Until he was 4 years old and involved in an automobile accident, no one knew something was missing inside of Derek Neeper.
The sturdy-as-they-come Mountain View senior pitcher was taken to the hospital for precautionary tests that fateful day. That’s when doctors discovered he had only one kidney. A startling revelation, to be sure, but as the Neepers quickly learned, one can live a normal life with only one kidney.
“It hasn’t really forced me to live differently,” Neeper said. “I mean, I probably shouldn’t have 15 soft drinks in one day, but I don’t think that would be healthy for anybody.”
Two things make the 6-foot, 195-pound Neeper’s tale unusual. One, the lack of a kidney kept a sterling athlete off the football field. Two, he ended up playing baseball at the Loveland-based high school with Matt Hlushak, who also has one kidney. (Hlushak is now a freshman at Northern Colorado.)
“We called ourselves the OK Club, the ‘One Kidney Club,’ ” Neeper said.
Said Hlushak: “We made jokes about it, because it didn’t really affect us. I mean, what’s it like to live with two kidneys? Probably not much different.”
Joey Hlushak, Matt’s younger brother and Neeper’s current teammate on the third-ranked team in Class 4A at 12-1, said it was “pretty cool” how the two played without hesitation.
“It’s pretty neat that it hasn’t affected their ability to play sports, and they still excel,” Joey Hlushak said.
For Neeper, who grew up in Burleson, Texas, having just one kidney didn’t prevent him from playing football as a youth but essentially steered him away from the sport. Texas has a rule that high schoolers cannot play football with one kidney, so Neeper focused on baseball. The Neepers moved to Colorado the summer before Derek’s freshman year. Although Colorado has no such rule about playing football with one kidney, he and his parents decided it would be more fruitful for him to golf in the fall and play baseball in the spring.
“Every summer, we struggled with it,” Neeper said. “We would always weigh the risk and rewards. I don’t say I regret never playing, but I always kind of wonder about it.”
Making the decision tougher was that Matt Hlushak played running back and safety for the Mountain Lions, sporting a flak jacket beneath his jersey, and never had a problem. Although Neeper’s peers respected his decision, they certainly let him know the door was open if he changed his mind.
“I always wanted him to play football because he’s a big kid,” said Nick Miller, a close friend of Neeper’s who also pitches for Mountain View. “I mean, he’s from Texas, so he has to be a good football player, because it’s in their blood. I actually thought he could play quarterback this season, because he has a cannon for an arm.”
It was a tough decision for Neeper, but there’s a reason organizations such as The American Academy of Pediatrics discourage those with one kidney from playing sports such as football, lacrosse and hockey.
“If one kidney fails, you don’t have the other one to lean on and take that responsibility,” Neeper said. “Then, you either have to go on dialysis for the rest of your life or get a kidney transplant.”
Couple that with the notion that Neeper’s true No. 1 sport is baseball, and the decision became easier the better he became. Neeper hasn’t yet selected a college, but his 5-1 record and 60 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings could merit some offers from Division I schools.
“He’s been our No. 1 ace since our freshman year, when he came in throwing a no-hitter in his first start,” Mountain View coach Brian Smela said. “You just thank God he picked our town.”
Neeper’s 235 career strikeouts leave him 11 shy of the school record, an accomplishment he could overtake as soon his next scheduled start Monday against Sterling.
