Basic star on field despite illness

By Sean Ammerman

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 | 12:34 p.m.

The first signs came while playing video games last November.

Basic junior Byron Stewart was enjoying a break between football and wrestling seasons when he started feeling fatigued and sick.

Stewart roughed it out a few days, but was soon in the hospital with a case of mononucleosis, an infectious virus most common in young adults.

"There were a couple rumors going around that I died," Stewart said. "There was one player who called me crying and asked if I was dead. I told him I wouldn't have answered my phone if I was dead."

Stewart wasn't dead, but being stuck in a bed for two months wasn't much of a life.

His condition was bad enough that Basic coach Jeff Cahill was unsure if he would return to football. But Stewart defied the odds, and is now Basic's starting linebacker and offensive tackle, as well as one of its captains.

"I didn't know if I was going to get the weight and the muscle back," he said. "Because I was sitting around so much, I lost my muscle mass."

Stewart was unable to eat most foods and had such a loss in energy that walking to the bathroom seemed like a major journey.

When he was awake, he felt sick with constant stomach aches and headaches.

The illness forced him to miss the wrestling and baseball seasons.

"When I couldn't really eat and I was spending all day at the hospital I thought it couldn't get any worse than that," Stewart said. "I was mostly worried about school and my grades because it was difficult to do my homework."

Doctors said football wasn't out of the question in the fall, but it would take time to get back in shape. Stewart weighed 215 pounds last November before he got sick. By February, after missing 45 days of school, he dropped to 181 pounds.

"The toughest part was getting back into the shape I was in before I got sick," he said.

Stewart's mother, Linda Alarcon-Stewart, was hesitant to allow her son to get back into athletics after seeing him morph from a muscular young man to lethargic teenager.

"He didn't look like a football player anymore," Alarcon-Stewart said. "I didn't want him to overdo it trying to get back in shape."

Stewart went against his mother's best wishes and went right back into weight training. Within a few months, he was running after school to build back his stamina.

His quick recovery was a surprise to Cahill, who has called Stewart a significant part of Basic's 5-1 start.

"We were pretty worried and no one really knew what would happen," Cahill said. "We didn't know if he was ever going to be able to play again. It was a big relief when he was cleared by the doctors and they said everything would be alright for him."

The only good thing about being bedridden for two months was Stewart got to read plenty about football.

His teammates were also impressed with his recovery and voted him as the first junior captain for Basic in six years.

With Basic 3-0 in the Southeast Division and looking at its first playoff berth in three years, Stewart is proud to be major force behind the success.

Sean Ammerman can be reached at 990-2661 or [email protected].