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Alonso High Football Player Happy To Be On Field
Tribune photo by KELVIN MA
Alonso defensive lineman Tyler Gimbert chats with defensive line coach Greg Hamlin. Gimbert injured his neck a year ago, and tests revealed several benign tumors in his brain.
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Published: August 29, 2008
TAMPA - Wednesday was a particularly hot day for Alonso High School football players.
Clouds provided little relief from the intense sun as they began their daily practice. Beads of sweat poured down faces as Coach Mike Heldt tried to relieve the heat with some humor.
"There are people in Alaska that would kill for a day like this," Heldt said.
Some players laughed. Many grumbled and complained.
Not Tyler Gimbert. The 16-year-old linebacker and defensive lineman soaked up the sun as he performed each monotonous drill with vigor. There's nothing Gimbert loves more than football.
"I love hitting," Gimbert said. "I love the Friday night lights and cracking skulls and seeing who is the better team. I love the game. I love the people. I love the coaches. I love the cheerleaders. I love everything about it."
Just as it did last year, Alonso will play Countryside High School tonight in the Kickoff Classic, a preseason game. Last year's game marked the beginning of an amazing journey for Gimbert, one that began in the back of an ambulance with his football career in jeopardy. One that led to the discovery of brain tumors. One that comes full circle, almost a year to the day when Gimbert's life changed forever.
A minute remained in the Ravens' game against Countryside in Clearwater on Aug. 23, 2007. Down 28-21, Alonso's defense was on the field trying to get the ball back for the offense. Gimbert remembers trying to make a tackle. His head struck another player's leg hard.
"I thought he just bumped his head and got his bell rung," Alonso defensive tackle Demonte McAllister said. "But then I knew it was serious when I saw them bring out the stretcher and they cut his jersey off. That was kind of scary."
Paramedics secured Gimbert's neck, placed him on a board and carted him off the field to a waiting ambulance for a trip to nearby Mease Countryside Hospital. Because of the severity of the injury, the game was called.
"I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I thought I was paralyzed," Gimbert said. "It was very, very scary. I was knocked out for about 30 seconds. I woke up and there were all these adults standing over me."
Gimbert's mother, Allison, made her way into the ambulance and was horrified by the sight of her son lying motionless.
"I made a cross on his forehead and he had a stream of tears running down his face," Allison McInnis-Gimbert said. "It was like watching the sun go down on my son's face."
Doctors injected him with various drugs, including an anti-inflammatory to calm the swelling in his neck. About an hour after the hit, Gimbert started regaining feeling in his arms and legs.
"It felt like ants were running down my body," he said. "It hurt, but I was just thanking the Lord."
Gimbert walked out of the hospital the next day, diagnosed with a neck contusion. His parents took him to his pediatrician the next week for a follow-up. That doctor suggested an MRI to make sure everything checked out OK.
'I Felt Like Crying'
That's when Gimbert's journey veered severely off course. It turned out the neck injury was a blessing in disguise, because it alerted doctors to something much more serious.
"They found tumors on my brain," Gimbert said.
That discovery rocked the family as it began an odyssey of weekly doctor visits, MRI screenings, various medications and several trips to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. The family became well-versed in terms such as lesions and masses.
More upsetting than the discovery of the tumors, for Gimbert, was the neurologist's ominous declaration.
"She said I'd never play football again," he said.
For the first time since age 6, Gimbert wasn't playing football. That didn't keep him off the sideline, though. If he couldn't play, he certainly could cheer on his teammates. And that's what he did, for all of Alonso's games last season.
"I felt like crying," Gimbert said. "I wanted to be out there with my team. Those were my brothers out there."
Awaiting Word On Tumor Growth
While his teammates practiced and prepared for weekly games, Gimbert spent a lot of time curled up on a couch in pain. Suffering from severe migraines, the honor roll student had to be home-schooled while he battled the side effects of the tumors.
For seven months, Gimbert endured headaches and monthly MRIs, all while awaiting word on whether his tumors were malignant or benign, based on whether they were growing. A pediatric neurologist persuaded the Gimberts to take a safer, monitoring approach as opposed to conducting a risky biopsy. In April, the Gimbert family got the news it was hoping for.
The tumors were benign. Also, they had a name to go with Gimbert's condition — Pediatric Low Grade Astrocytomas. While Gimbert's parents cried and celebrated the news, their oldest son had one question for the doctor: What about football?
Getting Back In Shape
"Ty started talking about football and I was like, 'Let's just savor this moment,'" McInnis-Gimbert said. "It was such a release for us. We were able to breathe again."
Then Gimbert got the other news he had hoped for: Two weeks before Alonso began training camp, he was cleared medically to play.
"That was a defining moment because it was like Tyler had won a victory," his mother said. "He beat it. His hope had been taken away, so it was like returning a vision that was lost."
The tumors, still sprinkled throughout Gimbert's brain, have not grown. His headaches are less frequent, which has allowed him to train and get back into football shape.
Gimbert packed on about 30 pounds during his ordeal, so fueled by the "Rocky" theme, he hit the weight room at Alonso nearly every day beginning at 6 a.m. Then, all 6 feet 1 inches and 223 pounds of him returned to the practice field with his team.
"First I went to my car and I prayed and felt like crying," he said. "When I first got on the field, I got chills and felt a lot of adrenaline. I just wanted to hit somebody as hard as I could."
Gimbert's quite a contrast. Off the field, the Alonso junior plays the violin, cello and piano. He speaks German and loves literature. But on the field, he likes getting down and dirty, making hard hits and tackles.
After a couple of practices, and pep talks from his dad, Gimbert's fears about getting hurt again subsided. It will take his mom and others longer to get past their fear.
"I kind of cringe every time he hits somebody because he's hitting some big people," said Heldt, the Alonso coach. "You'd hate to see anything happen again. But he works real hard. You can see him making the extra effort. I think he feels like he's been given a second chance at this."
Gimbert, who will undergo tests at least once a year for the rest of his life, will run onto Alonso's football field tonight alongside his teammates with a greater appreciation for the sport he loves, one that was almost taken away.
"I think it's going to be fun," Gimbert said. "I'm going to be nervous. I'm going to be watching my back, but it's going to be fun. "
Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860 or ksmith@tampatrib.com.
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