ARLINGTON — Athletes often say they approach every minute of competition as if it is their last. Tyler Busby means it.
Busby is determined to have no regrets every time he steps off the court for the Arlington High School boys basketball team, which is in the hunt for a Class 4A District 1 tournament berth.
“You learn not to take every play for granted. You never know what could happen. It could be your last game,” said Busby, a senior forward who through last week was averaging 14.8 points per game for the Eagles — remarkable considering he almost had to give up the sport.
This past April after an open-gym game at Arlington High, Busby collapsed and briefly passed out. After a school trainer examined Busby, paramedics detected an unusual heart rhythm, said Tyler’s dad, Dave Busby. Several months of uncertainty, fear and frustration followed.
After undergoing examinations in Arlington and Bellingham, Tyler Busby went to Seattle Children’s Hospital. Doctors at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham determined the wall of Busby’s heart was a bit thicker than normal, Dave Busby said. It was possible Tyler had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal disease in which a thickened heart muscle makes it more difficult for blood to leave the heart, which makes the heart work harder, according to the MedlinePlus online encyclopedia.
Understandably, that possibility terrified the Busbys.
Test results at Children’s Hospital were inconclusive, Dave Busby said, but doctors suggested Tyler Busby give his heart a break and avoid exercise for six months. His health was the priority, of course, but Busby didn’t want to miss his senior basketball season.
“That was really hard for him. That really crushed him,” said Dave Busby. “He was almost to the point where he had given up hope.”
The Busbys eventually turned to the Everett Clinic, where a cardiologist provided hope: Busby’s heart muscle was slightly thicker than normal but the health risk from playing basketball was low, a doctor said. In fact, their family physician later said Busby’s April collapse could have been caused by dehydration, not hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
In September Busby was finally medically cleared to play. But he sat out all of Arlington’s summer activities, including tournaments in Ellensburg and San Diego. And, thanks to the no-exercise advice, he packed about 25 pounds onto his 6-foot-2 frame.
But Busby was just thankful to be back. “To be given another chance, it changes your perspective a lot about life and basketball,” he said.
A member of the Eagles varsity team since his sophomore year, Busby started slowly this season and was worked back into action cautiously by Arlington head coach Nick Brown. “I was probably too tentative at first,” Brown said. “I was tentative, because you never know.”
But by January Busby was in better shape and making a consistent impact. From Jan. 10 through Feb. 6 he scored at least 12 points in 10 consecutive games, averaging 17.1 points. An undersized post on an Arlington team that lacks height, Busby fills an important role.
It’s great to see Busby healthy and back on the court, senior guard Cole Carpenter said: “We’ve always been close. We’ve kind of been the two leaders of the senior class.”
“Obviously it’s what we hoped for, especially since he didn’t get to play all summer,” Dave Busby said. “We didn’t know how much that would affect him.”
Thanks to a rigorous conditioning program he did with Carpenter before the season, Tyler Busby shed most of his extra weight. Other than a small scare that happened a few weeks before the season started — at the end of a pickup game, Busby got dizzy and his legs buckled — he has felt fine.
His parents can’t help feeling on edge when they watch Arlington play though. “Even now, it’s a little bit nerve-wracking during the games. But as time goes on, it eases,” said Dave Busby.
When Tyler Busby doesn’t have a basketball in his hands, he usually has a water bottle or an energy drink, doing his part to stay hydrated. He drinks two bottles of water before every game and often raids his coach’s supply.
“I can’t figure out where my Costco water bottles are going, but I’m pretty sure I know who it is,” coach Brown said, laughing.
Busby dreams of guiding Arlington to the 4A state tournament — where the Eagles have never been — and playing at the next level, possibly for a local community college.
But if he ever has another health scare, he will give up the sport for good, Dave Busby said.
“It was just really funny how important basketball was to us as a family (before Tyler collapsed in April) and how that took a back seat really quick, from extremely important to suddenly not meaning a lot,” said Dave Busby. “His health ended up being the only thing that we really cared about.”
Writer Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
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