Grueling hills, three-a-day practices, air so thin that it is hard to breath. Only one thing comes to mind when football players think of these terms.
Two dreaded words ... mountain camp.
At the beginning of each season, the ThunderRidge High School football team takes the trek up to Steamboat Springs for four days of torture. While most kids dread this rite of passage, one kid made it his dream.
He was more successful at baseball, and yet football was his true passion. His obsession with the sport was so deep that he trained all summer for mountain camp dreaming of the day when he could run up the mountain with his teammates in Steamboat Springs.
Kyle Blakeman passed away on Aug. 28,2007, from Renal Medullary Carcinoma. This form of cancer is so rare that only 100 cases have been confirmed worldwide since 1995.
Kyle battled his cancer the same way he played sports: putting everything he had into the fight and never giving up. The average survival time for this type of cancer is three months. Kyle fought for two years.
In 2005, Kyle was diagnosed with cancer for the first time. For several months, he underwent treatments and medicine. His strength could only be compared to Superman.
After months of new procedures and techniques, Kyle made a full and miraculous recovery. We all thought he had beaten the unbeatable. In fact, the doctors were ready to write research papers on him in medical journals.
In the spring of his freshman year, he accomplished somethingthat no one thought would ever be possible. He stepped onto the baseball field wearing the Grizzly green and blue.
Unfortunately, cancer proved to be a sneaky opponent. In 2007, just two weeks before the start of the football season, it came back and struck with a vengeance. Kyle fought back with courage and strength that his coaches and teammates said was unmatched by anyteenager of his age. Kyle held on to life until the very end, inspiring and helping thousands of people along the way.
The impact that Kyle had on all of our lives was shown at his memorial service at Cherry Hills Community Church. Hundreds of teachers, friends and fellow students came to remember and honor this one remarkable kid.
During the memorial service,
Joe White,ThunderRidge's head baseball coach said, "Kyle was the ultimate gamer." To Kyle, cancer was only another game, just another formidable team that needed to be beaten. "Kyle stepping onto the baseball field was the single greatest moment in ThunderRidge's baseball program's history," White said.
To have that kind of impact on so many people meant that Kyle had to have something special.
Pastor
Brett Garretson summarized what we all felt in his message during the memorial service.
"Kyle had the heart of achampion." In everything that he did, Kyle competed. Whether it was fighting cancer or two-hand touch in the backyard, he played with no regrets.
Having the heart of a champion does not only mean being a competitor. It means to influence and inspire. Kyle's heart was the center of his life.I t guided and inspired people wherever he went. He was our Superman and our hero, and he will continue to be in all of our lives.
In his book
Breaking Back,
James Blake, a world-renowned tennis player stated that, "The problem is, Superman isn't supposed to die. Our goal then, should be to make him immortal."
Kyle's blue eyes and his smile may be gone from us, but his legacy will never disappear. We must never forget what he accomplished and what his legacy will accomplish in the future. Coach White said it best, "We are all better people for knowing Kyle. He has taught us to never give up, to never complain when things are not going our way and how to inspire others."
This is the heart of a champion.
To make our Superman immortal, we mustremember this: One hear t... Kyle's heart ... the heart of a champion.