How ACA basketball rallied around coach Blake Thrasher after leukemia diagnosis

American Christian Academy boys basketball coach Blake Thrasher was at Winn-Dixie getting snacks for his team's bus ride later that day to University Charter School for its first game of the season when he received a call telling him the unimaginable.

He had been diagnosed with cancer: specifically acute myeloid leukemia.

Instead of coaching his team on the court that night, Thrasher instead spent the evening, and more than the entire next month, in the hospital beginning his battle with the disease. His two oldest sons – Andrew, 22, and Hudson, 21 – with the help of assistant coach Austin Walker, took over coaching duties for him that first game and for the next three as Thrasher figured out the next steps.

Five games into the season, Austin Grammer – a teacher and football and baseball assistant coach at ACA – stepped in to lead the Patriots. Not asking many questions, Grammer and the team got to work.

And from there, the Patriots had a united goal.

"We said we were going to play for coach Thrasher," senior guard Davis Dare said.

Play for coach Thrasher is exactly what the Patriots did this season. Despite falling 13 points short of a Class 4A AHSAA state championship this past Friday, ACA had one of its best seasons in program history. A roster including eight seniors, many of whom had played together since seventh grade, won the 4A-Area 7 regular-season and tournament championships along with the Central Regional. ACA made its second trip in program history to the Final Four and its first run at taking home the Blue Map state championship trophy.

All under a coach who did not know he would be leading the program when the season began. All for the coach who got them there in the first place, a coach whom Grammer says tries to downplay his effect on the team and the program: Blake Thrasher.

"This is really what he's built," Grammer said following ACA's Final Four win over Deshler.

Thrasher was in attendance to watch his Patriots take on Jackson in the state title game at Legacy Arena in Birmingham and to see them defeat Deshler in the Final Four. He made it to a few other games throughout the season, including senior night.

Sitting on the bench with the team, Thrasher said, is where he wanted to be. Instead, he sat in the stands — wearing ACA gear, of course —with his son Hudson, watching his team from above. His wife, Jennifer, sat in the stands with the other ACA parents; his oldest son Andrew was courtside keeping the ACA scorebook. His youngest son William, a sophomore on the team, was on the bench with his teammates.

ACA DEFEATS DESHLER IN FINAL FOUR: American Christian Academy defeats Deshler, moves onto state championship

COACH AUSTIN GRAMMER: How Austin Grammer went from playing to coaching at American Christian Academy

Why didn't he sit on the bench with the team if that's what he wanted? For a few reasons, one being because he did not want to be a distraction.

"He's a behind-the-scenes guy. He doesn't like to show his face," Grammer said. "He doesn't come out and speak about things. But he is a tremendous individual, and we would not be here without Blake Thrasher."

The ACA community showed its love. There were signs of it everywhere on Friday night. From the black T-shirts the team wore during warm-ups with an orange leukemia cancer ribbon on the back and the words "In this family we fight together" to the orange ribbons in the cheerleaders' hair, or the orange ribbons pinned on the shirts of students and parents in the stands.

Dare posted "For Thrasher" on X, formerly Twitter, before the championship game.

"Getting (to the championship game), getting in the locker room, it was like 'get it for him, get it for him,'" senior Samuel Holt said.

Pregame, players discussed what they were going to do afterwards if they won. When he got his hands on the trophy, Holt said, he was going to run over and give it to Thrasher.

"That's what it means for us for him to be there," Holt said.

While the Patriots were unable to give coach Thrasher the Blue Map, they were able to give him so much more than that.

"The emotional ride for me personally, not being able to coach unexpectedly, and then to have the team rally around me," Thrasher said. "... Just the dedication that they had to play the season for me, not to take away from the fact that I feel like they were talented enough to get to the championship game without something to play for. Great group, veteran guys that have been through a lot of adversity through previous seasons, and I think all of that has helped them achieve something that no ACA team has achieved, which is getting to the final."

They did it for Thrasher.

Anna Snyder covers high school sports and University of Alabama softball and football recruiting for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com. Follow her on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @annaesnyder2

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: AHSAA basketball: How ACA rallied around coach with leukemia