UM recruit builds bonds — and beats cancer
It took Florida Christian center fielder Keanu Rodriguez just an instant to say yes to the Miami Hurricanes’ baseball program.
But it took quite a bit more for Rodriguez to say no to cancer.
Rodriguez, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound junior, committed to Miami — his dream school — on Jan. 28, 2019.
Then, in June of 2021, a routine checkup revealed he had mononucleosis. Rodriguez had swollen glands, but doctors said those symptoms would disappear quickly.
Two weeks later, the problem was only getting worse, and more tests — an ultrasound and chest X-rays — were ordered.
“I was looking over the shoulder of the technician,” said Rodriguez’s mother, Ketty GonzalezEvora. “It was a mass.
“When they told us it was non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, we didn’t know exactly what that was, but it didn’t sound good.
“I just cried.” Gonzalez-Evora said her son’s body was “riddled with little tumors all over his lymph nodes.”
Rodriguez went through four rounds of chemotherapy.
His hair fell out, and his energy was gone, too.
“I felt crippled,” said Rodriguez, who played his freshman year at Doral Academy before transferring to Florida Christian. “I felt so weak. I had to be in bed, and I was throwing up and nauseous. I had to be hooked up to a monitor for weeks in a hospital.
“When my hair fell out, that hurt me a lot. It made me feel less and less like myself. … I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
Fortunately for Rodriguez, 17, he has had the support of many people at Florida Christian, including faculty members, coaches and teammates.
Rodriguez said his teammates visited him at the hospital often. Faculty members worked with Rodriguez — who wants to study law or business at UM — to make sure he didn’t fall behind academically. Meanwhile, Florida Christian coach Chris Brigman and his family grew closer to Rodriguez.
Two of Brigman’s three sons — Justin, 16, and
John, 13 — have severe hemophilia, a bleeding disorder.
Both of them play baseball at Florida Christian — Justin on the junior varsity and John in middle school.
Their older brother, Jacob, is a senior who starts at first base for Florida Christian. He does not have hemophilia.
“Jacob and John have to be cautious,” Chris Brigman said. “Any type of bruising or laceration can be dangerous.”
Brigman said all his players are essentially part of his extended family.
But when Rodriguez was diagnosed, the connection between their two families grew stronger.
Brigman and his wife offered Rodriguez advice on certain similarities in treatment.
“We have a bond that will never be broken,” Chris Brigman said. “I witnessed the tumor Keanu had that was showing on his neck. I saw him go through chemotherapy.”
Brigman said a couple of days stood out in Rodriguez’s treatment.
First, in October, when scans showed Rodriguez was 99 percent clear of tumors.
“He showed up in our weight room,” Brigman said, “and his teammates went crazy.”
Palmetto coach Kelly Gibson said the team final was perhaps the most intense match of her 16year coaching career. After splitting the two doubles points, four of the five singles matches went to tiebreakers.
“It was a loss for the trophy, but my kids won valuable lessons such as honesty, integrity and heart,” Gibson said after the match that took nearly six hours.
“There were two bad calls at the end, and we came up short,” Gibson said. “This one stung.
The biggest day came Oct. 27, 2021, when Rodriguez rang the bell at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, which meant he was done with treatment.
Rodriguez, whose sister, Kaylee America Rodriguez, is a switch-hitting sophomore reserve infielder at the University of Michigan, said he is glad he chose to transfer to Florida Christian.
“This school feels more like a family than any place I’ve been,” Rodriguez said. “[Brigman’s sons] are like my brothers.
“Justin and John are proud and confident with everything they’ve been through. Any time I went through stuff, I would call them. They are amazing kids.”
Coach Brigman said Rodriguez is getting back to the form of his sophomore season, when he hit .403 with four homers and made first-team All-Dade.
“The ball jumps off his bat, and he locks down center field,” Brigman said of Rodriguez, who bats leadoff for Florida Christian. “He is multidimensional.”
Sometimes life isn’t fair. But my kids showed incredible fight and class.”
PACHECO INJURED
St. Thomas Aquinas senior Isabel Pacheco tore her ACL during the state 3A girls’ doubles final Wednesday.
She got the official medical report Friday, but the good news is that she has already signed to play for the University of Cincinnati this fall, and her scholarship is secure.
“That helps a lot or it would’ve been way worse,” Pacheco said.