Kid who got the ball from Cam Newton had a great sports year in 2013

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As 2013 comes to an end, you'll read a number of "best of" lists, especially in college football.

The best upset, the best play, the best players, etc.

And while you're reading them, know 8-year-old Evan Avret witnessed them.

Avret, most recently, was the center of attention when Carolina's Cam Newton threw a third-quarter touchdown Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons. The former Auburn star grabbed the ball, headed to the stands, fist bumped a kid, then gave him the ball.

The kid was Evan.

"Obviously, we knew he had done it in the past," Evan's dad, Chad, told AL.com on Monday night of Newton interacting with fans. "We watched him (after the touchdown). He was on the opposite side of the end zone. He made a beeline for us, a straight line to Evan. As a father, I knew how excited Evan was.

"We are grateful he chooses to give back to kids that way."

Evan said he was excited, but doesn't play with the ball.

"I put it up (to keep) it safe," he said.

If that were the end of the story, that would certainly be enough, but young Evan had a knack for being at some of the bigger moments of the college football season.

The Avrets, who live in Statesboro, Ga., are huge Georgia Southern supporters - both Chad and wife Alana are graduates - and just happened to make the trip to Gainesville in late November for one of the biggest upsets of the year. The Gators fell 26-20 to their Eagles.

Remember a sign that was being panned to during ESPN's GameDay the following week on the Auburn campus prior to the start of the Iron Bowl?

It read "Georgia Southern. 1-0 in the SEC."

It got quite the reaction at Auburn, on ESPN and on Twitter.

Yep, that was Evan holding that sign.

A week after being in Gainesville, he was in Auburn for the Iron Bowl. The Avrets arrived at 7:30 a.m. to catch ESPN's pregame production and quickly became an attraction themselves.

"The sign came to me in the third quarter of that (Florida) game," Chad Avret said. "We knew we were going to the Alabama-Auburn game. We had a sign company make the sign. I thought it was catchy."

Indeed it was. The South Florida Post named it one of the "Best Snarky Signs of the College Football Weekend" on Dec. 1. The Bleacher Report listed it as one of the best signs of that weekend, too.

Clearly, the response was immediate.

"We had a number of Auburn fans that wanted to take a picture with the sign," said Chad Avret, who went to his first Auburn game when he was 3 years old. "They thought it was funny. It got a ton of reaction."

Auburn fans had plenty to react to that night as Chris Davis returned a missed 57-yard field goal the length of the field on the final play of the game for the winning touchdown to lift the Tigers over Alabama 34-28.

"He told me after the game, 'Dad, I am going to tell my son I was at that game,'" Chad Avret told AL.com. "We were sitting 23 rows up in the end zone where Chris Davis ran to. It was like he was running to Evan.

"He understood the impact of that moment."

Chad Avret said his son is an avid college football fan. He attended his first game when he was three weeks old. It was Georgia Southern and Furman.

"He slept through the entire game," said Chad Avret, who estimates his son has been to roughly 25 college games and two NFL games.

Evan said his favorite college teams are Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech, Auburn and Florida State.

Believe it or not, Evan met Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, too.

Evan's grandmother was a majorette at Florida State, his dad said, and so Evan has soft spot for the Seminoles. The Avrets attended the Florida State's 41-14 win over Miami on Nov. 2.

They arrived the Friday before the game, his dad said, and were taking a picture with the starting quarterback 10 minutes after arriving.

"There was a tour going on," Chad Avret explained. "The team was leaving (the Football Operations Building) and fans were forming a tunnel to their buses. He came out and we just happened to be there. The tour continued on the field, so we got to go on the field. He was very into Jameis Winston at that point and Jameis was very excited about taking the picture."

So which event topped all others in 2013 for Evan?

"That is a tough one," Evan said. "Cam giving me the ball was the coolest."

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