No schoolboy awaits Colorado’s next bank of Friday night lights like Mitch Eutsler.
He’s 5-feet-7, 145 pounds and a huge hit. The senior at Niwot will complete his ninth mandatory preseason practice by today, then be in the starting lineup Friday against Skyline in a Class 4A nonleague game at Everly-Montgomery Field in Longmont.
If high school football issued an injury report, here is Eutsler’s entry: currently being treated for cancer. After being named one of the Cougars’ two captains in the spring, Eutsler found out in late June he had a tumor the size of a pingpong ball in his head.
“I was shocked,” he said in a calm voice as if he were discussing a torn ligament or a broken bone. “If God gave this to me, I just have to deal with it. I got it for a reason.”
Eutsler’s family had no history of the disease. His eyesight was suddenly changing, so he got contacts. But his balance wasn’t right, and the headaches began. Further tests and an MRI revealed the tumor, and he underwent surgery at The Children’s Hospital — Eutsler had a tube inserted because the tumor had clogged his ventricles — as well as chemotherapy.
Doctors informed him the chemo shrunk the tumor and the switch was on to radiation. He’s grateful — the latter treatment won’t sap his strength as much, and he has been cleared to play.
“With me doing sports,” he said, “it actually helped me handle it.”
Now in his 10th season and set for his 100th game leading the Cougars, coach Ron Tesone, part of some of the fabled Cherry Creek teams as a player, said he hasn’t seen anything like it.
“Mitch has been the strength of it,” Tesone said. “Our kids have been great to him, and for us as coaches or just real guys, this is why we got into it. We’re building around Mitch. . . . It’s just crazy how close you get to these kids. He’s well-respected, well-liked.”
Indeed, Mitch is rich. His treatment has been quick and successful; his family and friends have rallied like a Tea Party candidate; his pesky demands for bloodwork haven’t affected his schoolwork (he has a 3.5 grade-point average that he hopes to elevate); and he can’t wait for his first contact.
He’s kicking cancer’s butt, so what chance will an opposing player have against him?
“Doctors have told me I’m already on a good path,” said Eutsler, one of Niwot’s two returning starters from 2009. “I just want to go out and hit someone, just want to help my team.”
Footnotes.
Former Cherry Creeker and Post all-stater Karl Heimbrock had 155 yards rushing and three touchdowns as the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy won 35-34 to Gallaudet last week. . . . Bring a canned good or another nonperishable item to the Grandview-Mullen game Friday at Brother Bernard Kinneavy de La Salle Stadium. It will benefit SafeHouse Denver. . . . Who says we need classifications? In Week 1, 3A Palisade beat 5A Central (G.J.) 30-14.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
