Hunter Keffer
By George Edgar
Special to The Sports Paper
Sometimes it’s hard to play games with a lot on your mind, especially in high school. There are grades to think about, teachers to please, friends to hang out with, wondering which boy or girl to go out on a date with, and what to do with what little spare time you have.
But it’s hard to do so when someone you know is suffering from a debilitating, possibly even fatal, condition. It’s even harder when that someone is related to you.
For the past few seasons, Sierra and Hudson Keffer have played for the Central Kitsap Cougars. Sierra, a senior, has started the past two seasons for the CK soccer team, while Hudson threw the javelin for the track team to a second place finish at the state meet, and will be on the football team this fall as a junior.
Their parents, Wayne and Tammi, have been present at their games. But a few years ago they had to put their games on hold for a while when their older brother Hunter was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in 2008. It was a neural epithelial angiocentric glioma, a tumor so rare that only 13 cases have ever been diagnosed.
It seemed like their darkest hour in life. Yet, it drew the Keffers together closer as a family.
Hunter was a high jumper for the track team at Ridgetop Junior High when he was diagnosed. But for the next few years, the Keffers went in and out of hospital in Seattle, as doctors worked to get the tumor out.
When he wasn’t in the hospital, Hunter made the track team at Olympic High School, qualifying for state in the high jump during his sophomore and junior years, while Hudson and Sierra played select soccer before moving up to Central Kitsap High School.
Needless to say, the tumor knocked everyone in the family for a loop.
“They weren’t accustomed to a brain tumor, but to the injuries (in sports,” said Hunter.
“It was a total shocker,” Hudson said. “We didn’t know what to do. At the time, we were pretty young and we didn’t know what he was going through. But our mom, told us what it would take to get Hudson better, and that’s what we would do.”
For three years, Hunter was in and out of Swedish Hospital in Seattle and Harrison Hospital in Bremerton, trying to get the tumor removed from his head.
When he wasn’t in the hospital, he was on a regiment of 35 pills a day, all to combat the tumor and the seizures that came with it.
A second tumor was removed in October 2009.
“Those times were tough,” said Sierra. “We all went to the hospital (in Seattle) for the surgeries, and stayed together as a family. We missed a lot of practices. We lost a lot of weeks when we didn’t go to practice, but this gave us the opportunity to be together as a family.”
When he was recovering, Hunter’s travails gave encouragement to both Hudson and Sierra.
“He kept encouraging us to keep playing, and never give up on it,” Sierra said.
Sierra Keffer
Sierra Keffer has been playing soccer for the better part of 10 years, with the last three years for Central Kitsap. She has been a starter her sophomore and junior seasons with the Cougars, who finished 7-7-2 last season, 5-6-1 in the Narrows League.
Sierra injured her right knee during the off season, and has spent most of the summer rehabilitating it, in order to get ready for her senior season at Central Kitsap. She injured the knee in January in a pickup game with no contact.
“I just kicked the ball, and I heard it pop,” she said. “There was no contact, no one around me. The doctors said it was a completion of a tear from previous years.”
When she gets clearance to start practicing and playing – soccer practices begin August 26th – Sierra could be one of the top players in the West Sound.
“She’s an intense competitor and leader,” said CK coach Vicky Webb, “and an excellent leader. No one is more focused than her when it comes to soccer. She likes to win.”
Sierra started as a sophomore for the Cougars, mostly in the midfield, but can play anywhere on the pitch.
“She can play anywhere,” Webb said. “Wherever you need her, she can play there.”
Sierra is expected to play at forward this season, depending on the makeup of the team.
Hudson Keffer
Hudson exploded on the scene last spring as the track and field season wound down towards the post season. Hudson was one of the top javelin throwers in the state as a sophomore, though he was the third one on the depth chart for the Cougars. That changed at the Narrows League meet, when he won the league championship at South Kitsap, followed by the district championship at Kent-Meridian the ensuing week, and quickly became a favorite to win the state javelin title.
“My throwing coach contributed to it a lot,” said Hudson. “He taught me a lot more than I could know. The numbers just increased.”
Hudson went on to the state meet at Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma, where he placed second in the Class 4A competition with a throw of 180 feet, one inch.
As the new school season begins, Hudson will be on the Cougars football team, lining up as a receiver on offense and as a defensive back.
And even if Sierra doesn’t get to play this season, small colleges in both Washington and Oregon are interested in giving her a scholarship to play soccer.
As for Hunter, he transferred to Central Kitsap High School for his senior year and graduated from there in 2012. There have been no signs of a return of the tumor. He worked over the summer at the Miracle Ranch campground at Island Lake, and will attend classes at Olympic College, where he might turn out for the track team.
“I had a second surgery to get the scar tissue out,” Hunter said. “Since then, this year I’m off my seizure medication. I haven’t had a seizure in two years.”
Through it all, Hunter’s ordeal helped inspire his siblings to keep going, no matter what.
“He fought with that tumor a long time,” Hudson said. “For a while, he was lost, and didn’t know what to do. But he kept on fighting. Eventually, God worked in him; he found the right doctors and it all worked out.”
“They are a resilient family,” Webb said, “with a lot of faith. There’s quite a bond between those three kids.”
Hunter, Sierra, Hudson Keffer
