Quarterback keeping the faith: North Davidson's Gavin Hill
Gavin Hill possesses a spirit and fight that go far beyond yards and touchdowns
Gavin Hill possesses a spirit and fight that go far beyond yards and touchdowns
Gavin Hill possesses a spirit and fight that go far beyond yards and touchdowns
Athletes often talk about living each day like it's their last, making the most of every opportunity and play.
Gavin Hill takes that mindset to an entirely different level.
Hill, a senior, is the quarterback for North Davidson High School's football team.
At practice, it doesn't take long to see that Gavin is focused, fierce and fearless as he goes through each drill. Those same attributes are vitally important to him off the field as well.
"This is Gavin's three hours of being away from the chaos," North Davidson head coach Brian Flynn said.
For Gavin Hill, that chaos is called neuroblastoma. Hill was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when he was 11 years old. It's a type of cancer usually found in infants and very young children, usually much younger than Gavin was at the time.
"I went through six rounds of chemo, six rounds of immunotherapy, a couple surgeries, one was a major surgery" Hill remembered. "It was an 11.5-hour surgery to take the tumor out."
After all that, Gavin seemed to have defeated the dark opponent called cancer. He was in remission, until February 2021.
Instead of being back on the field for the spring high school football season, he was back in the hospital to treat relapse neuroblastoma.
"It was really hard for me to try to process that I maybe wasn't going to have the opportunity to play this fall, but there came a certain point, after my second round, I think is when I hit the point that, 'All right, I'm going to play no matter what. I'm going to get back no matter what,'" Hill said.
So Gavin went through more chemo, more immunotherapy, more radiation. Through his treatments, he maintained his training, still practicing and playing football with his teammates.
"He just got up at 5:15 and drove to Charlotte and did radiation and chemo, and was back at school at 9:15 that morning," Coach Flynn said. "No one really knew that, the behind the scenes."
Through those early mornings and long days, Gavin has maintained a positive attitude, for himself and others.
"I just try to pick everybody up," Hill said. "That was my thing. I think if people could see that I was picking people up, they didn't have a reason to be down or upset or complaining about anything."
Gavin describes himself as a leader and competitor. Clearly, that's an accurate assessment, as he continues to fight cancer and play football.
"I don't like being known as the sick kid," Hill said. "So I strive to not let people think, I don't want them to look out on the football field and go, 'Who's the kid with cancer?' or, 'Who's the kid who's going through chemo or radiation right now?'"
He's not the sick kid. Gavin Hill is a North Davidson Black Knight, quite literally, a warrior who triumphs not despite the darkness, but because of it.