Dunwoody High Football Player Tackling Cancer Head On

A Dunwoody High football player who skips a game better have a darn good excuse.

Junior lineman Steven Camara had precisely that three weeks ago, when he was excused from a game to celebrate with family his completion of years of chemotherapy to treat lymphoma.

"To celebrate that was definitely an excused game," Wildcats junior varsity coach Kelly Davis said. "Coming back to practice that (following) Monday, he greeted me with a big smile, and I had to smile back. I knew he had a great weekend with family, and seeing that big smile on his face was reassuring that things were good for him."

Camara, brothers Chris and O'Bryan, mother Sophie and Parisian niece Faty took time away from football in Panama City, Fla., as part of Where Skies are Blue, a vacation program for families affected by pediatric cancer. It was a rewarding celebration, perhaps as celebrative as Camara's return to the gridiron, where he continues to make impact as a lineman in junior varsity games on Thursdays, and increasingly, varsity games on Fridays.

With a chemotherapy port still beneath his chest, the still-robust 6-foot, 215-pounder made five tackles and recovered a fumble in Dunwoody's 21-0 JV loss last week to Tucker. Funny, though beyond weeks-long chemo treatments in the hospital and chemo shots and pills at home, Camara is waiting until after the season to have the port removed, so he won't miss any more action.

"When times got hard, I didn't want to lose football," he said of sports' inspiration. "That's what's kept me going.

“Football is my passion,” Camara told the Dunwoody Crier. “It taught me not to give up, to keep going, to get stronger. I didn’t want to stop.”

Diagnosed in 2008, Camara's cancer battle has become increasingly inspiring. As much as football has benefitted him, so has he benefitted football and inspired teammates. Considered still raw by Davis and Dunwoody varsity coach Jim Showfety, he's working his way into a varsity starting job, potentially by next season.

"He's definitely going to be in the mix for a starting spot in 2012," Showfety said. "He's definitely one we expect to contribute, for sure.

"In a lot of ways he's still very raw and still learning the finer points of football. But he's a big kid and pretty strong, too."

Camara's fortitude helped keep him physically strong since that Thursday morning he woke with a severe side ache, leading doctors to discover a troublesome mass in his chest and fluid around his lungs. He's never really appeared sickly through three years of chemotherapy intravenously and by shots and pills, as well as bi-monthly spinal taps while under general anesthetic. Now, he takes only a pill twice weekly to boost his immune system and plans checkups every several months.

Camara believed himself poised to flourish athletically before disease struck in eighth grade. But once treatment began, the trick became maintaining his weight and managing side effects that included joint pain and headaches.

"When I came back playing football in ninth grade," Camara acknowledged, "I was a lot weaker than other people."

Tutors during prolonged stays in Scottish Rite Hospital helped Camara remain an honor student. Despite everything, he completed a Reach for Excellence academic program at Marist on Saturdays and six weeks during summer. And if teammates didn't see him at weightlifting workouts over summer, he was perhaps away for a briefer check-up.

Throughout, Camara's mom and doctors had to temper his urge to race back on to the field.

"You can't stop him. He wants to do it all," Sophie Camara said. "Sometimes, even right after chemo, he'd want to go to practice. I just had to refuse to take him. Sometimes, I had to have doctors be the ones to tell him."

Camara attended many Dunwoody games he couldn't dress for, though his suppressed immune system kept him from attending those in coldest weather. He can't get enough football on television, and now, feeling back atop his game, he can't wait for Friday's 5 p.m. JV game against Miller Grove.

Upon taking the field, he'll consider himself embracing an opportunity few get -- sick or not.

"I don't take anything for granted," he said. "If you have the opportunity, you have to go out there and take it."