‘What brothers are for’: Arbor View siblings’ bond goes beyond football
Arbor View quarterback Thaddeus Thatcher sat alone on the bench in the final seconds of the Aggies’ season opener against Lincoln, the top high school football team in San Diego.
In a back-and-forth game, the Aggies took a one-point lead on a quarterback sneak from Thatcher with 20 seconds remaining, but the sophomore and his teammates had to sweat out a final Hail Mary attempt from inside Arbor View territory.
And once Lincoln’s last-ditch effort came up short and Arbor View had secured a 45-44 road win on Aug. 24, there was no doubt about who the first person Thaddeus was going to celebrate with: his older brother Christian Thatcher.
“I just remember Thaddeus running out to me and giving me a hug and saying, ‘We did it and we won,’” Christian Thatcher, a senior linebacker, said. “I was so tired and so excited at the same time. It was really awesome to have that feeling with him, and he ran to me and knew we did it together.”
Added Thaddeus Thatcher: “I’ll remember that for my whole life. … It was just a proud moment.”
Arbor View (3-0), No. 2 in the Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings, hosts Basic (1-3) at 6 p.m. Friday in its 5A Division I league opener. Christian and Thaddeus are a reason why the Aggies are one of the top teams in the state and have a shot to reach the 5A Division I state title game.
Christian is a four-star linebacker who committed to Utah and had more than 30 Division I offers from prominent power conference teams. He’s 65 tackles away from being the state’s all-time leader.
Thaddeus’ interest from colleges has skyrocketed after he threw for a state-record 583 yards in the win against Lincoln. He holds notable Division I offers from UNLV, Colorado, Utah, Kansas and Washington State.
“They’re competitive against each other,” Arbor View coach Marlon Barnett said. “In our team period (in practice), they’ll compete against each other. I know Christian enjoys picking off his brother. That type of dynamic for brothers is pretty cool.”
The brothers have made plenty of memories on a sports journey that’s seen them become the state’s top recruits at their respective positions. While playing a variety of sports is a reason why the brothers have a strong bond, they became even closer when Thaddeus was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia at 7 years old.
“After all that we’ve been through, especially with Thaddeus, I was there for him through all of his treatments and all the clinics, and it just made us realize, we always got each other’s back,” Christian said. “… We’re always there for each other, and we got each other’s back no matter what. That’s what brothers are for.”
‘Rough at first’
It started when Thaddeus had a stuffy nose that didn’t go away, Chrissie Thatcher, the boys’ mother, said. A pediatrician said Thaddeus likely had a sinus infection. Eventually, at Thaddeus’ request, they made a trip to the emergency room.
A hospital staffer took Thaddeus back immediately to do blood work. Soon after, a doctor brought Chrissie and Jamie Thatcher, the boys’ father, into a different room to reveal the results.
“They said, ‘It’s early, but we think he has leukemia.’ … They said he was the highest white blood cell count Summerlin Hospital has ever seen,” Chrissie Thatcher recalled. “It was 111,000, and they said, ‘We have to start treatment right now. He’s going to die, we have to start treatment right now.’”
Thaddeus had tumors in his nose and a tumor in his chest that covered his lungs, and his spleen was about to rupture. He had bruises all over him, which was petechiae, meaning his blood was so packed with cancer that it would burst.
He was diagnosed on Oct. 22, 2014, and started treatment the next day. Advancements had been made in the treatment for T-cell leukemia, which had a 90 percent death rate in 2003. But it was still rarer in children.
Two other children diagnosed around the same time as Thaddeus passed away.
“It was rough at first,” Christian Thatcher said. “Our parents, we were so young, they really didn’t want us to know how severe it was. We knew it was serious, and it was a big change and a lot of stuff going on. That really brought our whole family together, and it let us know we’re all there for each other.”
The treatment lasted 3½ years. The chemotherapy needed to kill all the cancer cells in the blood — which in turn killed many healthy cells. If there is one cancer cell left untreated, it multiplies, and the cancer spreads again.
‘Not by myself’
Thaddeus didn’t go through his treatment alone. Christian went to every clinic and treatment session.
“It helped me a lot through the whole process having someone next to me all the time, playing games with me, watching a movie, just laying in the bed with me talking,” Thaddeus said. “It really helped me to just get through it and not be myself.”
Christian would wear a mask and gloves to spend time with Thaddeus in bed while he was getting a blood transfusion.
“I was just trying to be his best friend and best brother I could be for him every single day,” Christian said.
On Day 29, doctors said Thaddeus’ cancer was in remission, and another blood sample taken three days later still showed no cancer. But there were still more than three years of treatment left to get rid of all possible cancer cells.
