“Yeah, so, I planned my own engagement party,” Union alumna and new full time assistant volleyball coach Kristen Blackburn said.
This remark was made following her husband telling their unique engagement story which Kristen had asked him to share with me. I was not sure if Kristen was proud to have the story shared or if it was a moment of ridiculous recall for her.
“That was the whole idea. I legit thought about planning some very elaborate thing, and I was like, that sounds like a lot of work,” Sean Blackburn, two-year assistant women’s basketball coach and Union alumnus, said. “I’ll just have Kris do it. I’ll just ask her at my surprise birthday party.”
Sean explained this while randomly smiling and looking at Kristen. It was clear that this was a story they both enjoyed telling. They continued to tell me more stories as the time went on.
The couple met in 2019 when Kristen was pursuing her undergraduate degree as a junior at Union. At the same time, Sean was pursuing his masters and was a graduate assistant for the men’s basketball team. They started to date in 2020, and despite the pandemic, they were able to grow closer together. Sean and Kristen were engaged in August of 2021 and married on Easter Sunday of 2022.
“Once I met Sean and we started to become friends and then started to date, I just realized how easy it was to be with him, where, like, the other relationships that I’ve had in college weren’t so easy and were pretty emotionally draining, and Sean was the furthest thing from that,” Kristen said, smiling and holding her hands towards Sean in the shape of a heart.
As they grew closer, Sean really felt led to grow in his faith to lead Kristen better. I recently had the privilege of hearing Sean’s testimony during a Sunday worship at Fellowship Bible Church in Jackson, Tennessee.
“Kris was one of the main reasons that I started taking my faith seriously because when we started getting closer, I felt Jesus telling me, you know, like, ‘If this is going to be your wife, and you want to lead her, well, you need to be closer with me so I can teach you different stuff,’” Sean said.
He proceeded to share with me that growing in your faith requires you to die to yourself. “Dying to oneself” became a theme throughout the rest of our discussion.
Bouncing off of Sean’s remarks, Kristen proceeded to share that Sean had helped her become more confident at praying out loud. She used to be terrified to lead group prayer; however, because of Sean’s consistent encouragement, she is now more at ease with it.
As the newly married couple has started to work their full time positions this semester, they shared with me that it has been busy for the both of them but specifically for Kristen.
“There’s actually some days where, like, I don’t even see him and he’s just one office door down, like, we’ll get home at night, I’m like, ‘So, how are you today? Didn’t see you at all,’” Kristen said.
Regardless of their busy schedules, Sean and Kristen are very intentional about spending time with one another. They go on many “Cobo dates” and try to go on weekly dates together. They also keep their eyes out for the little moments.
“We’re able to watch each other do what we’re so passionate about. Like, I can stop in at his practice and watch him coach and he can do the same thing for me and then, also, actually watching us do it during our games,” Kristen said as she directed the conversation toward Sean, “Probably one of the times that I feel the most proud of you too is watching you do what you love and what God has called you to do and work through it.”
Kristen expressed that having Sean there has really helped her adjust to her new position in the athletics department.
“I naturally just go towards Sean because he’s my husband,” Kristen said. “So, he’s been wonderful in that sense where I can easily, like, ‘Hey Sean, can you help me with this?’ And he just walks in.”
Sean immediately responded, “I like it too because our teams (are) naturally a little bit closer than other teams probably would be.”
Sean proceeded to share that they host some of the players over to their house on Sundays for dinner, and their teams are so close to the Blackburns that sometimes some of Sean’s players will go to Kristen’s office before going to his own.
“We have basketball daughters and we have volleyball daughters,” Kristen said while laughing. “So, some people call me mom, even though I’m 24.”
Photo by Laila Al-Hagal