TRIBUNE STARS Parents, coaches and rec league officials are invited to submit their sports stars of the week. Please remember that kids can appear only once a month. And if your star doesn?t make it the first time, try, try again.

Logan Flannery looked his coach straight in the eye, and said the words with all the conviction a 17-year-old could muster. "If I can play, coach," he repeated, "don't give my spot away."

It was mid-May - only two weeks after Flannery, the starting running back for Lakeville South's football team, had been diagnosed with an aggressive and rare form of childhood cancer. Cougars head coach Larry Thompson knew Flannery was one of his strongest, toughest players; he could bench press close to 240 pounds. He also knew this strapping 185-pounder was about to undergo the 10 most grueling weeks of his life.

"My parents both died of cancer," Thompson said. "I've seen what chemo does to you. I thought: 'Hopefully, he'll lick the cancer. But he'll report back a 160-pound weakling.'"

Thompson, of course, didn't tell Flannery any of that. He simply met the boy's gaze and responded: "If you can be back and play, you'll know that spot is there."

Depending on whom you talk to, a potent mix of support, dedication, health and/or prayer have allowed the veteran coach to keep his promise. Flannery has bounced back from chemotherapy faster than anyone expected, keeping all of his weight and most of his strength throughout his ordeal.

Except for the peach fuzz that has replaced the thick brown hair on his head, nothing about Flannery would suggest that only one month earlier, he completed his final round of chemo.

Flannery discovered the lump under his left arm near the end of last football season, when he was using his shifty speed to run for 790 yards and eight touchdowns. His pediatrician said it was probably a swollen gland. Basketball tryouts were only 10 days away, and surgery was put off until early May.

One day after the lump was removed, the surgeon called with shocking news: Tests had revealed Burkitt's lymphoma, a rare form of cancer found primarily in the lymph nodes.

They had to move fast, because Burkitt's is known to spread quickly. The upside: It was also one of the most treatable forms of lymphoma if discovered early.

Two days after the phone call, Logan was at Minneapolis Children's Hospital for more tests, which revealed the cancer had not spread. Even so, he would need aggressive chemo.

His parents, Mark and Wendy, had only two concerns: for their son to make it through chemo as comfortably as possible, and to survive the cancer. Logan, though, wanted to know one thing: Could he play football his senior year?

He handed his doctors his football schedule and asked them to work around it. In spite of a summer that would include five weeklong hospital stays, they said they would do their best. And they did, working his treatments around four of five passing camps and both summer mini-camps.

Soon after the diagnosis, the Cougars football team showed up at the Flannery house with a blown-up picture of Logan chest-bumping a teammate. Everybody had signed it. Teammates' parents coordinated dinners to bring over for Logan's brother and sister while their parents stayed at the hospital. Thompson and Cougars basketball coach Matt Addington had wristbands made. They read: "Logan: Heart of a Warrior."

The doctors tried to prepare Logan for the realities of chemotherapy. He would feel weak and tired, nauseated and probably lose weight. He would lose his hair, eyebrows and eyelashes.

But then something amazing happened. Despite the anticancer drugs coursing through his body, Flannery rarely lost his appetite. Although the treatments did tire him out, forcing him to ease up when his immune system dropped, he was still able to keep his weight up and follow his conditioning regimen.

He stayed on a strict diet and brought dumbbells from home to lift at the hospital. During his two-week periods between treatments, he ran and did plyometric exercises.

On a hot day in mid-June, only two days after completing his most grueling round of chemo, Flannery was running through drills at his team's passing camp. Because he technically wasn't supposed to be in the sun, he wore super-strength sun block. And because chemotherapy medicine puts pressure on the kidneys, he drank close to a gallon of water.

"It was hot, and the players were sucking wind," Thompson said. "I joked: 'Logan, why are you tired? You've been resting up in the hospital all week!'"

Said Flannery, who slept the next day through: "The doctors (had) never seen anybody go out the day after chemo and play football. They said I was a shocker."

Doctors, according to Mark Flannery, said they believe Logan's peak fitness helped prevent the weight loss and other side effects typically associated with chemo. His motivation to return to football couldn't have hurt, either.

Flannery finished his final round of chemo in early July, leaving just enough time for his immune system to heal before the first day of football practice.

In the more than two weeks since, he hasn't missed a day of practice, or taken a play off, according to his coach. Nor has he lost any speed. And aside from the bench press, which he had to avoid because of the surgery, he's lifting the same weight as before.

"He's just about where he was before he went in for surgery," Thompson said. "If he hadn't been sick, we'd see a little more strength, but to even have a straight line is good."

Flannery gets his yardage thanks to his quickness and natural cutback ability. He's not a power runner, his coach says, but he hits his holes well.

His availability is even more crucial this season, after another Cougars running back injured his hip earlier this summer. And although all 22 starters are back this year for Lakeville South, seven players - including five starters - are out for the first two games because of drinking violations.

Flannery must be tested every two months to make sure his cancer doesn't recur. But as far as he's concerned, all of that is behind him. He's just excited that he still has his starting spot.

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