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HURRICANE, Utah -- Brian Scott was Mr. Everything for the Hurricane High Tigers.
Hurricane won their first state title in football last year and a lot of it had to do with their star running back Brian Scott. He then went on to have an undefeated wrestling season and took home his third straight state championship.
He parlayed that success into a football scholarship to Southern Utah. He was then planning and got called to an LDS mission to go to Uruguay and was scheduled to leave Oct. 30.
He was living the dream as a young man doing what he loved to do.
But two months ago, something happened, he just didn't feel right.
"The beginning of August he had this huge sinus infection he had never had one before," said Jane Scott, Brian's mother. "
Jane and Brian weren't sure what was wrong with the young star.
"At the time we thought it was an allergic reaction," Brian said. "So, thought we really couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't really wait, I wanted to weight train and do stuff, but pretty much that whole summer I just kind of sat and tried to wait it out, but I guess it didn't happen."
Then they went to the doctor to get tests to find out what was wrong and they got news from the doctor that would change their indestructible world, as Brian was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
"He said, ‘I want you in my office' and he laid it on us, and you're like ‘really!'" Jane said.
Acute myeloid leukemia or AML is a cancer of the blood that starts in the bone marrow.
"I was like how's this going to work," Brian said. "I have to go on a mission and go play football. I didn't know where to go really, just like a dead-end, because I didn't know anything about leukemia."
The Scott family is fighting to cancer and Brian has spent the last 10 days undergoing aggressive chemotherapy at Primary Children's Medical Center. The chemotherapy reduces his immune system to basically zero every day.
"It was actually really, really hard at first, but lately it hasn't been as bad, I guess I'm just getting used to it," Brian said.
Over the next six months PCMC will be his home away from home and he will use his athletic mentality to do what he has done his whole life, win.
"I was kind of devastated like, what am I going to do, but maybe it was that football thing or maybe wrestling, just ‘I'll be fine' just set me back a little bit," Brian said.
Despite being 294 hundred miles away from Hurricane High he is not alone in his battle, and feels the support from his sports family all across the state.
"You see a kid like Brian Scott come through here and you just love that young man and what he represents. And it's not about football." said Jody Rich, Hurricane principal.
Last Thursday at a football game between Hurricane and Desert Hills Brian and two other kids fighting cancer were honored.
That's not even a question, I'm going back to play football for sure.
–Brian Scott
"We were almost brothers on the team," said Adam Thompson, a Hurricane senior. "He was always helping me out, always giving me tips always picking me up when I was down. I love Brian, everyone else on the team loves Brian and the community."
Even his opponents respect all that Brian has done and he is grateful for all the people that have supported him.
"You can really feel it," Jane Scott said. "When you start hearing about people praying for your son. It's a little overwhelming, it's a pretty cool."
While his life hasn't stopped his plans for a mission and getting back to the sport he loves has been put on pause. But Brian will be the first to say that it is just paused and he will play again.
"That's not even a question, I'm going back to play football for sure," Brian said. "Maybe it's a good thing maybe it's not, but I don't have any real worries. I'm just here."
