SDSU's Trenkle OK'd after heart problems

It didn't matter whether or not his heart wasn't 100 percent. The fact his father also was his coach didn't enter into it. But one way or another, Brady Trenkle was going to play basketball again.

Even if it killed him.

A couple of days into last year's fall practice, the San Diego State guard was diagnosed with a weak chamber in his heart. He was told to not even think about playing basketball.

One year and nine doctor's opinions later, Trenkle will suit up for his senior year, 40 pounds lighter and feeling better than ever. The chamber still doesn't pump the maximum amount of blood to the heart, but only when he's not exercising. When he's involved in a strenuous activity such as basketball, all systems are go.

That's at the opposite end of the spectrum from New Mexico point guard Dontay Hicks, who suffers from cardiomyopathy, a weakness of the heart muscle, which has put his career in jeopardy. Hicks was barred from playing Monday.

But Trenkle was cleared last Friday.

"They said the kid's fine. There's no consequences," said his father and coach, Fred Trenkle, at Wednesday's Western Athletic Conference basketball media preview at the MGM Grand.

That's a far cry from last year when the doctors told Brady that he couldn't even walk to class, much less play basketball.

To Brady, that was unacceptable. And while Fred was trying to coach the Aztecs, Brady was seeing doctor after doctor, trying to figure our why one of the four chambers that led to his heart wasn't in sync with the others.

He had always been a chunky kid. His playing weight at San Diego State was 215 pounds. But the inactivity had ballooned his weight to 232. The elder Trenkle thought the weight had something to do with the diagnosis problem.

"If I could figure it out, how come they couldn't?" Trenkle said.

Meanwhile, Brady saw a nutritionist, started shedding the excess baggage and began running on his own -- six miles a day -- in altitude, up in Idaho. He also starting playing ball on the sly, sometimes five, six hours a day.

By the time September rolled around, he had lost 40 pounds, pronounced himself in great shape and told his father that if San Diego State wouldn't clear him to play, he'd find another school.

"What could I do to stop him?" Trenkle said. "He was 21, an adult. I couldn't stop him even if I wanted to."

Trenkle asked that his son see one more doctor -- at the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. And it was there where it was discovered that Brady's heart was fine when he exercised.

"He told me, 'Dad, I never felt better' and there's no doubts in my mind," Trenkle said. "Once the decision's made, you just go with it.

How much the younger Trenkle plays depends on how this very young San Diego State team performs. Eight freshmen dominate the roster from a team that went 13-15 last year.

"He knows he probably won't start but he just wants to get back on the floor," Trenkle said of his son, who averaged just under four points off the bench in two seasons at SDSU.

"He's had a roller coaster ride this last year you can't believe. It's great to see him back doing what he loves."

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