Ben Brewer admits that occasionally during one of his football or baseball games at Mobile Christian, he will glance into the stands, triggering a memory of his mom.

“It’s like a split-second thing sometimes,” he said. “Maybe a special day, like Senior Night in football or whatever. Then I just try to go back and zone in and get back into the game.”

Ben’s mom, Tonya Brewer, died Feb. 25, 2021, after a cancer battle that lasted more than five years. Ben was a sophomore at the time.

“She was kind of like my rock,” Brewer said. “Going home each day and seeing her happy was really important to me.”

Through the pain of his mom’s long cancer battle and ultimately her death, Brewer has continued to battle on the playing fields at Mobile Christian. He’s helped the Leopards to a pair of Class 4A state baseball titles and played both offense and defense for Ronnie Cottrell’s football team.

“Ben really never complained,” Cottrell said. “He’s kind of an old soul and is very mature, very quiet. It may come from the fact that he has older siblings. But he was strong throughout the process.”

Brewer’s perseverance and strength are major reasons he’s one of 52 regional winners in the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program’s Achievement category, which honors senior athletes who have overcome personal adversity to excel.

All regional winners receive a $3,000 scholarship and could win more when statewide winners are announced at the annual Bryant-Jordan banquet April 10 in Birmingham.

“Often times, the term ‘obstacles’ has a negative connotation,” Brewer wrote to the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship committee. “I believe that obstacles are put in our lives to test how we will overcome them. Through overcoming obstacles, you realize what makes you who you are. I choose to view the obstacles life throws at you as a driving force to keep going.”

The Brewer family

Eric Brewer, a homebuilder in Mobile, and Tonya were high school sweethearts at Murphy High, graduating in 1988. The couple has five children.

Ben, the youngest of the five, started playing baseball and football when he was “four or five.” Which sport does he like best?

“It’s seasonal,” he said. “Whichever season it is, I’m 100 percent. I’m all in.”

Brewer has said he would like to continue to play both sports in college. Several schools have offered him a chance to do that, but he hasn’t made a decision yet.

Heading into this weekend, Brewer was hitting .420 for Jason Smith’s baseball team with two home runs, six doubles and 18 RBIs. That follows a football season where he rushed for 162 yards and four touchdowns, caught 28 passes for 301 yards and a pair of scores and had six interceptions and 59 tackles on defense.

“He’s been amazing,” Cottrell said. “I know it (Tonya’s death) was hard on him, but he was never different. I know he thought about her, still thinks about her, and there were times that he indicated to me that he missed her, but he remained focus on trying to do well. He has amazing maturity. He carries himself differently than most kids.”

The long road begins

The bad news came literally out of nowhere.

Eric Brewer said his wife, at the age of 45, was – or at least seemed to be — in great physical shape, even running marathons.

However, on Oct. 2, 2015, Tonya Brewer was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.

“It was colon/rectal cancer and already had spread to her lungs,” Eric Brewer said. “The oncologist told me not even to look up the statistics, but you really can’t help it. The chances of her surviving even two years were like 12 percent.”

The news led to a difficult conversation between Eric and his children.

“Ben was 10 at the time,” Eric said. “I had an older daughter still in high school. The other kids were in college. I told them that everyone in the house had to grow up right then. I hated it for Ben, but I told him he had to start doing his laundry, making his bed, other stuff that maybe kids don’t do at that age.”

Ben did all those things and much more for his mom.

“There were times when she couldn’t get out of a chair, and Ben was right there with me,” Eric said. “It was, ‘I’ll get one side and you get the other.’ If I hadn’t had him, I don’t know what I would have done. A lot of kids probably go home and whine about what happened at school. Ben came home and was helping me. He’s special.”

The struggle ends

Tonya lived much longer than two years.

She was on and off chemotherapy throughout the process.

“There were times when she seemed normal and her numbers were doing well,” Eric said. “She would go to the park and had times where she felt fairly normal.”

Ben Brewer added: “It seemed very normal at first, but at the end she could hardly do anything. She couldn’t do much but sit on the couch and talk. That was about it.”

Tonya’s cancer ultimately traveled to the brain and then the liver.

Nearly five-and-a-half years after her diagnosis and just several weeks after Ben’s sophomore baseball season had started, Tonya died at age 51.

“One of the things I noticed was how the boys really rallied around him, especially the boys in his class,” said Smith, an assistant baseball coach at the time. “They were there for him. They all went to the funeral and stayed with him. It was really tough on some of them. I don’t know how many of them had seen someone go through something like that. Knowing how close Ben was with his mom was tough. It affected them as well.”

Eric remembered the comfort the Mobile Christian family brought in the family’s toughest time.

“They were two or three weeks into baseball season. Ben was in his first year on varsity and starting in left field,” Eric said. “All those players and parents – when she passed — they just surrounded us. It was so unbelievable.

“At the visitation, we had a group come in that was baseball and another group with coach Cottrell that was football, and they just surrounded Ben and were like, ‘Hey, I got you.’ The moms on the team, the players, the coaches – they did things I didn’t even know I needed done. It was the biggest gift anyone has ever given me in my life.”

Back to baseball

Brewer and his team got back to work in 2021 following his mom’s death, ultimately winning the first of two straight 4A titles.

“That is what she would have wanted me to do,” he said. “She wanted me to be the best person I can be on and off the field. That is what she said made her happy.”

There have been hard moments, of course.

“I’m sure there were times when other players were taking pictures with their mothers that were extremely difficult, but Ben always handled those things so maturely,” Cottrell said. “Honestly, I can’t personally see how he handled it as well as he did.”

There also have been good times.

Brewer, not necessarily known as a power hitter, has homered on both the anniversaries of his mom’s death.

“That’s eerie,” Eric Brewer said. “It’s just crazy.”

Despite losing 10 seniors from last year’s team and moving up to Class 5A due to the AHSAA’s competitive balance rule, the Leopards are again a state title contender. Smith’s team improved to 13-6 overall after winning two of three games against Citronelle this weekend and is currently ranked No. 2 in the state behind Headland.

Brewer is now one of the team’s leaders, though he said he doesn’t like to be too outspoken.

“I like to be pretty neutral,” he said. “I don’t want to be that guy who is always telling other people what to do. I try to build people up, joke around with them a little bit.”

The college question will have to be decided at some point. Faulkner University in Montgomery has offered him a chance to play both sports. He had a tryout for the University of Mobile baseball team earlier this week.

It’s clear both of his high school coaches believe in his ability and work ethic.

“He’s very driven,” Smith said.

“I wouldn’t bet against him I promise you,” Cottrell added. “He’s a very positive minded person, and I think he will be successful in any endeavor. I know there will be a college who will get an outstanding baseball and football player and even more outstanding person.”