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Student plays entire football season months after stage four cancer diagnosis

"I wanted to prove everybody wrong that I could get back on the field that same year," he said.

HESPERIA, Mich. – A high school football player diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 10 months ago shocked his teammates and family by recovering in time to play the entire season.

“When I heard cancer, I kind of sunk, I guess you could say to the bottom,” said Connor VanBuskirk, a 16-year-old Hesperia High School student diagnosed in December. “[During chemotherapy], I woke up, I couldn't move. I felt like a 90-year-old man.”

The starting lineman for the Hesperia Panthers student said getting back on the football field motivated him through chemotherapy and recovery.

Three times during chemotherapy it looked like Connor might not survive, said Wayne VanBuskirk, Connor’s father. To lighten the mood, his mother Shelly Goins joked that the diagnosis was just another Michigan pothole.

“The ice broke,” Goins said. “That was our kind of little humor between us to keep us positive, to keep us smiling. You do what you can to stay positive throughout all of it.”

His family sold hundreds of shirts using his jersey number that read “Believe 71.” Altogether, the shirts, “Connor Strong” bracelets and a GoFundMe raised thousands of dollars for Connor’s treatment.

Hesperia High School also created a video of its students singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.’” Some students spelled “WE (heart) U” on the gym floor with their bodies.

“It was unbelievable,” Connor said. “In a way, it was like I had a family back here when my family was down there with me. I had two families. It’s one of my favorite videos of all-time for sure.”

Connor’s cancer went into remission in mid-June. Doctors said it could take a year or two for his body to return to normal, Goins said.

“[Wayne and I], we’re looking at one another, and we think, ‘I don’t know if this is going to be done,’” she said. “But as positive and strong as Connor stayed throughout it all, I knew it was going to be done.”

Doctors cleared Connor to play on July 13. Head Coach Doug Bolles said he came back more motivated than ever to play hard.

“He came back better than he ever had,” Bolles said. “It amazed me, and I’m still in awe of it.”

Hesperia kicked off regular season play against North Muskegon on August 24 – with Connor in the starting lineup on offensive and defensive line. He played his first home game on Sept. 6.

“I kind of froze when I went to walk across the track out [to the field],” Connor said. “And when they called my name, I can’t explain it at all.”

It was bone chilling, Wayne said. “Just unreal that he made the journey. He done it.”

Other local teams rallied around Connor, said Head Coach Doug Bolles.

“That’s why I love small town football,” Bolles said. “Everybody comes together, it was just a devastating thing. And to have him be where he’s at now, it’s a miracle really.”

Aside from losing one game to injury, Connor started the whole season. The team’s lone win came against White Cloud on Sept. 14.

“Everybody wants to win, but we’ve already won because we have a kid that had cancer and he’s back,” Bolles said. “He’s healthy and OK, and he’s playing with us.”

Connor is moving forward and starting a new chapter in his life, Goins said.

“We’re onto the next page of the journey for him,” she said. “His journey’s gonna be another year of football. It’s a miracle he survived with the support that he did.”

Connor said he looks at life differently after his diagnosis. That, in turn, changed how he plays football.

“I used to be like, ‘Oh it’s getting tough, I’m gonna quit.’” he said. “And now it’s like that pain isn’t nothing that I’ve dealt with, so I’m just gonna push through it. You never know when your last play is gonna be that.”

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