http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/SPORTS05/710150315
The father watches his son plow over and run past would-be tacklers on the football field. He can see through only one eye and can barely hear the roaring crowd. But David Gibson knows his boy is piling up another chunk of yards for Mountain View High.
Ash Gibson runs as though possessed, on a mission to bring the second-ranked, 7-0 Cougars a Class 5A state championship. The senior has rushed for 1,435 yards and 16 touchdowns this season, averaging 205 yards per game.
A relentless running back, Ash is also a punishing middle linebacker. He draws strength from his teammates and their quest for a state title. But most of his motivation comes from his grandparents, who raised him, and his father, whose body has been ravaged by diabetes.
“He inspires me to move on,” Ash says of his father. “Always forget the play that happened before, and move on to the next. Forget the mistakes, because everybody makes mistakes. He’s gone through a lot of adversity, and he’s still going, so it just makes me feel that much better when I’m out there.”
David Gibson, 42, was born mostly deaf, and diabetes, with which he was diagnosed at age 13, has robbed the sight from his right eye and the toes from his left foot. Just three weeks ago, that foot was amputated because of an infection and poor circulation.
He underwent a kidney transplant four years ago (the new organ was donated by David’s father, Dave Gibson) and a pancreas transplant last year.
Ash Gibson answers questions about his father after quiet contemplation. When the subject turns to his phenomenal football season, he deflects credit to the offensive line or the defense.
“He’s sort of been oblivious to all the attention,” says Ash’s grandmother, Ellen Gibson. “He’s humble, and I think a lot of that is because of his dad’s illness. He has things in perspective at an early age.
“I think that it’s worn on him from time to time. When (David’s) kidneys first failed (in 2002) and he was on dialysis, that was hard on all of us. We really relied on each other.”
Ash solemnly recalls the sleepless nights at his grandparents’ home, with his father coughing violently in the next room.
“When he went into kidney failure, it was the hardest time,” Ash says. “It’s hard to see someone suffering like that. You don’t know what to say, you can’t help the situation. It was hard to get through some of that stuff.”
Because of his father’s condition, and because he had been estranged from his mother since his parents’ divorce, Ash moved in with his paternal grandparents, Ellen and Dave Gibson, when he was 3 years old. Ash’s mother — who currently lives in Sweet Home and whom Ash says he hasn’t spoken to in a year — was also born deaf. And having been raised by two deaf parents, Ash’s first language was sign language. When he moved in with his grandparents, he knew little English, Ellen Gibson recalls. But, she says, her grandson was a “learning machine.”
Ash and his grandparents moved to Bend with Ash’s father about five years ago from Culver. Ash says, with no slight to his father, that he considers his grandparents his mom and dad.
“They’ve always been there for me,” he says.
Ellen, 61, and Dave, 62, attend every Mountain View game — even away contests. They help with concessions sales at Jack Harris Stadium, and with planning pasta dinners for the varsity team before games.
David Gibson, who now lives in La Pine but often spends time in Bend with his parents and Ash, comes to games when he can, though cold weather takes a toll on his body because of his poor circulation. He was in attendance at the Cougars’ 58-7 victory over Summit on Friday night, clad in a Mountain View hat and sweatshirt and sitting next to his parents. He is unable to stand and uses crutches to walk as a result of his foot surgery. But he pumped his fist and smiled broadly as Ash rushed for 249 yards and three touchdowns.
Early in the second quarter, Gibson dislocated his left ring finger. He had it popped back into place by the Mountain View trainer, then a few plays later he burst up the middle for an 80-yard touchdown run.
“Me and Ash have a strong heart,” David Gibson says in sign language, with his father interpreting. “He knows me; he says I’m very, very tough. And Ash is a very strong boy and a very good boy. He is very special.”
Ellen says she and Dave never pushed their grandson into playing football.
“We would have been fine if he was a piano player,” Ellen says. “But I can’t tell you how excited we are to hear that whistle blow every week.”
When the game starts, the 6-foot-tall, 215-pound Ash Gibson turns from a quiet, unassuming high school senior into a weapon of sheer power and speed in the backfield.
Mountain View head coach John Nehl points to a 27-7 victory over Pendleton on Sept. 21, when Gibson took a tremendous shot by a Buckaroo linebacker, refused to go down, then suddenly sprinted away from a pack of defenders for a 20-yard gain.
Ash Gibson has run for more than 200 yards four times so far this season, including a season-high 286 yards in a 22-14 win over Wilsonville on Sept. 7, and 281 yards in a 42-20 victory over Eagle Point the following week.
“He’s just a punishing-type kid,” Nehl says. “He can run away from you, and then he can run right through you. That’s a very unique quality in a high school player. He practices the same way he plays the games. He doesn’t take any plays off in practices or games. That’s just the way he runs.”
Says Gibson: “I never quit going. Sometimes I don’t even think I can carry the ball again, but I just keep going and going.”
Gibson is determined to lead Mountain View to a state championship, which has been the Cougars’ goal ever since losing to Lebanon 38-6 in a state quarterfinal game last year.
“We want to go undefeated,” Gibson says. “We treat every game like a playoff game, and if we keep it like that, I don’t think anybody can beat us.”
Gibson says he wants to play college football, and he has been in contact with several Northwest universities, including Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, Pacific Lutheran,
Portland State
and Linfield College.
Nehl says he sees Gibson as a strong safety for a Division I team.
“He’s that good of a hitter, and he reads (offenses) pretty well,” Nehl says.
But Gibson has another motivation for going to college: he wants to be the first member of his family to earn a college degree. Currently, he is taking a full load of classes at Mountain View and is hoping to improve on his 3.0 grade-point average.
“I started to realize school is the most important thing,” Gibson says. “It sets the tone for the way you want to live your life.”
His current career path is business, and he hopes to eventually contribute to the business side of the online wellness company for which his grandparents open accounts for customers.
“He’s learned that if you set a goal, and focus on that goal, you can achieve it,” says Dave Gibson. “Having to see so many goals set for his dad as far as his health was concerned, he learned to focus there. He’s watched David over the years and knows anything can be accomplished.”
Ash is also a sprinter on the Cougar track and field team, and he enjoys fishing, wakeboarding and snowboarding. In addition to his grandparents, he lives with two cousins — ShaLayne Priest, 17, and Caitlin Gibson, 12 — who were taken in by Ellen and Dave five years ago.
He’s a busy high school senior, but Ash says he makes time to talk to his dad almost every day.
David Gibson takes anti-rejection medication for his new kidney and pancreas. Ellen Gibson says doctors have given David about 10 to 15 years on his current kidneys before he may need another donor.
“It can change at any time,” Ellen says. “(Diabetes) is the silent killer. It slowly destroys the organs of the body.”
But Ash knows his father will always be there for him, as will his grandparents, just as they were when they took him in as a quiet 3-year-old who rarely spoke.
Now he does most of his talking with his play on the football field, his dad and grandparents beaming with pride as he continues to pile up yards for an undefeated team.
After Ash broke three tackles and scampered for a 34-yard touchdown run on Friday night against Summit, his father, with a sparkle in his eye, uttered one word:
“Wow.”
