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By Shawn Rine for MountainEast.org

A regulation NCAA basketball court measures 94 feet in length and is 50 feet wide. For four seasons West Liberty senior guard Brady Arnold has used every inch of that surface to make life miserable for the opposition.

The first guy off the bench for the high-flying, nationally ranked Hilltoppers, Arnold has always been tasked with bringing an extra notch of energy to a program that outright demands that of everyone each time he checks into the game. 

Throughout his career, Arnold, a native of Millersburg, Ohio, has played that role to perfection. Except when he no longer could.

Arnold’s role -- and more importantly his life -- changed on the eve of last season following a team bonding excursion that included a paintball competition.

“He woke up the next morning and was real light-headed,’’ Coach Ben Howlett recalled. “We had a practice the next day and the guys were telling me Brady wasn’t going to be there because he was sick. He passed out a couple times and called his mom, who rushed up to get him.’’

Perhaps a guy who goes all out, all the time had just seen his tank finally hit empty? Those are the type of thoughts that were going through everyone’s heads at the time.

“He’s in phenomenal shape, he’s strong as an ox and he’s hard-headed,’’ Howlett said. “And like that, he’s got cancer.”

The Diagnosis
To be more specific, after a series of tests Arnold was told he had  Diffuse Large-B Cell Lymphoma, which is the most common type of lymphoma, making up about 30 percent of the cases.

“At first they said lymphoma and I didn’t know that was a cancer term, so I’m like whatever,’’ said Arnold, who was a 2,000-point scorer at West Holmes High School as well as a finalist for Ohio’s prestigious Mr. Basketball. “Then they said they were going to have to transfer me to a cancer hospital and it was like, ‘Woah.’

“It hit me that this could potentially be life-threatening.’’

At first there was shock, but it didn’t take long for Arnold and his family to switch gears. He recalls that within the same day of the diagnosis the attitude transformed from understandable concern to almost a sort of defiance.

“I kind of had to. I was feeling down and then it was like, ‘You know what? It’s going to suck but you have to get through it,’” Arnold said. “Once I found out the official diagnosis we attacked it right away, so that was good. From finding the mass to getting all the tests was like five days. 

“I was in the hospital a total of 17 days the first time getting the tests and then chemo.”

There Is No Why
The Arnolds have always relished in their faith. So when Brady was diagnosed, it wasn’t the time to ask why. Rather, it was time to call for help.

“I said if you don’t have faith how would you get through this? It’s believing that things can get better,” Arnold said. “Relying on God is what kept me afloat and kept me going. 

“Trusting that even though it’s not good now, He makes promises that everything is going to be OK.’’

Arnold doesn’t try to downplay how tough the situation was for all involved, especially himself since he was the one going through the crushing treatments. But, he said, his family’s belief helped ease at least some of the burden.

“My family is pretty grounded in our faith, so it wasn’t a question of why,” Arnold said. “It was kind of like, ‘OK, please just help me.’

“It all happened really fast, but luckily I was able to get through it.’’

Attacking the Cancer
The first three weeks were the worst. Arnold said the first round of chemotherapy rendered him completely incapacitated to the point he didn’t leave his bed.

“After the first round of chemo I was lying flat on my back for three weeks before I went back in for another round,” Arnold said. “I did what they call a lumbar puncture, which is where they take fluid out of your back. You get super bad headaches if you’re not lying flat on your back. I got them and had to be flat.

“It was six rounds and I got them about every three weeks. 

“I would go in and get chemo for like five days in a row. The week you come back you kind of feel normal because it hasn’t killed you inside yet. I’d say about 5-6 days and it would hit you and that is when I couldn’t really do anything but lay in bed that day.’’

All the nasty side effects began taking their toll. Arnold, who has always kept his body in tip-top shape, quickly began losing weight as well as his hair.

“I hated it for him. I don’t wish cancer on anybody, obviously, but if there was some way I could have just taken away some of that pain and that sickness he was going through, I would have,” HowIett recalled after he and the entire team went to visit Arnold at Ohio State’s James Cancer Center. “I tell you who I felt really sorry for was his mom (Tess) and dad (Bill). They were just up there nonstop with him. His two sisters were always there with him.

“I was talking to his dad and the first thing he wanted to know about was the team. I was talking to him and then we got to talking about Brady and he said, ‘I’m so scared.’ He didn’t know what he was going to do.

“And for me, the only thing I can say to him is that we’re praying for him. We’re saying a team prayer for him every day before we play. And if there’s anything we can do, let me know and we will do it.”

While Arnold was attacking the disease physically, the team was back at West Liberty doing what it could to assist financially. There were several ways the Hilltoppers community did so, with the most prevalent being the sale of bracelets to show support.