Even as cancer and the treatment took its toll on Thaddeus’ body, he still found his way back to sports. He would toss a football around in the hospital room and stay active walking around the hospital.
One day early in his treatment, Thaddeus felt well enough that his parents brought in his youth football team and they played flag football in a park.
“It was definitely an escape just to take my mind off it and be a regular kid again,” Thaddeus said. “When I was in the hospital bed, I wouldn’t feel like a regular kid. When I would get out there and be active and play with the other kids, it helped me a lot.”
A year into treatment, Thaddeus, now 8 years old, won the Beehive Brawl, a prominent youth wrestling tournament. He worked his way into other sports like baseball, basketball and football.
“It started being more and more good days, and we saw that he could do more,” Jamie Thatcher said. “It kept his spirit happy. It can crush kids’ and adults’ spirits when everything is taken away from you. Sports and being around his friends was his therapy and our therapy.”
March 17, 2018, was Thaddeus’ last day of treatment. The family and all his friends and teammates had a “No More Chemo” party at a local park where Thaddeus took his final chemo pill and played basketball all day.
“We just stuck together as a family and all got super close,” Christian said. “We’re always there for one another. We were praying for the best, so we’re thankful.”
‘The protector’
One of Christian and Thaddeus’ earliest memories playing together was during age 5-and-under youth football on the Red Eagles team coached by their father with several current players on the Arbor View football team.
The team was down a few players because of injury and illness, but fortunately, there was another player on the sidelines that the team was able to sneak in.
“They ended up throwing Thaddeus in there,” Christian said. “I remember we were playing the Green Machine, and little 3-year-old Thaddeus goes in there and he makes a tackle on defense. He was playing safety, and his helmet was way too big for his head. It was funny seeing him go in there and play with us.”
Thaddeus often played up an age group to play with Christian. They played football, basketball, baseball, soccer and wrestled together. They played with many of their current Arbor View teammates for many years, including four of the five offensive linemen who are blocking for Thaddeus now.
Off the field, the brothers are just as close. They go to the airport to pick up their grandpa from Colorado, who flies in to watch their games on Fridays. While they focus on football now, they still play other sports recreationally with their friends and family.
The Thatcher house has become the hangout spot for the brothers and all their friends to meet up before and after events and outings, like their youth church meetings. They play sports, video games and interact with several dogs and cats and other animals the family tends to. Gigi is one of three horses the family has — along with Richard and Karen — and she’ll often join the family inside when activities are taking place.
“Christian is the protector of Thaddeus,” Jamie Thatcher said. “He is very, very protective of that. But that whole group, they are, too. They’re super protective of him.”
Last season was the first full normal school year for the brothers, as Thaddeus got back up to grade level after missing so much school during his treatment. His season was cut short after he broke his collarbone during a game against Desert Pines, and Arbor View lost in the first round of the 5A Division I state playoffs.
“The whole last season was a pretty weird season, especially with him getting injured and everything like that,” Christian said. “But our main focus was that we can’t change the past and we’re going to do everything we can to keep getting better every day. We’re really looking forward to this season. So far, it’s going great. We’re super grateful for everything that we’ve done to get here so far.”
‘How lucky we are’
This year, the brothers are soaking up every moment of what could be their final year playing football together.
While Christian is looking to break the tackle record and Thaddeus wants to throw for more than 3,000 yards, they both said they want the opportunity to play at Allegiant Stadium for a state title.
Barnett said the brothers’ leadership has helped with team chemistry in his first season at Arbor View.
“I love (coaching) them,” Barnett said. “Their attitude towards the game, their passion towards the game, you couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Throughout the summer, the Arbor View coaches told the players that the game against Lincoln was going to “set the tone for the season,” Thaddeus said. The win was one of the biggest victories in program history, but Jamie and Chrissie Thatcher said the journey has reminded them that there’s more than winning and losing.
Thaddeus “understands more than the others that this is ultimately just a game,” Jamie Thatcher said. “There is life and death, and we are fortunate to be able to play the game. I tell them all the time how lucky we are to get to play, and I’m thankful they get to go out and play.”
During the Lincoln game, Chrissie got a notification of an old social media post before Thaddeus was diagnosed. As she nervously watched the game, she said it was a good reminder of how appreciative the family was to have that moment.
“Because there was a time when you did not think (Thaddeus) would get to (play),” Chrissie Thatcher said. “It does make it much more special. That Lincoln game, it was so overwhelming to see what felt like a pinnacle moment of everything coming together. … It was such a special moment. As parents, we’re so proud of them because of what they had to overcome, and they did it together.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
