‘He’s very laser-focused.’ Reedley High football player undergoing chemo for cancer
.jpeg "Malachi Rios during a Reedley High football game. Rios was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer. He began chemo the week of December 12.")
Reedley High football coach Tony Gates said he knew something was wrong when junior linebacker Malachi Rios didn’t show up for offseason weightlifting.
Gates knew about the lower back pain Rios had been dealing with toward the end of the 2022 season, but Rios wasn’t one to not be present.
But doctors had found a lump and removed it. A biopsy came back malignant three weeks ago, Gates said, and a scan Dec. 8 at Valley Children’s Healthcare revealed stage four testicular cancer with small tumors near the lungs and another near the stomach.
“It was a lot for him and his parents to take in,” Gates said. “Once I told my staff, the immediate feeling was shock.”
But Gates said he and the coaching staff knew what they had to do and arranged to visit Rios at his home.
“To us, coaches are motivators,” Gates said. “We just decided let’s motivate him and tell him you can beat this thing; attitude goes a long way and you got to have a fighting attitude. Football in some small way kind of prepares you for this. It’s a lot of struggle and adversity. We said, ‘You’re strong and one of the strongest kids on the team and young. All odds point to you beating this thing.’
“We’re here for him.”
Gates said Rios started his varsity tenure on the scout defensive team, but he “was just messing our offense up in practice.”
That sealed Rios’ spot as a starting linebacker for Reedley.
That fight is the reason why Gates says Rios will overcome cancer.
“He’s very laser-focused. He’s a really good student, he’s got really high grades and that shows on the field, as well. When he makes a mistake, he really works hard to figure out what the mistake was. He’s very physical and he’s one of our strongest kids pound-for-pound. Very intense and very hard work ethic and nobody has anything bad to say about him.”
Updates on Rios’ progress
Rios’ family is posting daily updates on a GoFundMe page.
They said Rios started chemo this week and doctors told them previously that the lymph nodes are small and that “chemo should work perfectly.”
Gates said Rios, 16, will undergo chemo for the next nine weeks.
The Reedley community is in full support of Rios.
Through Saturday morning, more than $25,000 had been pledged to Rios and his family to help with any medical costs since his parents will step aside from their jobs to help their son.
Rios also has six sisters.
“What they need most right now is prayers,” Samar Rashid wrote on GoFundMe.
Gates said, “Makes me proud of my community of Reedley. This town will help and we’ll support folks that need supporting, especially our kids playing local sports. I’m super proud of Reedley. People living in Alaska from Reedley reached out” to help.
