Elba draws inspiration from fallen teammate

ELBA — It all started with a nose bleed.

Keith Rogers, one of Elba’s offensive linemen, started battling nose bleeds in his P.E. classes about two years ago.

“We didn’t know what it was,” Elba head coach Scott Rials said. “His parents took him to the doctor. They didn’t really know; they thought it was sinuses, this that and the other.

“But it wound up being cancer.”

Cancer.

The word sends chills through everyone who reads it, everyone who hears it. It is as close to a four-letter word as a disease can get, especially when it afflicts a teenager.

For the next year and a half, Rogers’ family, friends and teammates learned tough lessons, heart-breaking lessons, as they watched a strong, joyful, kind person fight a losing battle.

In April of this year, Keith Rogers’ life ended, a few months shy of his senior season.

“He just fought it all he could, ’til it finally got him and he passed away,” Rials said.

“When somebody passes away, nobody ever says anything bad about them,” said teammate and classmate Jonathon Farmer, a fellow lineman. “But there really wasn’t anything bad to say about Keith. There really wasn’t.

“No matter what you try to think up, he always had a smile on his face, he was always positive, he was always doing the right thing, and he was usually trying to keep us out of trouble, too.”

Kyle Pope, another teammate on the offensive line, gave a similar account.

“He never gave trouble to nobody, he never talked down to nobody; he was a real good guy,” Pope said.

“There wasn’t anything bad you could say about him,” echoed running back and linebacker Carlos Matias.

A valiant fight
Nobody was closer to Rogers’ fight, no one suffered more among a team of close-knit players than Xavier Rogers, Keith’s younger brother.

He saw Keith’s struggle every day, and he saw amazing things in the midst of his brother’s pain.

“It was hurtful and inspiring at the same time,” Xavier said.

Asked to elaborate, he said, “He just really inspired everybody, basically the whole community, not just my family, by how he went through it and was real strong. He just fought.”

Other Elba players commented on Keith’s fight and the grace with which he fought.

“The whole time he had cancer, I never heard him complain about it,” Pope said. “He used to sit in class — I’ll never forget this — in Brian Peacock’s class, he would sit there and cough up blood, and he’d never fuss about it.”

Farmer recounted a similar moment.

“I was with him in class one day, and he had been through chemo and radiation, and he had all kinds of mucus and stuff in his throat he was trying to cough up,” Farmer said. “The welding instructor tried to buy him a Powerade out of the machine, but he wouldn’t let him. He went to get water out of the water fountain.

“He wouldn’t let anyone buy him a Powerade. He had too much pride. He always tried to do everything he could for himself, no matter what.”

Keith even refused to accept excuses as the cancer ravaged his body. Pope told of a time when, in the later stages of Keith’s battle, he told his brothers to keep treating him as they always had.

“I remember Keith used to walk around school and he’d get tired and stop, and his brothers would turn around and yell at him and tell him, ‘Keep walking; don’t stop.’ That’s the way he wanted it,” Pope said.

A player remembered
No complaints. Grace under pressure. Strength in the midst of pain. Determination when facing defeat.

Keith’s character through his final months left such a mark on his teammates and coaches they immediately made sure he would remain a part of this team.

“Last April, we got them all together,” Rials said. “Players were honorary pall-bearers. We decided then that we were going to do all the things Keith would like to do. Keith was always smiling, laughing, had a wonderful attitude. We decided to use his attitude to work through our season.”

Keith’s locker is still his. His jersey hangs in the locker, and items are in the locker, collections from a season dedicated to his memory.

“He’s a part of us,” Farmer said. “Whether he’s where he’s at or whether he’s still here, he’s part of us. We might as well dedicate the season to him.”

But there was one more issue to take care of before the Tigers could move forward: How to care for the Tiger closest to Keith.

“You never know how someone will react to the death of his brother,” Rials said. “He was really devastated when it happened, but he’s really hung tough. He’s played left guard for us, played the whole year, really done a good job for us.”

Xavier credited his coach and teammates for helping him get through the loss of his brother.

“When it happened, I left school for about a couple weeks and came back the week of spring training,” Xavier said. “The first thing I saw when I came back, I had all my pads and my pants inside my locker. Coach Rials just knew I was coming back. If he wouldn’t have did that, I probably wouldn’t have came back.

“Right when I came back, the first thing they asked me was, ‘You going to be out there for practice today?’ And I was like, ‘Yea.’ ”
Xavier and the other Tigers agreed that the team is like a family, and they all rallied around one another as one family.

54
If there is strength in numbers, there is also significance in numbers, the Tigers will tell you.

In a season dedicated to a fallen teammate, the Tigers have been perfect. Elba finished the regular season 10-0, the first Tiger team to accomplish that task since the 1955 squad.

Keith wore No. 54, and his teammates have his number on a sticker on their helmets and shout his number at the end of games. The players see significance in the fact that their 10-0 season comes 54 years after the last one.

“We see a lot of significance,” Xavier said. “There’s no doubt all season why we’re doing all we’re doing.”

“We just know he’s looking down on us,” Xavier said. “That helps us; that helps us a whole lot.”

Xavier’s teammates agree.

“The 33 in that locker room didn’t do that by themselves,” Farmer said. “There’s a lot of games that we shouldn’t have won.

“It might have been the chant we were singing, the number on the back of our helmets, the one on the middle of the field, the jersey hanging in the locker room over there, but help come from somewhere.”

The inspiration has been expressed in tangible forms. Way back in the second week, Elba needed a late touchdown to edge Cottonwood 7-6 in the region opener.

Trailing late, the Tigers called on their fallen leader one more time.

“Right before the last score, we said, ‘Let’s do this for Keith,’ ” Pope said.

That instance was far from the only time the players have thought to the inspiration Keith brought them.

“When we’re tired as we can be on that field, we’ll bring it up, ‘We’ve got to do it for Keith,’ ” Pope said.

One more game
The season changes today. Elba will put its perfect season on the line with a playoff game against Excel.

Though excited with a 10-0 season, the Tigers want to add a deep playoff run to their success.

If tonight holds true to form, the Tigers will celebrate another win, and they’ll think of their biggest fan, assured that he is watching every play.