WACONIA, Minn. - Many young boys in Waconia grow up dreaming of someday playing football for the Wildcats.
Tate Maurer wasn't one of them.
Yet here he is, and how he got here may surprise you.
"He said, 'Of all the cancers to get, this is a good one', and I wanted to punch him. This is not good, this is not good," says Tate's mom Katie Maurer.
Tate's mother Katie knew something was wrong three years ago with her 12-year-old son.
But hearing that Tate had Stage-3 Burkett's Lymphoma, a very aggressive and fast growing cancer, was a shock she and her husband Mark just weren't prepared for.
It's curable, but the treatment protocol is extremely difficult and young Tate paid the price. He underwent three-and-a-half months of aggressive chemo treatment. Katie kept a journal.
"One day I had written in there, "Mark had just looked at me and said he's fighting for his life and it's killing me, but I have to be strong for him, and I have to do anything he needs us to do right now because he needs to win,“ she wrote.
"It was tough, really tough, “ says Mark.
"And then I wrote after that my heart-equals-shattered. To see the rock here at that low point I think that really drove home for me like…this is bad, “ says Katie.
It was bad.
"The worst part was hopelessness in some cases, “ says Tate.
A double port in Tate's chest and seven different types of treatment. His immune system was wiped out. No child should ever have to go through this.
"One of those days was the worst. I had a very high fever, very bad stomach ache. I think I said to my family, just let me die it was my low point, “ says Tate.
But Tate persevered. Diagnosed on Thanksgiving day, he was cancer free on the first day of spring.
And in-between a lot of video games, specifically Madden.
Tate didn't know football very well, but he learned the game by playing for hours, while recovering from treatments. In fact, Tate played so much Madden football, he decided, he wanted to play the game for real.
Mark realized playing video game football didn't translate to the real game, but he was on board for Tate to play. It was Katie who needed convincing and Tate got some unexpected help.
He spoke about his cancer journey at an event hosted by Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway. And through that, he met tight end Kyle Rudolph. It was Kyle who became one of Tate's biggest football advocates.
"It's a great game. It's a safe game although you might not think so –so I was always in her ear about letting him play,“ says Kyle.
Even with help, it still took Tate a year and a half.
"And I know that he felt where I was coming from, but he wisely just answered me, 'I only live once Mom.' Like ...you just won and he got signed up the next day, “ says Katie.
So in a way, Tate Maurer plays football because of cancer.
“It's a remarkable story, one that turned out for the positive, “ says Sam Baker, Waconia Head Football Coach.
Certainly the path less traveled to the football field, but in the end, like everything else now in his life, so worth it.
"Cancer changed my life for the better I'd say. I mean it sucked to have it for sure, but in the end it made me a better person, “ says Tate.