Ben Murphy
Sports Scene
Be it the hand of God, the hands of his doctors, or a little bit of both, the fact that Michigan Lutheran Seminary junior Erich Neumann is playing basketball this season is nothing short of remarkable.
“It is a miracle that he is still around, let alone playing basketball,” MLS boys basketball head coach David Lecker said. “Part of it was faith… He was confident that the Lord was going to take care of him and confident in his doctors. He kept telling me he was going to be ready [for basketball.]”
This past July,doctors made the life-changing discovery that Neumann had Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“It’s all by the hand of God that I can play basketball,” Neumann said. “Doctors told me I might not even be able to play baseball. I started [at the first practice], and I’ve just gone from there. The Lord has been good to me.”
Last spring, during baseball season, Neumann began noticing something was wrong. He struggled to catch his breath on defense and felt winded during his trips to the plate. Something that Neumann, a three-sport athlete, knew he shouldn’t be feeling.
His original diagnosis was bronchitis. Then, after more tests, he was diagnosed with asthma, but things were still unsettling for Neumann.
“They finally decided to take chest x-rays to see what was in there,” he said.
What was in there was a tumor on his heart, 13 centimeters wide and two centimeters thick.
“At first, I was kind of down about it,” Neumann said of his diagnosis. “But my pastor and I talked about it a little bit, and we decided it’s what the Lord wants me to have right now. He won’t give you something that you can’t handle. I knew I just had to get through it, it was another milestone in your life that you had to go through.”
Neumann immediately began chemotherapy at the University of Michigan Hospital. He made the trip to Ann Arbor every two weeks. His last chemo treatment was in November.
Despite the toll treatment took on his body, not to mention his life at school, Neumann never lost focus.
“I set a goal for myself – I had to get ready for basketball,” he said, adding he received a great deal of support from his friends, his family, and his extended MLS family during his battle with the disease. “I accepted the fact that I wasn’t able to play football and I had to get through that. You have to keep pushing yourself, keep hoping for the best.
“I’ve got scans in February,” Neumann added. “If it’s all good they will check me out in five years.”
While he was insistent he was going to be back for this hoops season, his coach wasn’t so sure he would be able to recover in time.
“He kept telling me he was going to be ready,” Lecker said. “He told me 10 times that he was going to be able to play basketball. I thought, if everything went well, he may be able to play baseball.
“He was determined,” Lecker added. “He had a great attitude throughout the whole thing. Thankfully, the tumor went down and the chemo worked. He had clearance to play from the first day of practice. I was amazed.”
Neumann, who plays with a pad on his chest for added protection, has seen limited minutes during games so far this season. But his coach knows that his player is getting stronger with each passing day.
“He’s still not back physically to what he was a year ago,” Lecker said. “He doesn’t have the spring in his legs yet. I think as the year goes along, he’s going to get back into having more time. We are deep with our seniors, but he can really help us out.”
So, as his life continues to get back to normal and strength returns to his body, Neumann continues to share his outlook on life’s hardships. Hardships that the 17 year old knows all too well.
“Every day is a new day, a day of grace,” he said. “You can’t always expect to be fine one day and be fine the next. You have to go one day at a time… You have to pull through and you have to trust that God is going to be there for you.”