It started with dizzy spells.
Peter Schultz-Rathbun could not figure out why he would suddenly feel dizzy on the football field. He would lose his balance from time to time, too.
It was nothing so severe that kept him off the field.
He continued playing his sophomore season at Hockinson back in the fall of 2012, just figuring it was not too big of a deal.
The strange sensations persisted, though, long after football season.
One doctor suggested it was allergies; something to do with an inner ear infection, perhaps.
Another thought it could have been a neck/spine alignment. A good day at a chiropractor might do the trick.
Then, in the winter if 2013, one doctor figured it was time to get a closer look with an MRI.
Schultz-Rathbun got the results of that magnetic resonance imaging examination. It was not long after that he was on the operating table, having a tumor removed from his brain.
“It was definitely kind of a shock,” Schultz-Rathbun said. “I don’t remember being too scared. I was fairly positive. I figured God wouldn’t let me down.”
It was more difficult for his family, Peter said.
“He was more afraid of not being able to play football than of dying,” said Peter’s father, Randy.
It is human nature to fear the worst when one hears those words: Tumor. Brain. Waiting for the surgery, no one knew if the tumor was cancerous or not.
It turned out the tumor — a pilocytic astrocytoma — was benign. It is the most common brain tumor for those under the age of 25, and it is rarely cancerous. Chances of it coming back are slim, too, according to medical experts.
Still, brain surgery took a toll. Schultz-Rathbun missed almost a year of school while recovering. He did not play football last season. Even now that he is back at Hockinson, he still has Wednesdays off. Doctors prescribed a mid-week rest day.
He is not 100 percent, but, he says, close enough. He eased back into football — not by his design, but by a plan developed by his coach and his parents. Now, he is a two-way starter, an offensive and defensive lineman for the Hawks.
“I’m going to remember this for quite a while,” Schultz-Rathbun said. “Probably the rest of my life.”
That is saying something, too, because he has struggled with his memory since the surgery.
He is not worried about forgetting about this season, though. This incredible season.
The Hockinson Hawks are still playing, one of the quarterfinalists in the Class 2A state football playoffs. They will be in Bellingham to take on Lynden at 2 p.m. Saturday.
With Schultz-Rathbun on the field.
“Not quite done yet, I guess,” he said, referring to the program’s first journey into the state playoffs.
He could have been talking about his playing days, too.
At first, Schultz-Rathbun was told he would have to stop playing football. But doctors kept waffling.
“One doctor said no. One doctor said yes. It seems like we got about 30 different opinions on it,” Schultz-Rathbun said. “Some said I probably shouldn’t. Some said I would be fine. It came down to me and my parents making a decision.”
For Schultz-Rathbun, the decision was easy.
“Quite simply, I like football,” he said, “and playing with my friends I’ve known for so long.”
In fact, in the fall of 2013, when Schultz-Rathbun was recovering from his surgery and not yet returned to school, he still attended every football practice with the Hawks.
“I wanted to be part of the team,” he said. “And when the season started going south, I wanted to show I wasn’t giving up. I wanted to show some leadership in case I was back the next year. It was frustrating to be there and not be able to play, but it would have been a lot worse not being able to be there.”
The surgery was in February of 2013. At the time, he hoped to be back playing football that fall.
No way.
Every patient responds differently to brain surgery, Schultz-Rathbun was told. But his response was abnormal, even to the experts. The dizziness that started this whole thing? It actually got worse after the tumor was removed. It took him a long time to get out of bed after sleeping. Often, he felt sick. He lacked his usual focus. Loud noises disturbed him.
Plus, his mental well-being was under attack. He said he was relatively calm leading up to the surgery. It was post-surgery when the enormity of it all came crashing down on him.
“It was a weird mix. Obviously, a lot of relief that it probably wouldn’t come back,” he said. “On the other hand, I didn’t know what it was. I was kind of freaked out after the fact, still shell-shocked from the experience.”
It would be almost a year from the surgery until he returned to school. This school year would have been his senior year, but instead he is a junior.
At least he had football to look forward to in 2014.
“Being back was awesome,” Schultz-Rathbun said of August practice. “Even at that point, I would start to see how good this team could be.”
Hockinson coach Rick Steele remembers that Schultz-Rathbun wasn’t too pleased with him at first. The coaching staff, Peter’s parents, and Peter all met in August. Steele was determined to ease Peter into football, only allowing him to play offense for the first three weeks of the season.
“We wanted to see how this went, how his body responded,” Steele said. “Week 4, he got to play defense. He’s been happy ever since.”
Peter’s father can attest to that.
“The look on his face after his first football game was priceless,” Randy said. “It was the first time I saw him really happy since before the surgery.”
That happiness continues, now into Week 12 for the Hawks.
After enduring the last two years, any football has been a bonus for Peter Schultz-Rathbun.
“It’s been pretty special,” he said.
