'Pulling together for Tyler'

Wrestling clinic helps second-grader suffering from pancreatic, liver cancer

By Kathy Hanks

BUHLER - Limbs were twisted like pretzels in double chicken wings. Friends of Tyler Graebner were going to the mat for their wrestling teammate.

A battle with liver and pancreatic cancer kept the 8-year-old Buhler second-grader from attending the wrestling clinic Thursday night. The event doubled as a fund-raiser to help with his medical expenses.

Though not physically present, he was everywhere in Buhler High School's old gym. Some people wore T-shirts with his name embossed on the front. Others had picture buttons, with his face broadly grinning, pinned to their shirts. A photo of Tyler and his siblings proudly dressed in wrestling garb sat amid the silent auction items.

Tyler, currently a patient at Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo., is undergoing a round of radiation treatment and receiving a constant morphine drip, his father, James Graebner, said. He will be hospitalized through March.

Meanwhile, about 40 wrestlers attended the clinic hosted by his team, the Buhler Lightning Wrestling Club.

"We're all pulling together for Tyler," said Eric Akin, a world team member and four-time NCAA All-American wrestler. Volunteering his time, he took off from work in Kansas City on Thursday afternoon so he could make the three-hour trip to serve as one of the clinicians.

"I'm doing this because this is the right way to live," Akin said. He has visited Tyler in the hospital and has come to know the family.

"They are just a hardworking family with kids like ours," he said.

At first, the doctors thought Tyler had a virus when he became ill in early November.

"They thought it might be something he ate," James Graebner said. "But by the day after Thanksgiving, he was screaming in pain."

Attending the clinic was Aaron Sweazy, 24, from Chapman. A college champion wrestler, he, too, was fighting cancer.

Though he couldn't get out on the mat and participate, Sweazy traveled to Buhler to show his support because wrestlers do that for each other, he said.

"All the stuff I've been through, it's very tough," Sweazy said. "You look in the mirror or find a picture of your former self and you lose it. I can't fathom what's going through Tyler's mind. But kids are upbeat."

Tyler was a champion wrestler at state last year in his weight class. Teammate Jalen Karber, 10, said he missed his friend.

"He's a good wrestler," Jalen said.

Tyler's 10-year-old sister, Amber Graebner, was practicing a double-leg takedown on another team member. Using her head, which was covered by protective gear, she shot into her opponent's legs.

"We were playing around, wrestling, rolling all over, and Tyler said we should get into wrestling," she said, explaining how the sport became a family activity.

Coming from El Dorado and Pratt, the 40 attendees each paid $10 to take part in the clinic.

Every dollar raised will help one of their own wrestle his toughest opponent.

'We're all pulling together for Tyler. I'm doing this because this is the right way to live.'