“We sold the bracelets and got a ton of support from the West Liberty community,” Howlett said. “Everybody wanted to help out. I think that says tons about Brady. Not only what he means to this program, but who he is and what he means to this school and this community.

“Brady Arnold is West Liberty basketball.”

During his recovery, Arnold was never far from his teammates and coaching staff. He remembers vividly that it seamed as though he was hearing from people on a near daily basis, whether that was a phone call or a simple text. At every WLU game, Arnold’s No. 10 jersey was draped across the chair directly beside assistant coach Dr. Aaron Huffman not only in a show of support, but also as a reminder in terms of what true mental toughness looks like.

“Just so our guys could remember that even though you think you’ve got it tough right now playing basketball, this guy is the guy who is fighting for his life right now,” Howlett said. “That was a message for our guys that we’ve got it pretty good here and we’ve got one of our teammates that’s really struggling. 

“Let’s think about him instead of ourselves.” 

The Comeback
Holwett remembers the date like it was yesterday: Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2018. The University of the District of Colombia left the Academic Sports and Recreation Complex that night on the wrong end of a 119-82 blowout at the hands of the Hilltoppers.

But that wasn’t the feature attraction. That role was reserved for Arnold, who was back in the building with his teammates for the first time since being diagnosed.

Though it was great to see the young man return to the environment he has always coveted, Howlett was honest in his assessment.

“When he came here for the UDC game and I saw him, I’m thinking there is no way this kid is ever going to play basketball again,” the coach said. “He was down I don’t know how much weight, but he was frail. I gave him a hug and there was basically nothing there. 

“I’m thinking, ‘he isn’t playing basketball again, especially the way we play.’

“I left it up to him. I said, ‘Brady, if you want to try and play, let’s do it.’

“He said, ‘Yeah, I want to play. I have another year left.’ ‘’

Giving up was never an option for Arnold, who said he always intended to finish what he started. The road back, however, was unforgiving.

First of all, he had to have a port that was installed in his chest to administer the chemo removed, and then wait for it to heal in order to avoid infection. Arnold will always have that scar to remind him of the grapefruit-sized mass that once grew inside.

“So it was probably a month or two before I could actually start getting after it,” Arnold said. “I was so weak that it was kind of embarrassing. I couldn’t sit down in a chair with free weights and then get up. 

“That was hard. I tried a one-leg squat with just body weight and I couldn’t get up. It was pretty wild.

“I worked to finally getting back and then going up and down (the court) I realized I wasn’t there. Something needed to happen and happen fast or it wasn’t going to be fun and it wasn’t going to be a good year.”

In the meantime Arnold was back home working out with former WLU All-American Seger Bonifant and current teammate Dalton Bolon. All that time, Howlett was keeping tabs on the progress.

“He came back in June and we had an open gym and a cookout. He looked good. He had put his muscle back on and it had been a matter of four months,” Howlett said. “Brady is a strong individual -- he’s weight-room strong. He put it all back on.

“He was working out with Seger and Dalton and I didn’t want to ask Brady how he was playing because he’s going to say he’s playing well. So I texted Seger and said, ‘don’t BS me right now. How is Brady playing?’ He said, ‘Coach, he looks like the old Brady.’

“Now I’m thinking, wow, he is going to help us this year.”

That he has. Arnold is averaging an even 7.0 points per game in 17 minutes of action, hitting 53 percent of his shots including 48 percent from 3-point range to help the Hilltoppers earn another Top-10 ranking and a Mountain East Conference regular-season title.

“There was last year where I didn’t even know if I was going to get to play. So anything I got this year was a blessing,” Arnold said. “I’m blessed to come back and not only play, but play in a winning program.”

West Liberty has been knocking on the door of winning a national championship for more than a decade, and the knowledge that a fairytale ending could await has not been lost on Arnold.

“You think about it before you go to bed every night. You want to get back there to the Elite 8 and you want to win the dang thing,” Arnold said. “But it’s a long process and we’ve got to take care of business first. You’ve got to take care of business in the conference and then in the region.

“You’ve got to play hard. There’s no other way to do it.”

Even after battling and beating cancer, Howlett knows Brady Arnold will take care of that last part.

“I think the guys on our team know that fairytale ending exists. Our five seniors (Eric Meininger, Evan French, Tyler Primmer, Nate Allen and Arnold), they want something bigger. We’re not supposed to be here this year. We were supposed to be here next year or two years from now.

“Our five seniors have been on a lot of good basketball teams here. They’ve been to Frisco (Texas) on a Final Four team. I think they know we have a chance to go to the Elite 8 or the Sweet 16. Who knows? 

“They know in order to beat us you’re going to have to play a really good game and you’re going to have to play as hard as you can for 40 minutes.

And opponents know that Brady Arnold will be back where he belongs during that run, chasing them all over that 94x50 court.