The drive

By Brad D. Bates
C & G Sports Writer

Photo by Erin Sanchez Sterling Heights High senior Brian Thomas watches during the Stallions’ season opener Aug. 26. Thomas has been sidelined for the 2010 season after being diagnosed with cancer in January.

Sterling Heights High senior undeterred by cancer

No one would fault Sterling Heights High senior Brian Thomas if he wasn’t at football practice Aug. 25, but he was there to support his team in its final tuneup before the 2010 season.

After all, it was supposed to be Thomas leading the Stallions on the field as their quarterback in 2010.

But when he was diagnosed with cancer near the top of his spine in January, everything changed — except his commitment to his team and his love of football.

“It’s been difficult,” Thomas said Aug. 25, a day before the Stallions’ 48-13 loss at Utica High. “You try to get it out of your head that you can’t play, but it’s hard.

“I’ve had dreams where I’m playing, and I walk to the field and go through all the stuff I would in a game. But since I can’t play, I’m trying to help the team anyway I can.”

Thomas has been serving as an extra set of eyes for the coaching staff throughout preseason practices, and as a captain, helping support the players.

“One of our things is, you can never take tomorrow for granted. So everything you do, do it with cause and purpose, not just in football, but in everything,” Sterling Heights coach Brent Widdows said.

“Guys get that sense from Brian too, because his attitude is, ‘It’s definitely not over.’”

That was Thomas’ attitude from the very beginning, when in his first visit with doctors after being diagnosed Jan. 22, he told them he needed to be jogging by summer and able to take a hit by August to play football this year.

The mindset that he was going to play football again drove Thomas to be able to jog as early as the following May, before he suffered a setback from the surgery to remove the cancer, which he said led to more surgery and the end of his hopes to play football this year.

But that disappointment still hasn’t dampened his spirits.

“I’m going to make a full recovery and do the things I want to do,” Thomas said. “This is going to make me a better person.

“You appreciate stuff more when stuff like this happens. You see the other side, and you look at people different, because you realize everyone is fighting their own battles.”

The only thing that seems to match Thomas’ spirit and resolve is his passion for football.

“I can’t even think about that,” Thomas said when asked how his response to cancer may have been different if he wasn’t a football player.

“I’ve been obsessed with football since I was in the third-grade. Since I was 8 years old, I’ve loved football.”

One thing that his experience battling cancer did change was the way that he viewed football.

He said now he knows that, like everything in life, every second of a football player’s career needs to be treasured, even the painful ones.

“I’m very grateful for everything everyone has done for me … but I would trade it all just to suit up again for one more day,” Thomas said.

“After my first surgery, when I tried to lift my head, it felt like 15 knives being shoved in my back,” Thomas added. “I see guys walk off the field with little hand stingers, and I think, ‘I would love to feel that. That’s good pain.’”

With that kind of enthusiasm, it’s easy to see why people rallied around Thomas while he recovered from surgery and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

“He’s loved, that’s the only way to describe it,” Widdows said. “Not just Sterling Heights, but all of Macomb (County). When he was in the hospital, there was always someone there to see him.”

Whether it’s his teammates, opposing players or the support the Thomas family has received from Brian’s old youth football coach, Dan Lesnar, who named his quarterback camp the “B. T. Clinic” in honor of Brian, community support has been invaluable to his family.

“The outpouring of prayers and generosity, I always thought I’d prefer to be on the giving side rather than receiving,” said Paula Thomas, Brian’s mom. “It took some time getting used to it, but the end result to it is Brian being where he is now, and it’s been amazing.”

The loss of football has been almost as hard on his family as it is on Brian.

 “It broke my heart that he couldn’t play,” Paula Thomas said. “This was going to be his year. I know, I’m his mom, but he was pretty darn good and fast.

“Cancer has robbed him of a really great season. He handled it so well that it’s helped us handle it. This has brought all these good qualities out, and it’s amazing how something so bad can bring out so many good things in a person.”

Those good qualities, Widdows pointed out, were always there to begin with, but like most things with Brian Thomas, they’ve only grown stronger because of cancer.

“I’ve never seen Brian treat anyone poorly,” Widdows said. “I don’t want to make it sound like Brian is perfect, but it always seems like Brian is doing the right thing, and it hasn’t stopped at all.”

Anyone interested in supporting Brian Thomas can donate to the Romeo High/Sterling Heights Watchdog Game to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. For more information on how to get involved in the Watchdog Game, which is slated for 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at Romeo, contact Romeo’s athletic department at (586) 752-0431.

You can reach C & G Sports Writer Brad D. Bates at bbates@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1029.