If you had asked Chase Smith three years ago about what he was going to expect from himself as a freshman swimmer competing at the high school level, the answer would have likely involved a state championship or two.
Such a goal probably isn’t realistic right now after everything the Indian Creek freshman has been through over the past two and a half years. But the fact that it’s even within possible is a testament to Smith’s undeniable determination.
The 15-year-old has faced plenty of adversity since receiving the first of two cancer diagnoses in the summer of 2014. But he’s fought back every step of the way, and he takes to the pool at the Franklin Sectional later this week with a trip to the IHSAA State Finals very much within reach.
“It’ll be an extremely big deal,” said Sam Keymon, a sophomore on the Braves’ girls team. “It’ll be really, really inspiring to see. The state meet is so big — Indiana is one of the top swimming states in America, and then to see Chase in there is going to be awesome.”
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The incredible journey
Ever since he was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, on July 11, 2014, Smith’s fight with cancer has been well-documented in Johnson County and beyond.
Just two months before his diagnosis, Smith was ranked fourth in the nation among 12-year-olds in the 100-meter butterfly. Suddenly, he wasn’t able to swim at all, often confined to a bed at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health while he received biweekly chemotherapy.
“It really beat me down,” Smith said. “And that was all inpatient, and supposedly the dosage was less intense. I was just always sick, and I didn’t swim for about a year. I was just a regular chemo patient.”
Smith underwent three months of intensive chemotherapy treatment after his initial diagnosis, and then underwent surgery in October of 2014 to remove seven inches of affected bone and muscle from his right leg. A section of cadaver bone was fused into the gap in his femur, but there was no replacing the portion of the quadriceps muscle that was taken out, and Smith still walks with a pronounced limp as a result.
It was otherwise hard to tell Smith apart from his peers once he returned to competitive swimming in February of 2015. He had several first-place swims in his middle school meets, and by the end of last summer he had shaved almost all of his times to well below what they had been before his battle began.
But on Aug. 3 — the second day of his freshman year at Indian Creek — Smith received a second cancer diagnosis.
“He was so excited to start his freshman year and kind of get that going and really putting this behind him,” said Chase’s father Brad, who also is the longtime swimming and diving coach at Indian Creek. “This put a lid on things and tempered that a little bit.”
Psychologically, going through a battle with cancer only to have it return can be a devastating blow. Chase, though, wasn’t about to let himself get knocked down again.
“I think it’s human nature, always, to have the initial doubt,” he said. “I took a day just thinking about everything, and after that day I was definitely very determined to not let the cancer battle me, but me battle the cancer. I wasn’t going to let cancer get in the way of me having success with my team and trying to help my team out as much as possible.”
Fighting back
Prior to the start of the high school swim season, Indian Creek’s team leaders got together for a meeting. The most important words in that meeting came from a ninth-grader.
“I sort of spoke up in that meeting and said, ‘I don’t know what I’ll be doing this season’ — and that was before we knew how well I was going to handle any of the drugs — ‘but I promise you guys I’m going to give 110 percent for all of you and go above and beyond to be the best teammate I can be,’ ” Chase Smith said. “And I think that statement just made a huge impact on the team in showing them that we’re just a family.”
Fortunately for Chase, the second go-round hasn’t been nearly as physically taxing as the first, and he has not had to endure another extended stretch of time away from the pool. The surgery to remove tumors from his thigh and his groin was less invasive than his two previous surgeries, and his body has also responded far better to the corresponding treatment.
When his teammates are in the water for practices, he’s been right there with them, going just as hard. If his peers are doing something, he’s determined to join them and not use cancer as an excuse to sit out.
“He doesn’t want other people to feel sorry for him; he doesn’t want the pity or anything,” Keymon said. “He just wants to be Chase. He doesn’t want to be Chase, the kid with cancer.”
“Any kid going through this just wants to be normal and have a normal life,” Smith added. “I just wanted to get my point across to the team that, ‘You don’t have to treat me any different; I’m just like you guys. I may be sick every once in a while, but I’m just like you guys.’ And I think they really understood that. They treat me like I’m just like them, and they’re definitely behind me.”
Follow the leader
Though just a freshman, Chase has become the face of the Indian Creek swim program. From the outside, it would seem that his battle with cancer, and the #ChaseStrong movement that has spread across the entire area, might have something to do with that.
But to those who know him best, there’s no doubt that he would have a major presence regardless.
“When we walk in, he’s our leader, and that’s just how it is,” Keymon said.
