No one remembers who finishes second. When a champion falls, their dominance is quickly forgotten. The attention shifts to the new champion while the former topples into the field of contenders tied for last place.
So was the case for the Valwood Valiants, who saw themselves looking to climb the mountain back to prominence after a two-year hiatus from the state title picture.
For Valwood Valiants junior wide out Scott Cregger, his climb grew precipitously more steep when he noticed something strange in the mirror.
“Throughout all of football season, there were these lumps on my neck,” Cregger recalled. “I didn’t really know what they were. I just thought ‘oh, it’s whatever. They can’t be anything serious’ but, more and more started coming up as the season progressed.”
A week before the Valiants appeared in the state championship game, Cregger and his mother agreed he should consult a doctor. Cregger underwent a screening to discover the origin of the mysterious lumps on his neck. Doctors removed one of the growths and conducted a biopsy.
On January 7, 2016, Cregger had a lymph node biopsy performed on the left side of his neck. The biopsy revealed Cregger tested positive for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
“I remember getting that news and just focusing on the wall in the hospital room,” Cregger said. “It just hit me like a truck. It was kind of surreal. Then, I started to process things and went from there.”
Three weeks after the initial news, Cregger’s diagnosis was clarified to be a positive test for Stage Four Greyzone Lymphoma.
The news of Cregger’s diagnosis made it to Valwood head coach Ashley Henderson, whose older brother has dealt with cancer. Henderson admits everyone associated with the football program was shaken by the news.
“It’s human nature when you hear of a young person like that having a serious illness, the state of shock and disbelief or wondering why is your first reaction to it,” Henderson said. “That sense of shock kind of went away for everyone on the team or anybody that’s around him. Once you got around him, you felt a lot better about everything hearing how he’s approaching it.”
Sitting on the edge of his hospital bed, staring a figurative hole through the wall, Cregger felt the unavoidable fear of what lay ahead but refused to flee from his newest opponent.
“Anybody would be scared of it,” Cregger admitted. “I looked at it in such a way that I told myself I can’t be scared of it. Being afraid is not going to help change it, it’s not going to help cure it or get it away. I thought, ‘Alright, I have cancer and now I need to get rid of it, how do I do that?’ It was about figuring out that first step to fix it.”
Fixing it comes in the form of intravenous chemotherapy Cregger trudges through once every three weeks in 96-hour segments. Over four days, Cregger receives treatment in Atlanta before heading back home.
Between the lines, Cregger performs his duties diligently—knowing the playbook, executing his routes, reading how his defender plays him and reacting instantaneously. Cregger was able to play a key role in the Valiants taking home the state championship.
“On the field, he’s a guy that led for us last year,” Henderson said. “He played in a lot of football games and the state championship game. When his number was called, he got in and played, and he played well. We were able to grind down some clock there, and it helped us win the ball game. He brings some experience we’re going to need up front.”
Henderson continued, “Off the field, his testimony—I don’t think there’s a better testimony on our team about getting knocked down and getting back up. You can throw your clichés out the door when you’ve got a walking testimony in front of you. Without a test, there can be no testimony and he’s winning his right now.”
With cancer nipping at his cleats like a beaten cornerback desperate to save a touchdown, Cregger credits Henderson and his teammates for ensuring he does not stand alone in his fight.
“Coach Hen has helped me so much,” Cregger said. “He has helped me in school and out of school, helped me get my work from school, and has been by my side. All of my teammates have been great. Just like on the football field, they’re all so good and so supportive. I haven’t skipped a beat with any of them—they’ve all been right there the whole time.”
Henderson added: “I just try to keep in touch with him when he goes up to Atlanta. He’s going through a very tough treatment schedule where he’s in Atlanta five to six days. It probably does me more good to hear from him than it does for him to hear from me. To hear him tell me how he’s whipping (cancer) always makes me feel better to talk to him. I always want to be sure he knows I’m there if he needs me.”
Cregger’s teammates have rallied behind him, creating T-shirts with the hashtag “#47Strong”, which have been purchased by many people throughout the community.
“It’s a testimony to our community that Lowndes and Valdosta kids alike have bought those T-shirts,” Henderson said. “Sean France, a senior on this year’s team, was able to raise over $3,000 to help that family out. Just to see how the entire community, not just Valwood, but Valdosta and Lowndes, really rallied around and embraced Scott and his family—he’s become an inspiration for a lot of people just with his attitude and how he’s fighting it.”
Despite his grueling chemotherapy regimen, Cregger brims with the optimism he will don the navy blue and orange for the Valiants as a senior.
“My last chemo starts on May 2 and ends on May 6,” Cregger said. “I should be back to football activities, team-related activities as soon as they get this LifePort out of my chest. As soon as they clear me for exercise and weightlifting, my plan is to get right back in the weight room, get back on the football field, and get ready to repeat as state champions.”
Winning a state championship, as well as his years of experience on the field, arm Cregger with a mentality he believes serves him well on the long, winding road to remission.
“I think of cancer like training camp,” Cregger said. “It’s so tough, but you’ve just got to do it. There’s no way around it. Football has prepared me by making me tougher, making my work ethic more clear, more sharp. Football has made me a way better person, and being able to take what I’ve learned in football and transfer it to a real-life situation like cancer has really, really helped.”
Henderson agrees, pointing to how the game teaches players to stay strong under physical and emotional duress.
“Football teaches you how to handle adversity in life,” Henderson said. “When you get put in an uncomfortable situation, hopefully we can handle it the way Scott is handling his and the way he’s whipping his ordeal right now.”
Aside from football, Cregger’s hobbies include playing basketball and chilling out with his friends. He readily and glowingly confesses his love for the Jacksonville Jaguars and lists his favorite NFL player as a close race between Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles and wide receiver Allen Robinson.
Due to his treatments, Cregger cannot do anything strenuous involving his chest. However, the Valiants’ receiver has been doing whatever his doctors allow to keep himself in shape.
“I can’t lift weights or exercise my chest at all,” Cregger said. “But, I can run—I run quite a lot, maybe a mile or two a day. I’ve been eating right, keeping it clean with apples, oranges, bananas, and other fruits. I’ve been pumping my kidneys with Gatorade, water, orange juice, milk—just all organic stuff.”
While exercise and a clean diet have helped Cregger maintain a level of physical fitness, Cregger has witnessed how cancer has affected his faith and spiritual health as well.
“Cancer has made my relationship with God a lot tighter for sure,” Cregger said. “Before, I had always believed in God, but I had never been really close with him. Once I got diagnosed, I said, ‘Well, God, it’s you and me, so let’s do this thing.’”
Taking life as it comes is how Cregger operates; the teenager laughs when asked if he has a dream job, saying, “That’s all way out there” but hopes, like most people, to have children and “just living, man.”
The mantra Henderson gave his team en route to the state championship game was to keep climbing that mountain back to being state champions.
“Nobody really gave us a chance this past year,” Henderson said of the state championship run. “You’ve got to take a bunch of little steps to climb a mountain and that’s what we always talked about—climbing that mountain one step at a time. The first time I talked to him (after his diagnosis), the first thing he said was ‘I’m about to climb that mountain, Coach’.”
Scott Cregger stands tall as he peers through the opening of his face mask, his eyes fixed downfield ready to climb the treacherous mountain ahead.
In a fight for his life, Cregger is a true Valiant. When asked to share his definition, Cregger does not hesitate.
“Being a Valiant means staying tough through the darkest times,” he said. “No matter what the circumstances are.”
In the Game/May 2016
Scott Cregger
Valwood School
Hahira, Georgia
Climbing That Mountain
By Shane Thomas
Photos by: Micki K Photography
