If the Eastlake High School baseball team needed extra inspiration this season, its players needed only look into the dugout for it after dedicating their season this spring to teammate Dean Klaser.
For those who have attended Eastlake home games this season, he’s the kid without any hair when team members doff their caps while lined up along the third base line for the national anthem.
He’s the kid with cancer.
He’s the kid who has motivated his teammates to win — win for him, win for each other.
It’s become a magical ride that has carried the Titans all the way to Friday’s San Diego Section Division I championship game at the University of San Diego. One more win and they will crown themselves CIF champions for 2015.
“It’s for Dean, the team and the school,” EHS head coach Dave Gallegos said succinctly.
“Amazing” is the first word that Klaser can come up with to describe this season.
There are others: love, hope, eternal friendship.
One for all, all for one
Klaser, a standout football/baseball player at the east side Chula Vista school, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer soon after the football season ended last fall. It was devastating to Klaser and his family, and also for his teammates.
When coaches informed members of the baseball team about Klaser’s medical situation, Titan players immediately rallied support for their stricken teammate by dedicating the 2015 season to him.
“When we told the team, they were very sad, very heart-broken, emotions came out,” Gallegos recalled. “Many of the parents told me that their kids went home and locked themselves in their rooms and cried.”
But feeling sorry wasn’t part of the prescription for recovery.
A few weeks into the season, team members — all of them, Gallegos pointed out — shaved their heads in a show of solidarity and unwavering support for their friend.
“That was really cool,” Klaser explained, obviously touched by the gesture. “It showed I have 100 percent support from my teammates in what I am going through.”
He paused, collecting himself. “It shows I have great teammates I can always count on.”
Coaches and players wear special wristbands emblazoned with #titanstrong#win on one side and DH33, Klaser’s initials and jersey number, on the other side.
“I had him out here one day and he took batting practice,” Gallegos explained. “He hit the ball hard, out to the wall. His mom later called and told me that made his day. That was the good part.”
Then there are the bad parts. Doctors decided to take an aggressive stance against Klaser’s cancer. He initially underwent surgery and is now undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments that are expected to last into the coming year.
It’s been a long uphill fight for Klaser and his teammates — one that won’t end anytime soon, even should the top-seeded Titans (26-6) come away victorious in Friday’s title game against sixth-seeded Poway (22-13).
There are still a lot of steps to take, many small steps before larger ones can be even attempted.
But where there is life, there is hope.
Road to recovery
Klaser grew up playing youth baseball and football. He made Eastlake’s varsity football team as a freshman and was in the lineup for the Titans’ 2013 San Diego Section Division I championship game victory against Mission Hills.
“It was great to get pulled up and see a different speed of the game,” Klaser explained. “It was neat to play in the CIF championship game.”
And get a CIF championship ring.
However, he won’t be playing football this fall and that has weighed heavily on him.
“At first I thought my treatments weren’t going to be as long as they have become and I thought I was going to be able to play football this year,” he said. “But the treatments became longer and, when I found out I wasn’t going to be able to play football after all, I was devastated.”
As Klaser treads into unknown territory, he continually makes new discoveries. He admitted his spirits were greatly lifted after participating in Rady Children’s Hospital’s 20th annual Celebration of Champions event on May 16 — an outpouring of love, compassion and caring for children battling cancer.
“Every patient ran a lap,” Klaser said. “It was cool to see all the other cancer patients going through the same things and staying strong like I’m trying to do.”
He said participation in sports has helped him prepare for the difficulties he is now facing.
“Both the physical and mental parts of it help push you through when you’re having a bad day,” he explained. “It helps me push through and stay strong.”
This terrible disease does not discriminate against anybody — young or old, weak or strong.
Klaser is proof of that.
“It was a devastating thing to learn,” explained Klaser’s uncle Ric Ramirez, who serves as an assistant coach with the EHS baseball team. “But Dean has always taken school and sports in stride and that’s what we, his family, felt would happen with this, and it has.”
Receiving support from others has proven to be the best medicine.
“Whenever he’s in the dugout, the players give him hugs and show him a lot of love,” Gallegos noted.
Nothing has changed for Klaser, however, just maybe the timetable of events.
“My goals are still to go to some college and play football and get an education somewhere,” he said.
At this point, there’s a good chance that will happen.
SAN DIEGO SECTION BASEBALL FINALS
University of San Diego
Friday, June 5
Division III
(1) Christian 5, (3) Del Norte 4. Records: Christian 29-2, Del Norte 17-17
Division I
(6) Poway 10, (1) Eastlake 6. Records: Poway 23-12, Eastlake 26-7
Saturday, June 6
Division II
(2) San Ysidro 7, (1) La Jolla 2. Records: San Ysidro 31-3, La Jolla 28-7
Open Division
(2) Rancho Bernardo 3, (1) La Costa Canyon 2, (8 innings). Records: LCC 27-6, Rancho Bernardo 25-8
Cal-State San Marcos
Saturday, June 6
Division V
(1) Calvin Christian 7, (2) Calipatria 2. Records: Calvin Christian 18-8, Calipatria 18-8
Division IV
(4) San Diego 3, (2) Bishop’s 1. Records: San Diego 22-11, Bishop’s 16-13