Nowhere is that leadership more evident than on the Indian Creek relay teams. In addition to competing in the 100-yard freestyle, Chase is slated to swim on all three relays for the Braves at the sectional meet, and Brad Smith is confident that his 400 freestyle relay quartet in particular — Chase, Tucker Brock, Nolan Reed and Cody Hart — has an excellent chance of making it to the state meet.
If it does advance (Indian Creek is currently ranked 18th in the state in that event), that will be in no small part due to Chase Smith.
“He’s at the heart of it,” said Franklin coach Zach DeWitt, who has known Chase for more than a decade. “I don’t know if he’s going to throw the fastest times down on the relay, but I can tell you that if you’d ask any of those other three boys, he’s the heart and soul of it. He’s the reason why they’re able to swim fast.”
“On the relays, we go so much harder because we know Chase is going to give everything he has and we don’t want to let him down,” Brock said.
Fired up, ready to go
The sectional meet is what every high school swimmer spends the season gearing up for — but for Chase Smith, it holds a bit of extra significance because of how long he’s waited to compete in it and what he’s had to go through to get to this point.
“Growing up, ever since I was little, just going to the sectionals, having my dad coach for 20-plus years, going to every sectional finals and counting down to when I can compete in that environment and it finally being here, it’s a great feeling,” he said. “I’m very, very excited.”
That excitement is compounded by the fact that he’s feeling better now than at any point during the season. Smith’s final radiation treatment came on Jan. 20, which means he should be feeling a bit stronger than he was earlier on.
Chase was set to begin another round of chemotherapy this week, but his doctor agreed to hold off until the Monday after the sectional meet so that it won’t impact his performance.
Holding off until after the state meet wasn’t an option — but at least for this year, the freshman would be happy just to make it to state in the first place.
His chances figure to be better now that he’ll be swimming unencumbered by the aftereffects of radiation and chemotherapy for the first time all winter. Chase received radiation treatment the day before the Johnson County meet, and he’s even had to do his oral chemo at poolside on occasion.
Just having the option to do his treatments there instead of at the hospital was a welcome change.
“It’s not very tasty, as you can imagine, but it’s a lot better than making that two-hour round trip drive every day,” Chase said.
Comfort zone
The biggest difference between his first fight with cancer and this one, Chase Smith says, is the fact that he’s able to be in the water regularly.
“I didn’t swim for a whole year through that process,” he said of the fight back from his initial diagnosis. “And (now) I’m getting in the water every day through the whole process.
“I started off thinking in the mindset, ‘Maybe I’ll just come an hour and give 100 percent then,’ but I missed it so much that I just pushed myself to go the full practices, and eventually I was up there with everyone else and at the top again.”
The water has always been therapeutic for Chase. Brad Smith says that his favorite moment at the pool with his son came not at a meet, but after his first resection surgery in late 2014. At a follow-up appointment, the surgeon had cleared Chase to get back into the water, so “he begged us to take him to the pool,” Brad Smith recalled.
“Chase used his crutches to get himself to the edge of the pool, eased in and let himself sink to the bottom of the pool. He remained motionless for what seemed like forever, but I am sure it was a matter of seconds. He came to the surface and said that he was ready to get out.
“He just wanted to be in the water again — just be surrounded by the comfort it gives him.”
And little by little, Chase is working his way back toward becoming the swimmer he was before this long journey began. His times are approaching what they were before his relapse diagnosis, and he’s even able to swim a full individual medley now — despite being told after his initial surgery that he would never be able to swim the breaststroke again.
“Can’t” is not a word that applies to Chase Smith.
“It’s not even impressive anymore; it’s downright unbelievable,” DeWitt said. “It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know how it’s possible. I’ve never seen a more determined individual in my entire life, regardless of sport, regardless of situation. I don’t know how he does it.
“In a lot of ways, that kid’s my hero. He represents everything I hoped this sport could possibly be, and it’s just fun to watch.”
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How Chase Smith’s best swim times this season measure up with where he was prior to his two cancer diagnoses:
Before initial diagnosis (July 11, 2014)
50 freestyle;25.17 seconds
100 freestyle;52.73
100 butterfly;1:00.26
100 backstroke;58.09
200 individual medley;2:10.29
Before second diagnosis (Aug. 3, 2017)
50 freestyle;23.23 seconds
100 freestyle;50.89
100 butterfly;56.74
100 backstroke;55.45
200 individual medley;N/A*
Current high school season
50 freestyle;24.45 seconds
100 freestyle;51.36
100 butterfly;58.85
100 backstroke;58.24
200 individual medley;2:14.53
Note: Smith did not swim an individual medley between his first and second diagnoses after being told he would never swim breaststroke again. He has since worked to compensate for lost muscle and is now able to swim a legal breaststroke.
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