First and Goals to Go : Brice Dickerson’s Love for Football (and UCLA) Helps Score a Win Over Brain Tumor

For a 10-year-old, Brice Dickerson has always set a lot of goals. One of them was to play tight end this fall for his school football team in Fountain Valley.

Not so long ago, when he was very sick, it seemed that for once, Brice had set a goal beyond his reach, a pass just off his fingertips.

After all, how quickly can a kid come back from having a brain tumor removed?

Brice isn’t playing tight end. He’s playing tight end, defensive tackle, safety and running back. Not all at the same time, of course, although probably anyone who knows Brice would say he could do that if he made it his goal.

“I feel I can do anything I set my mind to,” Brice said. “I think the answer is to just keep on fighting.”

Brice is back on the football field again. The last time he walked onto one was on New Year’s Day in the Rose Bowl, where he watched UCLA play Iowa, barely seven months after surgeons had removed a malignant tumor the size of a walnut from his brain.

Brice got tickets to the game from UCLA Coach Terry Donahue, who was contacted by the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which tries to fulfill the dreams of terminally-ill children.

Michael Dickerson thought that Rose Bowl tickets might be a way to motivate his son to continue with the three more chemotherapy and radiation treatments Brice knew he needed, but also wanted to avoid.

Brice went ahead and finished the treatments, and the news is pretty good. Michael Dickerson said that doctors believe there is only a 20% chance that another tumor will grow. So now as UCLA gets ready to play favored Oklahoma Saturday, from one underdog to another, a kid who battled even longer odds than his favorite team thinks they’ve got a pretty good chance.

“They can do it, I know they can,” Brice said. “You’ve just got to have a goal. Like right after I had my operation, I wanted to be back in class in a month, by the last day of school. Well, I made it there.”

As it turns out, those Rose Bowl tickets were good for more than just a football game. That afternoon, Brice saw Donahue, then met UCLA quarterback Matt Stevens on the floor of the Rose Bowl, right after Stevens had led the Bruins to victory.

They talked for a while, then Stevens took Brice into the UCLA locker room, where he shook hands with as many players as he could find.

Stevens gave Brice his wristband and a towel. Brice also gave something to Stevens.

“Just before I saw him, I was about nine feet off the ground,” Stevens said. “But for a few seconds, it all stopped. I mean, we had just won the Rose Bowl and I was the quarterback. I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was. I never faced the challenges he’s had to face. I mean, it put everything into perspective.”

In a few weeks, Brice got a football, a UCLA jersey and a note from Donahue.

“He was so full of fire and life, when he went around the locker room shaking hands, his eyes were all lit up,” Donahue said. “But I think we got more out of it than he did.

“So many times you get bogged down in games, winning and losing,” he said. “Something like that makes you get out of your little world. There are so many other things going on than just your job.”

There is a lot going on with Brice these days, besides playing four different positions on the football team. He plans to resume his basketball and baseball careers as soon as those sports are back in season. Michael Dickerson said there’s not such a pressing need to keep Brice motivated toward goals any longer, not since what Stevens and Donahue accomplished with a very sick 10-year-old that New Year’s Day.

“From that point on, it was just a complete turnaround,” Dickerson said. “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think he ever would have continued the chemotherapy. I think what Matt Stevens and Terry Donahue showed Brice was that you’ve got to keep on fighting, reach goals and don’t quit. They should be very proud.”

Donahue said he was delighted to hear that Brice is getting better and that he’s playing football. Maybe in a few years, he can play for another team.

“I just hope he can play for UCLA some day,” Donahue said. “He can play for us anytime.”

He won’t be playing for UCLA on Saturday against Oklahoma in Norman, but Brice said that the Bruins won’t exactly have to go it alone either.

“If I was there, I know they’d win,” he said. “Even if I’m not there, they’ll know I’m with them anyway.”

Brice practices for 2 1/2 hours each day of football drills. He said that the work is hard, all right, but then he’s been through a lot already. When it gets really tough, he remembers what Matt Stevens told him.

“He said meeting me made him a better person,” Brice said. “Hearing that made me feel so special. I think I’m really very lucky.”