Isabella Duran is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Centennial High School for AZPreps365.com. 

Colin Nelson eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball. Baseball is all he has ever known and makes up his whole life. 

“It definitely comes naturally because that’s all I’ve known and really paid attention to,” Colin said.  

Nelson is a senior at Centennial High School who plays on the varsity baseball team. When it is time to take the field, he either is on the mound pitching or taking third base. 

This is Colin’s first year playing at the varsity level. His freshman year he was on the freshman baseball team, but his sophomore and junior years he was on the JV team.

The competitiveness at the varsity level is something that pushes him to play harder and give it his all. 

Colin’s baseball career at Centennial improved year after year, but once COVID-19 hit, that is when struggles started to arise. Having Colin’s junior year baseball season cut short truly bummed him out. Finding ways to work out at home became the new normal for high school athletes. 

It wasn’t until June, right before a family vacation, where Colin was not feeling well. During the vacation, Colin couldn’t enjoy the time away from home as much as the rest of his family due to him not being able to leave the couch. Once the family returned home, Colin had to be taken to urgent care. 

After being evaluated at urgent care, the doctors concluded that it was infectious mononucleosis (mono) and advised Colin to stay home. Staying home was not making Colin feel any better. 

“My stomach just felt really tight and full all the time. And every time I drink water it just made it even worse,” Colin said.  

At this point Colin had to be admitted to the hospital for further evaluation. After multiple tests, multiple doctors finally came into his room. The doctors concluded that Colin had leukemia. 

Colin was allowed to bring one parent into the hospital with him since this was right in the middle of the pandemic. He was accompanied by his father, Duane. Hearing the news astounded them.  

“I was just really shocked. I didn't really know what they were saying. And then when I saw my dad crying, I knew it wasn’t good,” Colin said. 

Neither Colin nor Duane were expecting to hear this news. They went into that day thinking the doctors were going to say it was mono and nothing else. 

“Never did it enter my mind anything other than, something that is relatively minor and can easily be taken care of,” Duane said. “And then they brought the news to us and I honestly couldn't even tell you what they said.”

The emotion behind Duane’s voice when talking about this experience spoke volumes as to how scared he was,  but he had to be strong for his son. 

After receiving the news, Colin had to stay at the hospital for three weeks receiving treatment. His parents took taking turns staying the night with Colin so he wouldn’t be alone.

While Colin was receiving treatment, he still had baseball on his mind. He couldn’t wait until the next time he would be able to step foot on the diamond. First he had to tell Coach Jon Williams the news.

“It hit me pretty hard," Williams said.  Coach Pagan and I stood over there and cried for about 10 or 15 minutes."

Williams describes Colin as a player who always does all the small things right -- all the little intangible things -- and has always been a team player. Hearing the difficult news took Williams by surprise because he would have never thought he would receive that news about one of his own players. 

“Going through that process has really brought us closer together,” Williams said. “The love that we have for Colin and he has shown back to this team is immeasurable.”

The support of the Centennial baseball team is what pushed Colin to overcome this bump in the road. Colin describes the team as his second family. This family stuck through it all with Colin and once he was ready, the team welcomed him back with jokes and banter. 

Colin returned to playing baseball after nine months of staying at home and going to the clinic to receive treatment. Once he got the OK from his doctors to come back, Colin had something to look forward to each day. 

This medical detour was not going to deter Colin from playing the sport that makes him who he is. Currently Colin can do treatments at home and only needs to go to the clinic once every two months for other treatments. 

This is a lifestyle change, but nothing that will interfere with playing baseball.