Said Bonfiglio: “He fought until the end. Literally, until the very end. Seven years fighting this. It’s a sad ending. We love him. We always will. We’ll never forget him.”

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Tom and Sue Benson, longtime friends of the D’Angelos and Diane and Kurt, have set up an account to benefit their sons, James and Jaxon Cummings. Anyone wishing to make a donation should mail a check made out to Thomas Benson, 141 East Virginia Blvd., Jamestown, NY 14701. Write James and Jaxon Cummings Fund in the memo portion of the check.