Kenmore resident has rebounded from injury, sickness to shine for Eagles

Tim Abbott is business-like to the core, carefully pulling a discus out of coach Grant Benzel’s briefcase and grabbing it tight. The Cedar Park Christian senior smiles and jokes about where the precious 3-pound, 9-ounce round piece of metal and rubber is kept. But the Kenmore resident is as serious as can be when it’s throwing time.

On April 10, the 17-year-old boy — who once rebounded from a bout with viral meningitis and a double stress fracture in his spine — unleashed a school-record throw of 153 feet, 1 inch at the Birger Solberg Team Invitational in Bellingham. (He bested that record three times at last Saturday’s Shoreline Invitational, topping out at 158-6, according to his dad, Greg.)

An imposing figure at 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds — with massive hands to boot — Abbott said the high-class throwers at the Solberg invite, especially host Sehome High’s guys, put him in a good spot to succeed.

“Throwing against good competition actually does help a lot. So far, I’ve had my best throws against (the best). It gives you a little boost, more incentive … you wanna beat them,” said Abbott, who finished tied for third at the event. “I was focused on what I needed to do, and was able to take what I had learned in practice and was able to replicate it in a meet. I prayed before I threw, and it was actually monumental in improving.”

Abbott knew he threw a good one when the disc exited his hand quick, clean and at just the right instant. And there was a ton of power behind it.

With the throw, he bested Cedar Park grad and good friend Scott McDonald’s former top mark of 149 feet. Scott’s dad, John (whose daughter, Faith, is a Cedar Park sprinter and hurdler), was on hand to give Abbott a big hug.

Scott got word of the throw via a text message from Abbott. “I texted him right afterward, saying that I broke it — he was really happy for me,” Abbott said. “He was probably the first really, really good thrower at our school, he kind of set the foundation for the program. So I owe any of my success pretty much to him and to the coaches.”

Added Benzel, who also coached Abbott on the football field: “We’re very blessed to have Tim Abbott on our team. Not only is he just a great physical presence, but he’s also a great spiritual leader. He brings a hard work ethic to our team, and kids see that. We’ve had some great throwers in the past, who have done just the same thing, and Tim has now carried the torch on to where now he’s that guy.”

Abbott, who also throws the shot put, said the process to doing well is to improve slowly and peak at the end of the season.

That’s the way his life has gone, as well.

He’s not shy to tell that halfway through his seventh-grade year at Cedar Park, he broke an ankle and caught viral meningitis at the hospital. Abbott was tired, couldn’t think straight and wasn’t up for attending school.

“It was a scary time, because there’s viral meningitis and bacterial meningitis, and bacterial can kill you. So we weren’t sure which one I had for that whole week,” he said of his stay at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. “There was a kid in the same room behind the curtain next to me who had bacterial meningitis. He was coughing all night, and it was just one of those things, ‘I hope I don’t have whatever that is.'”

Since Abbott didn’t fully recover in the weeks or months doctors told his family, he was homeschooled through his eighth-grade year. Slowly, but surely his energy and strength returned and he was able to play outside and participate in sports again, like his beloved baseball. (He would soon drop baseball for track and field and football, where he earned a varsity spot as a sophomore, playing right tackle at a skinny 160 pounds, he laughed.)

“It was a long, long process, I was frustrated,” said Abbott, who added that he did gain knowledge from watching Animal Planet, the Travel Channel and Discovery Channel during his stay at home. “I wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for that experience — I got more competitive, I wanted to accomplish stuff after that because I knew what it was like to sit and just not do anything. It was like, I need to live my life to the fullest.”

Abbott suffered another setback when he injured both sides of his L5 (fifth lumbar segment at the bottom of his spine) while throwing the discus and shot put and weightlifting his sophomore year. He wore a back brace while sitting out his junior-year football season, but returned to track and field that season and qualified for state in the discus.

He praises his physical therapists for helping him regain flexibility and strengthen his core and hamstrings. He felt stronger than ever during his comeback and even gained 15 pounds to help move opponents out of the way on the football field.

“From ninth grade to a senior … now he’s got muscles on top of muscles,” said Cedar Park athletic director Bill Bettinger.

Added Abbott, who sports a 3.55 grade-point average and will attend and throw at Liberty University in Virginia next fall: “Me and my family, we believe that Christ can use some really bad things for good. It was really tough at first. (It became) a positive thing.”