Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — When Beaver High makes the 200-mile trip north on I-15 to South Summit, they’ll do it for a rivalry that has dominated Class 2A over the past several seasons.
At least one of the teams have played in the past five state title games, including head-to-head matchups for the trophy since 2015.
In fewer words: when the Beavers and Wildcats lace it up, it’s on.
“It’s turned into a super rival over the years,” former Beaver receiver Payson Fails said. “That’s who we want to play — they always talk about killing us, and in the last two years, it’s the other way around.”
The rivalry would be a big enough story for Fails if it ended there. But barely a year after returning from a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Houston, Texas, Fails was in a bigger battle for his life.
Fails’ kidney was functioning at about 9 percent capacity this year, and it was all the one-time Beaver free safety could do to protect himself from having to undergo dialysis — or worse.
He was used to hitting other football players and protecting himself on the gridiron. But he was sorely prepared for a non-functioning kidney, the result of hemolytic uremic syndrome, a condition characterized by anemia, low platelet count and eventual kidney failure.
Lucky for him, he had a guardian angel: his mother Shanna, who quickly volunteered to donate a matching kidney to her son.
“I was a little nervous, but mostly I just wanted his body to accept my kidney,” Shanna Fails said. “My biggest fear was that his body would reject my kidney. I wanted it for him so badly, to help him feel good again.”
Last Tuesday, both mother and son were checked into Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City together for intensive surgery that took about six hours to complete. While father Brady Fails, the principal of Beaver High, was planning logistics for the Beavers' rivalry trip to Kamas, mother and son were getting ready for the biggest procedure of their lives.
It was the longest six hours of his life for the patriarch of the Fails family.
“There are many people in Utah who die waiting for a kidney. We are truly blessed,” said Brady Fails, who graduated from Beaver High in 1992. “I was eliminated (as a kidney match) on the second round of testing, which was devastating for me. But my wife was so happy to be able to do this. She’s a champ.”
Shanna Fails was quick to offer her kidney because she knew this moment would come. When Payson was 2 years old, he got E. coli after eating tainted chicken at a restaurant. After a trip to the hospital, doctors initially believed the infection was salmonella and treated him with an antibiotic, devastating his then-healthy kidneys.
“One of my doctors said there wasn’t much they could do, but try some horse medicine — and my kidneys started working again at a low percent,” Payson Fails said. “We knew eventually they would fail, and I would have to have a kidney transplant.”
The horse medicine worked for several years, and the Fails son went on to an active, healthy high school career in football, basketball and baseball, even starring at Beaver High alongside two brothers. As a senior in 2013, Payson Fails caught 18 passes for 335 yards and five touchdowns, added two more passing touchdowns, and added 33 tackles and eight pass breakups on defense while the Beavers went 9-2 and earned a berth in the state semifinals.
It wasn't easy to play football all those years; Brady Fails recalls grimacing every time his son would take a hit on the football field or basketball court. But he'd also smile when the younger Fails would pop up and run back into the huddle, seemingly unfazed and protected as best he could.
“I always had to wear something around my back in every sport, or a pad on,” Payson Fails said. “If I got hit too hard in the back, it would’ve knocked me down and could’ve killed me.”
After graduating, serving a mission and getting married, time finally ran out. Fails faced the possibility of dialysis, which would’ve severely restricted his body’s ability to receive a kidney transplant.
Instead, his mother stepped in and bought her son up to 20 years of precious time.
“When you pray for 17 years to be the one to help him, and one day you actually can help him — I’ve tried to put it in words. But I can’t. It’s so humbling and so surreal,” said Shanna Fails, who is also the cheer coach at Beaver. “There are no words.”
For one night, when Beaver and South Summit face off Friday at 7 p.m. MT on the KSL TV app, two Fails will be watching from a hospital room in Salt Lake City. Brady Fails will be there, likely texting updates or relaying his usual brand of trash talk on the game.
The two rivals will be representing communities across rural Utah — communities that mean a little more to this principal and lifelong Beaver resident.
“Words can’t express the gratitude we feel towards Beaver, Minersville and all the communities that feed into Beaver High. The people are the best,” Brady Fails said. “They’ve given thoughts, prayers, donations and fundraiser after fundraiser.
"I know it’s probably like that in every little town, but I happen to feel it’s just a little bit better in Beaver.”
Contributing: Rod Zundel
