<p><strong>H</strong>aving a strategy is important to former Greenwood wrestler Jacob Schrader no matter the challenge in front of him.</p>
<p>Why, he figured, should the scariest moments of his young life be different?</p>
<p>Schrader, who last winter experienced occasional seizures during which he would go blank for approximately 30 seconds, was diagnosed with Ganglioglioma, a brain tumor most commonly found in the temporal lobes of young adults and children.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>Wrestling as a freshman for Marian University, Schrader had compiled a 12-10 record for the Knights before being informed of the tumor in late February.</p>
<p>But Schrader had a plan. Cancer is now the opponent; go take it down.</p>
<p>“I reacted very different from what I expected and from what other people expected,” Schrader said. “It was obviously very shocking, but I was lucky to have the right people around me.”</p>
<p>It was Schrader’s girlfriend of three years, former Greenwood and current Franklin College tennis player Maddie Bright, who eventually convinced him to make an appointment to see her older brother, Drew, a family physician in New Whiteland.</p>
<p>Dr. Bright scheduled the imaging on Schrader, which revealed he had a tumor the size of a ping-pong ball on his left temporal lobe. On March 14, Schrader underwent surgery to have the tumor removed by Dr. Scott Shapiro at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.</p>
<p>Schrader returned home four days later.</p>
<p>“It helped that the surgery was so close to the diagnosis. It was not fun,” Schrader said. “I couldn’t open my mouth well to eat and drink at first. I was very irritable and short with people during the first few days.”</p>
<p>On March 22, eight days after a surgery that lasted approximately five hours, Schrader made it a point to be at Marian’s postseason wrestling banquet.</p>
<p>“It was to be with my team because my team was there for me,” he said.</p>
<p>As were his family, girlfriend and other friends.</p>
<p>At one point, Jon Schrader, the oldest of Tim and Debbie’s three sons, was seated next to his brother’s hospital bed, the unmistakable look of concern on his face.</p>
<p>Dad snapped a photograph he’ll cherish for the rest of his days.</p>
<p>“Jake is extremely independent. Extremely strong-willed. And he doesn’t want anyone to help him,” Tim Schrader said. “Jake is one of the toughest people I’ve ever been around. But to see him right after surgery in his weakest moments, it was gut-wrenching.”</p>
<p>Jacob Schrader takes 500 milligrams of levetiracetam twice daily to prevent seizures. He was medically cleared to resume wrestling practices in October and returned to competition earlier this month with a fifth-place finish at the Little State meet at 165 pounds.</p>
<p>It was the culmination of a wrestling comeback story that had nothing to do with a sprained ankle, bruises or contusions.</p>
<p>Marian coach Steven Bradley, who helped start the school’s wrestling program four years ago, knows about toughness, having won three state high school wrestling titles while at Beech Grove (1996-98). He can’t help but be impressed with Schrader’s team-first mentality over the past 10 months.</p>
<p>“In the grand scheme of things, it shows what we’ve created. The joy those guys have being around each other,” Bradley said. “It’s pretty amazing, really. Just the way he handled the whole situation and the character the young man has.</p>
<p>“Jacob never had the thought for one minute that he was never going to wrestle again. I don’t know if I’ve ever met a tougher kid.”</p>
