Nate Schneider
Sports Scene
Gage Bryce was a beacon of strength for the St. Charles community for more than a decade.
After being diagnosed with neuroblastoma as a toddler, Bryce became an inspiration to so many as they saw every day a kid who enjoyed each day to the fullest with a smile on his face.
Bryce, a St. Charles sophomore, died on Nov. 28 two days shy of turning 16 years old.
Showing how much he meant to everyone in St. Charles, around 1,200 people showed up at the high school two days later to celebrate what would have been his 16th birthday.
“It was overwhelming,” Melanie Bird-Bryce, Gage’s mother, said about the birthday party. “The outpouring of love was just amazing.”
Gage lived every day to the fullest, even attending the Ohio State at Michigan football game only a few days prior to his death. It was not his first experience at an Ohio State-Michigan game as in 2013 he was surprised by being asked to run on the field during the U-M marching band’s halftime show.
He was a member of the St. Charles basketball team as a freshman and an avid sports fan, becoming a superfan for the Bulldogs’ football team and making sure he was at every school sporting event he was able to attend.
Gage always kept a positive outlook despite his condition, according to Bird-Bryce’s best friend Paula Berent.
“You would never hear him complain,” Berent said. “You’d never see the smile off his face and you’d never hear him once say he wasn’t going to beat this. We were just in New York getting treatment and in the 12-hour car ride on the way back home, you didn’t hear a peep from him. And he had hours-long just a couple weeks earlier to get a tumor off his hip. It was a testament of how tough a kid he is.”
As part of the basketball team, Gage was an ace 3-point shooter his freshman year and had his sights set on resuming that role as a sophomore before a setback with neuroblastoma in the early summer kept him out of school.
Despite not being at school with his friends, they were encouraged to come and visit with Gage at home and they very often did.
During the football season, Gage was made an honorary captain for one of the games. He joined the other captains for the coin toss and was interviewed by media afterward.
“He said after that day he felt a whole lot better,” Bird-Bryce said. “We can’t thank our community enough for everything they’ve done for us. Gage has amazing faith and never gave up. He always had that smile on his face.”
After Gage’s death, he was remembered with a tribute prior to a St. Charles basketball junior varsity basketball game.
“It was the very first game they had and he would have been on their team,” Berent remembered. “He played with these boys their entire life. They honored him before the game and gave mom a basketball. And then the game started and the weirdest stuff was happening.
“The game went to four overtimes. On one play, one of his really good friends [Joey Gonzales] was inbounding the ball with five or six seconds left. And for some reason, he runs the wrong way and goes for a layup on the wrong basket with the game tied but missed it. We were like, ‘well, Gage blocked that one for Joey.’. Everyone that was there could feel that he was there. It was his team and his presence was with them.”
In addition to his mother, Gage is survived by his father Donald and his sister Madison.
“Madison is struggling,” Melanie said. “She’s not a quiet person, but she holds her feelings in more. The main thing she says is that she lost her best friend. They were close.”