Tremendous attitude drives former Dr. Phillips star in battle with cancer | Varsity Insider

Bryan Bell-Anderson has always been an athlete in tip-top shape, a benefactor of his step-father’s lifetime athletic prowess and Trevor “Coach TA” Anderson’s ultimate career choice of becoming an athletic trainer.

“Better Every Day.” That is the motto of Coach TA and Bryan’s mother Amber Anderson, who also works with her husband as a trainer. It was also the name of the couple’s gym until they recently went in to partnership with Apex Fit Performance Center.

“Better every day,” is now Bryan’s personal motto.

A former Dr. Philips High and Columbia University standout cornerback, Bell-Anderson was diagnosed with leukemia Feb. 10, exactly a week after his 23rd birthday. To be exact, Bryan has B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (BALL).

There is something apropos about the acronym, as Bryan has always been a baller.

He is battling and been through numerous chemotherapy treatments. He is wearing a 24-hour medication pouch with IV insertion that medicates him with chemo-type solutions.

This is a young man who has always been in top physical condition. Never the biggest guy on the field, but always, certainly, one of the most determined and talented. Now, that determination and willpower is a benefit in his fight to stay alive.

His attitude is one that all of us should see as inspirational.

I’ve known Bryan since 2017. He was busting up passes one summer day during a 7-on-7 tournament at UCF. I took notice. He was smaller than many of the other kids, probably 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds. But I watched him intently. He was meticulous in his cover skills. He studied on the field. His eyes were trained, focused and he always knew just where to be.

I was impressed. When I saw him recently, I was even more impressed.

He’s 5-10 now, but probably not 170, as he was last listed at Columbia in 2022. The cancer has taken a bit of his weight, but not much. He looked great. He had that huge smile, just like he always does. And his attitude was amazing.

“When I first found out, I was asking God, ‘Why me?’ ” Bell-Anderson said. “But then I started asking, ‘Why not me?’ I’m the one who can beat this.

“I know I am a strong person and I can handle it and I wouldn’t want anyone else I know to have to go through it.”

Shock would be a good word to describe his initial reaction. He had been sparring at a gym one day, MMA style, and started to feel a pain near his ribs. A few days later, the pain lingering, he went to the hospital at AdventHealth Orlando downtown.

“I thought I had something wrong with my ribs, probably from the sparring,” Bell-Anderson said. “But they did the tests and they said my white blood cell count was like 40 times higher than it was supposed to be. So they did more tests and they came back and said I had cancer.

“It was pretty crazy. I went there expecting them to say something about my ribs and I ended up staying there for like a month. They wouldn’t let me leave.”

The Anderson family is faith driven. They rely on prayer to manage their pain and discomfort and worry about all of the things Bryan is going through.

“When they told us about the blood levels and then the nurse walked out of the room, we just kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Whatever this is, let’s get it,'” TA said of the news of the skyrocketed blood count. “That’s how Bryan has attacked every single thing in his life.”

He wears the medical contraption on a harness over his shoulder. He is nearing completion of this treatment and there is currently a search for a donor match as Bryan awaits a bone marrow transplant.

“It’s always kind of been this fight, like I’ve always been undersized and stuff like that,” Bell-Anderson said of his against-all-odds approach. “It’s really just what I’ve always been doing, fighting. Not even really trying to prove anything to other people but just something I needed to know for myself.

“I just have this thing that I need to know that I have done what I needed to do, every day. Especially in sports, so like with this it carries over perfectly … everything before was almost perfect practice for this.”

He tried to conceal his early concern.

“At first, with my mom and dad and brother [Taj], I knew they were worried and I didn’t want them to see that I was down,” Bell-Anderson said. “They look at me like I’m Superman or something. If I’m down, it affects them.”

His mother has been the busy body in the recovery process. She organized, with different friends and family members, a meal caravan so Bryan could get home-cooked food brought to him at the hospital for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She’s constantly updating everyone of his progress on her Facebook feed. Bryan is considered to be in clinical remission.

Bryan tried to figure it out and his early questions lingered.

“It’s not meant for me to know the reason right now, but I know everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I know when it’s time, at some point it will present itself. God knows.

“I’ve already started to recognize things like the people I am inspiring through this. I know, eventually, I will get back to doing the things I like to do, like playing SlamBall and stuff.”

TA also played SlamBall and Bryan is following in those footsteps. His step-father has been amazed at what he has witnessed.

“It’s inspiring to me. He inspires me to the point that there is no excuse for me to not accomplish anything I want to do in my life,” TA said.

His sons are special athletes. They train with their father and the results are obvious. Taj Anderson is an eighth-grade receiver on Orlando’s The First Academy football team.

“I never pushed my sons,” said TA, who is a former UCF and Arena Football League player. “People always ask, ‘What did you do with your boys?’ I never directly challenged them. If I challenged them it was always challenging them to challenge themselves.

“We always say excellence is not being the best but being your best.”

Bryan has two years of football eligibility remaining, but he’s unsure what he wants to do. He has a semester left academically. He played SlamBall last summer and garnered the nickname Flyin’ Bryan. He even won a dunk contest.

His football focus has changed because of his SlamBall talent. He loves the game, which is like a physical style of basketball on trampolines placed around a basketball court with scoring through a basketball hoop being the goal. He also wants to enter some amateur Mixed Martial Arts fights.

For now, however, the focus is on beating this cancer thing.

“It’s really just a mindset. I know I will get through this,” Bryan said. “I never once thought that this is something I can’t beat.

“I feel very confident that I will get through this. I know I will.”

TA is right there fighting with his son.

“I know he’ll do it because he wants to,” TA said. “We kind of look at this like, ‘OK, let’s get in the trenches again.’ Now his thing is, ‘I’m winning.’ It’s something he can put on his résumé.

“State champion, Ivy League player, cancer survivor. That’s a pretty good résumé.”

The family has a GoFundMe account to help with the medical expenses. Click the link.

Chris Hays can be found on X @OS_ChrisHays. He can be reached via email at chays@orlandosentinel.com.