Year of disruption

A brain abscess nearly cost him the entirety of his senior year.

But all was back to normal just in time for basketball.

Once again, Noah Arbuckle’s high school sports career is in limbo.

In what is becoming a swath of unknown, Arbuckle, a Jay County High School senior, is doing the best he can to remain hopeful in these uncertain times as high school athletes across the country are coming to grips with the fact their seasons may be abbreviated, or may not happen at all, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s definitely not normal,” Arbuckle said.

“The whole senior year has not been very good,” Noah’s mother, Sheri, chimed in.

The Arbuckles — Noah, Sheri and her husband Doug — returned from New Orleans from a baseball tournament before the first day of school in August.

On Aug. 8, the day before Jay County began its school year, Noah complained of numbness in his left arm. Sheri rushed home from work to check on him, but by the time she arrived Noah’s discomfort went away. She thought it was a simple as a pinched nerve.

Sheri returned to work, and Noah’s symptoms got worse. His entire left side was shaking. The family later discovered he was having minor seizures.

Doug and Sheri took their youngest son to a walk-in clinic, and while there Noah’s speech became slurred and he was transferred to the emergency room.

The following day, while his friends and classmates were gearing up for their final year as Patriots, Noah was taken to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.

“We weren’t sure Riley would take him because he had already turned 18, but since he was still a senior they took him, which was a blessing from God,” Sheri said.

Noah had another seizure, and was immediately admitted for an MRI.

The neurosurgeon told Doug and Sheri he was positive Noah had an abscess on the right side of his frontal lobe, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he got into the operating room.

By 6 p.m. that night, Noah was having brain surgery.

“It was 24 hours of a whirlwind from the first symptom,” Sheri said.

The abscess, of which no one knew the cause, was slightly smaller than a ping pong ball. After its removal, Noah was outfitted with a titanium plate and three screws, and he now sports a 6-inch scar as a memento.

Noah was in the intensive care unit for a day, and then spent four more days at Riley for rehab.

“It was a whirlwind,” Sheri reiterated. “Almost in shock; he’s just so healthy. We had traveled all summer with ball, just to think he had this brewing.”

On Aug. 14, almost a full week after the first symptoms, Noah returned home with a picc line, and Sheri administered antibiotics twice a day for six weeks.

Noah was not permitted to do any sort of physical activity. As a result, he missed playing powder puff volleyball one more time with his senior classmates at Jay County’s spirit night.

“Very tough,” he said. “Sports is my thing. Doing stuff is my thing. It was just tough for me to sit at home like I am now just doing nothing. Took the process slowly and did what I could.”

Still, Noah and his parents remained optimistic he’d return to full health, be back on the basketball court and return to his first love — baseball.

“I knew once I got out of the hospital, once I got back to my daily routine and doing basic little stuff to get motor skills back with my left hand ... I’d be back to normal and ready to go,” he said.

His final year on the basketball court came and went without a hitch. Then on March 12, more than two weeks before the official start of baseball practice, Jay School Corporation suspended extracurricular activities, athletic competitions and practices for 30 days, delaying the beginning of his senior year on the diamond.

A week later, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb issued an executive order closing the state’s schools until May 1, further delaying the start of Noah and his team’s quest of defending back-to-back sectional championships.

“We’re just remaining optimistic that this will pass and we can get on with his senior year, get back to play a little bit in May,” Doug said.

But if the pandemic cancels the entirety of the Indiana spring sports season, Noah still has baseball in his future. He’ll go on to Huntington University in the fall to join 2017 JCHS graduate Max Moser and the Foresters.

“It’s not quite so devastating because it’s not like he’ll never step on a baseball field,” Sheri said. “Got a real great future ahead of him and a lot to look forward to as well.”

Regardless of when Noah’s baseball career picks back up, one of his biggest supporters, maternal grandfather Jerald Schwomeyer, won’t be able to watch him. Schwomeyer passed away March 15.

“He was buried in Huntington University gear because he wanted to come watch me play at Huntington so bad but unfortunately he was unable to make it,” Noah said. “He’s been my childhood best friend and we were very close and had a soft place in my heart, so the next time I step onto a baseball field, I’m always going to remember what he always used to tell me before a game, and that was ‘Look good out there,’ and gave me a thumbs up.

“Every game, every play, every decision I make, everything I do from here on out is for him.”

If there’s one silver lining in this unexpected hiatus from baseball, it’s that Sheri and Doug get their son around a little while longer before becoming empty-nesters in the fall.

“It’s really kind of nice,” Sheri said. “There’s the side of it where we’re not so busy and we are together more. That hasn’t happened for a long time during baseball.

“But then there’s the missing watching him play. We love to watch him. We are definitely missing that just being able to see him, especially his senior year.

“It’s a little heartbreaking that way too.”