What does it mean to be great? Being 'great' in football is tossed around ad nauseam. But when you meet Kevin Winegar, you better understand the word.
“It's just an injury I can get through this,” Kevin thought to himself in November.
“I just need to dig deep and find my strength. And so that's what I did. I was able to play, and it took a lot of ibuprofens but it took a lot of guts for me as well," said Kevin.
Coming off the heels of a state championship win for Eastmark High School in Mesa, Kevin was silently battling his own fight for several games.
"I knew there was something more wrong than just knee pain and joint and muscle pain, but I can play through this. I've been playing through this,” Kevin remembered.
That was November 26th. A doctor's leukemia diagnosis came days later in December.
Doorly Winegar, Kevin’s mother, remembers that conversation with the emergency room doctors. "He said, ‘Do you understand what I just told you?’ And I said, ‘I understand but there's no way it's my son’."
"He's a boy that has literally knocked off the helmet of another kid on the field,” Doorly said. “And now he has cancer. How does that happen?"
Round after round of chemotherapy, Kevin has fought bound to a hospital bed.
Kevin’s father, Kevin, said, “It amazes me sometimes to think that's my kid."
But Friday Kevin got the chance to come back and see his team and classmates.
"During announcements, they said that all student-athletes come to the gym,” Kevin laughed. “And I thought I was going to have to speak, and I haven't spoken in a while."
Kevin didn't have to say anything. His team was there for him.
“It's better than Christmas,” Doorly smiles. “I couldn't sleep all night. It was just the biggest secret I could ever keep."
“On behalf of the Arizona Cardinals Football Club, we would like to present to you two tickets to the Super Bowl,” announced Nicole Bidwell with the organization.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity gifted to a champion.
We asked Kevin: What keeps you fighting? What keeps you going?
Kevin replied, "My faith my family and just having to know all that support. Having that support. I could feel the support and I could feel everyone pushing for me and pulling me through."
Winegar Strong! If you would like to leave a donation the family has started a GoFundMe account.