November 6, 2009

Ray Glier
Rivals High

As the son of a pastor, Luke Gane learned early in life to turn to his Christian faith when pressed by life's little difficulties. He was confident a greater good was watching over him.

Last year, times got really tough; he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare condition where bone marrow does not produce sufficient new cells to replenish blood cells. He found out then that there was a community watching over him, too.

Gane will be on the field Friday night when Huntington Beach (Calif.) Edison High takes on Fountain Valley. It's a battle of two undefeated teams and one of the biggest regular-season games in Southern California.

(((Update: Edison won, 14-7. See story from OCVaristy the web site of the Orange County Register.)))

And while the thousands of locals in the stands know his battle to overcome the condition, his story is as much about the community that rallied behind him as his recovery.

"It was pretty epic," he said. "Humbled is a great word to describe how I felt."

His father, Jim, the assistant pastor at CrossPoint Baptist Church in Huntington Beach, said the past year has taught him all he needs to know about the people of the area.

"Sometimes communities feel so hectic that you wonder what might happen in a case like ours," he said. "This left no doubt in our minds that we live in an awesome community.

"People come up to us routinely at games and talk about the miracle of him being back."

The road was not easy. Gane, however, had plenty of help.

Jim and Tomoko Gane didn't think much of it when Luke got a nose bleed during the summer of 2008. As one of five boys, such events could be expected.

But when Luke's nose wouldn't stop bleeding, they took him to the doctor. Soon after, he was sent to the hospital in an ambulance. There, the Ganes got the first hint something might be really wrong.

"We went to the third floor and we saw signs that said, 'Hematology and Oncology,'" Tomoko told Matt Szabo of the Huntington Beach Independent in a preseason profile of Gane. "At first, my reaction was, 'Hmm. They must have ran out of beds and they're just putting him on this floor.' But then, reality hit that this was more serious then we thought. Then we started thinking cancer."

It was just as bad.

Aplastic anemia is a rare condition that hits only three of every one million Americans. It saps your energy - and often can be fatal.

Luke needed to begin chemotherapy treatments while a search began for a bone marrow donor.

It didn't take long for the community to step up. Meals were brought to the house for the family to eat. Fund-raisers were held so Tomoko could leave her job to stay with Luke in the hospital. One girl in town even went down to door, raising money.

Fortunately for Luke, his youngest brother Jacob, then 10, proved to be a marrow match. Surgery was scheduled for Sept. 2.

As the day neared, Luke had lost most of hair to the treatments. Keeping in the spirit, a fundraiser was held at a local salon called, "Locks for Luke." Teammates, classmates and townspeople got their hair cut or buzzed to raise money.

Then something truly amazing happened. The players and coaches from Servite High - one of Edison's top rivals - showed up and got buzzed, too.

"It was a total shocker, it was overwhelming, it was ridiculous what they did," Gane said. "The whole Servite team responding was incredible. They came by the fundraiser before their Saturday practice and buzzed their heads. Even their coaches participated."

His spirits were improving. His recovery, however, was just beginning.

Luke stayed in the hospital for more than two months. He didn't go back to school for a semester. The community, however, would not let him be forgotten.

And though he couldn't play for the team that fall, Coach Dave White made sure he was still part of it, organizing prayers with the players and making a nightly phone call to Luke in the hospital.

Servite kept thinking of Gane, too. When the two teams met, Servite dedicated the game to Gane - and also raised money for his care through program sales.

The gestures amazed Jim Gane.

"It kind of woke us up to the fact that we are not so busy and so numb to what is going on around us - that we don't take time to really pay attention to life and support others," he said.

Luke Gane was released from the hospital in November and was allowed to attend Edison's annual rivalry game with Fountain Valley called the "Battle for the Bell."

Gane, however, had to follow certain directions since his immune system was still weak: He had to wear a mask and he had to stay far away from the action.

He wasn't able to do it.

He started the game near the locker room but quickly moved to the field to get a better look. Then, when Edison pulled out a dramatic victory, Luke Gane was carried off on his teammates' shoulders as the crowd chanted his name.

"That was ... unintentional," he told Szabo. "It was really hard to know what to do. You've got your doctors telling you not to get out of there, and you have however many people were there asking you to come closer.

"I got sucked into it a little bit, but I wouldn't rewind it or change anything about that. It was just awesome. To me, no Super Bowl could add up to the excitement in that game. It was just being on the same field as my boys again."

He was getting closer to returning.

By January of this year, Gane was back in the classroom. A return to the football field was a long way off.

Slowly, however, he regained his strength. In fact, because his exercise was limited, he actually put on more pounds than he had before the onset of his condition. He participated in spring practice and hoped he was on his way to return to what he was before: A top defensive lineman.

A few days before summer two-a-days began, Gane found out his coach had other plans. He asked him to switch to the offensive side of the ball. Gane didn't object.

Gane looked back at the year as giving him a chance to get bigger, stronger and to be heavy enough to play tackle.

"If I didn't get sick, I wouldn't be as big as I am right now," he said. "I had this huge break from school, and I was just sitting at my home and I could not work out and I gained a lot of weight. When I got back to football, I was able to turn that weight into muscle."

And now that the 6-3, 238-pounder was playing offensive line, he was able to get even more specialized instruction. Former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman, Jesse Sapolu, whose son Roman is the Edison center and an Oregon State commit, is a technical advisor for line coach Kyle Murphy.

His insights have helped Gane become the best lineman he can be.

Edison is the No. 7 team in the RivalsHigh 100 rankings. But that lofty national ranking doesn't mean as much to Gane this season.

His life is about so much more than football now.

It's not hard to spot Gane at practice or in the weight room. He is the one always smiling and eager to participate.

He has the same attitude about his studies.

"He says stuff, such as, 'My friends complain about going to school and I just love it,' " Jim Gane said. "He says, 'I missed it for four months and it was really killing me.' All the emotions are double for him now; the reward is double."

Gane's prognosis is good; his outlook is even better.

"It made me appreciate life so much more. He gave me a bigger and much more positive outlook on life," he said. "God gave me this big wake-up call to appreciate every breath. I have been able to appreciate the life that I have. Some times in Huntington Beach, it is easy to get caught up in the casualness of life."

Now he embraces it. Every part of it.

"I wouldn't change anything for the world," he said. "If somebody (could change what happened), I'd say I'd rather be sick. It's made me a better person.

"God has his plan and it's a perfect plan. Prayer, faith, and a lot of people's prayer helped a lot."

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