Abilene Cooper football team honors late middle school student with lemon challenge

The death of 14-year-old Caleb Sanders, a seventh-grader at Clack Middle School, left a sour taste in Cooper football coach Todd Moebes' mouth and heart.

So, in honor of Sanders, who died recently of a brain tumor, the Cougar coaching staff and players participated in the lemon challenge in the locker room after the Coogs' annual Red and Blue Game Thursday at Shotwell Stadium.

Cooper coaches and players all bit into lemons and challenged former Abilene resident Bennie Wylie, now the strength coach at Oklahoma, to do the same.

Moebes also introduced Sanders’ mother, Catrina, and the rest of her family to the team before carrying out the ceremony. Afterwards, the players lined up to hug Sanders before leaving the locker room.

“This means a whole lot,” said Sanders, who has four other children. “It feels like a community coming together and wanting to spread the word about something a lot of people don’t know about. I’m really overwhelmed right now. It was great.”

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More:Cooper Red & Blue football game

Sanders’ son Caleb passed away as a result of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma.

“It’s a brain tumor in the brain stem, and it grows roots and branches out,” Sanders said. “Usually by the end, they can’t talk, they can’t walk and they can’t move, but they’re completely aware.”

DIPG’s are usually aggressive, and it didn’t take long for the tumor to end her son’s life.

“He was diagnosed December 12, 2017, when he was 13,” she said. “We got one more birthday with him in April, and he then passed away on the 12th of this month.”

Moebes said he found out about Caleb’s situation nearly two weeks ago, and he got a chance to visit with Caleb and his family at Hendrick Hospice before Caleb passed away.

“The day I heard about Caleb and his unfortunate situation, I reached out to his family,” Moebes said. “They wanted to do something to honor him.”

Thus, the lemon challenge.

The Sanderses’ ordeal also put life – and football – in perspective.

“It’s bigger than the game,” Moebes said. “It’s life, and it puts things in perspective. It makes you appreciate the opportunities we have, to be able to play this game and be able to train and work. Personally, for me, it just pushes me that much harder.”

It also put things in perspective when Moebes had to call off the Cougars’ annual spring football game with 2:54 left in the first half because of lightning.

“We’ve had a good spring, but spring football’s not even in the same universe that Caleb and his family had,” Moebes said. “We just welcome them into our family with open arms, and we hope we can be part of the healing process for them, and, at the same time, bring awareness however we can, just this little step by our football team. Caleb, he’s as much a Coog as anybody else.”

Defense ruled much of what game was played before the lightning. Joe Plato picked off quarterback Henry Ferrel on the second series of the game, and LaDainian Diaz, a returning varsity starter, intercepted an Aidan Thompson pass and returned it for a touchdown with 9:21 left in the first quarter.

It wasn’t until Ferrel connected with Marcus Gomez for about a 33-yard touchdown with 4:22 remaining in the half that the offense finally got on the board.

Michael Rangel added a 37-yard field goal just before the game was stopped.

The game wrapped up spring ball for the Coogs, who lost 30 seniors from a 9-4 region quarterfinal playoff team.

Moebes said he was pleased with what he saw this spring.

“I think we made some great strides,” he said. “I think we’re playing faster. Some things we had question marks about going into the spring, I think we have answered. We have new questions going into the summer, but this isn’t any different than any other spring we’ve been a part of. I was very pleased with some of the guys who have stepped up and come out of nowhere that we didn’t think would be where they are right now. If we played tomorrow, they would play a significant role on our varsity football team. That’s what spring ball is for, and I’m real proud of those guys and their accomplishments.”