The South Carolina Sideline podcast sat down with Agot Makeer’s legal guardians — and what they shared was one of the most remarkable stories in women’s basketball.
It started with a friendship. It became a family. And somewhere in between, it produced one of the most electrifying freshmen in all of college basketball.
WACH FOX Sports Director Matt Dowell sat down with Kevin Brooks and Betsy Birmingham — the legal guardians of South Carolina Gamecocks star Agot Makeer — for a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation on the South Carolina Sideline podcast. What emerged wasn’t just a basketball story. It was a story about connection, community, sacrifice, and the quiet, extraordinary commitment two academics from Fargo, North Dakota made one dinner table evening without fully realizing how much it would change everything.
“I think we were making dinner one night for the kids and we sort of were just trying to figure out what things look like into the future,” Betsy recalled, “and Kevin turned to me and he said like, ‘You’re in this for the long haul, right?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, of course.’ And that was the only conversation we really had about it… it has made our lives so much richer.”
That was it. No formal deliberation. No drawn-out pros and cons list. Just two people, over dinner, quietly agreeing to show up for a child — and for the father who trusted them enough to ask.
The Friendship That Started It All
To understand how Kevin and Betsy became Agot’s guardians, you have to understand how Kevin came to know her biological father, Joseph Akol Makeer. Kevin’s passion for working with the refugee community began when Joseph, then an NDSU student and native of Sudan, approached him for help writing a magazine article. Joseph had been asked to write a piece about the recently deceased Sudanese leader John Garang and what he meant to the Lost Boys of Sudan. Over time, the two developed a close and lasting friendship.
That bond deepened when, in 2007, Kevin accompanied Joseph and filmmaker Deb Dawson to South Sudan to shoot the documentary “African Soul, American Heart” — a journey that proved to be genuinely transformative. When Joseph would ask the people of his village what could be done to help them, the answer was always “school, school, school.” It was a trip that reshaped Kevin’s sense of purpose. “It was a really transformative experience for me,” he said. “When I came back, I really felt compelled to do more in the community.”
What began as academic mentorship grew into something far more personal. When Joseph’s daughter Agot needed a stable home environment to pursue her education and basketball career in North America, the trust forged over years of genuine friendship meant the answer was never in serious doubt. Kevin and Betsy became her legal guardians — not out of obligation, but out of love for a man who had become family, and for the girl he was raising.
Building a Home, Building a World
Both Kevin and Betsy spent 20 years as faculty members at North Dakota State University before relocating to Thunder Bay, Ontario in 2018, when Betsy was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Lakehead University. Kevin now directs the master’s program in social justice studies there. Their academic careers — built around equity, literacy, community empowerment, and social justice — reflect the same values that shaped how they raised Agot.
The family they built in Thunder Bay was layered and rich. Beyond Agot, Kevin and Betsy co-parent a blended household that includes children from multiple backgrounds. Betsy’s Facebook describes her as “co-parent to five amazing weirdos” — a description that captures both the humor and the warmth of a family that doesn’t look like most, but works precisely because of how fully everyone in it is embraced.
The transracial dimensions of raising a South Sudanese daughter were something Kevin and Betsy spoke about openly in the interview — the intentionality required, the connections they cultivated with the South Sudanese community, and the ways in which Agot’s heritage has been honored and centered throughout her upbringing. Betsy spoke about the extended family that formed around them — a worldwide support system rooted in Joseph’s community that shaped Agot’s sense of identity as much as any basketball court ever did.
The couple also noted that Agot has expressed interest in family law — a fitting intellectual pursuit for a young woman who has lived at the intersection of guardianship, immigration, identity, and family in ways most people never encounter.
Discovering the Talent
Kevin didn’t arrive at basketball fandom by design. His X bio reads “Hockey / baseball player turned basketball dad” — a concise, self-aware description of a man whose sporting world changed completely when his daughter picked up a ball. And on LinkedIn, he posts simply: “When I am not working, I watch my daughter Agot Makeer play basketball.”
The early signs of Agot’s talent were unmistakable to anyone paying close attention. She developed her passion for basketball while growing up in Canada, supported by a community that encouraged her athletic growth from the beginning. Her trajectory accelerated at Crestwood Preparatory College, where during her junior year she averaged 19.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists — numbers that, combined with her 6-foot-2 frame and elite athleticism, began attracting serious national attention.
Kevin and Betsy were there for all of it — weekend after weekend of travel for games, AAU tournaments, and showcase events. They traveled with Agot for most of her games throughout the recruiting process, helping shape her development and guiding her through the high-stakes decisions that came with being one of the top prospects in the country. The recruiting reset that came with Agot’s transfer from Crestwood to Montverde Academy in Florida added complexity to an already involved process, requiring the family to recalibrate relationships with programs mid-recruitment and evaluate fit from scratch.
Health was another layer to manage. Agot has dealt with rheumatoid arthritis — a significant challenge for any athlete — and missed significant time with injury during her senior year at Montverde, averaging 10 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in a reduced role. Kevin and Betsy helped her navigate those difficult stretches, ensuring her physical management never overshadowed her preparation for the next level.
Dawn Staley Closes the Deal
By the time Agot’s recruitment reached its decisive moment, the field had narrowed to three elite programs: South Carolina, UConn, and Michigan State. What separated them, in Agot’s own telling, wasn’t facilities or conference prestige — it was the authenticity of the relationship with Dawn Staley.
“I know my goals and who I want to be in the future, and I personally feel like South Carolina will get me there,” Agot said at the time of her commitment. “The conversations and interactions I’ve had with Coach Staley and the coaching staff have been genuine from the very beginning. Usually on visits and during calls, head coaches will stay out of most of it. Coach Dawn attended every single part of my official visit and was in the lead of a lot of my recruitment.”
Kevin’s account in the podcast offered a powerful detail about what pushed Agot over the edge. He accompanied her on a campus visit to Columbia in early February — during the celebration for A’ja Wilson’s jersey retirement — when 18,000 people packed the arena. “I think that pushed her over the edge,” Kevin said. “She got a feel for that atmosphere and said, ‘OK, I’m ready,’ and that was that.”
Agot committed on March 1, 2025, announcing her decision with a message as simple and certain as the choice itself: “No long caption, just know I’m home.”
What a Freshman Season She Had
Agot’s debut year at South Carolina justified every bit of the belief Kevin and Betsy had placed in her. Dawn Staley herself captured it best: “I’m just proud of Agot. I could see how talented she is. Like, super-talented. And when the talent isn’t always reaching their potential, you see it, and there’s growth. We never stopped thinking about the contributions that Agot can give to us.”
The NCAA Tournament run told the full story of her growth. She scored a then career-high 15 points in the first round against Southern, tied it in the second round against USC, broke it with 18 points in the Elite Eight against TCU, and then delivered 14 points in a Final Four victory over No. 1 UConn — her fifth straight double-figure scoring game in the tournament.
At the close of the podcast, Kevin and Betsy extended an open invitation to Gamecock fans — come to Thunder Bay in the summer. Come see where Agot grew up, where this story was written, where two academics made a quiet decision over dinner and changed a young woman’s trajectory forever.
For Kevin Brooks and Betsy Birmingham, it was never about basketball. It was about showing up. The basketball was just what Agot brought along with her.
Watch the full interview on the South Carolina Sideline YouTube channel
