Faith, family, teammates helped UK player find his way back on field after cancer battle

Nov. 18--After the fans had stopped cheering and the band had stopped playing, there was Josh Paschal still signing autograph after autograph.

He signed everything that was put in front of him for a long time after Kentucky's 34-23 victory over Middle Tennessee at Kroger Field on Saturday.

It was the least he could do.

"The fans have supported me through everything and to be able to give back a little bit of what I can at that moment was just great," he said with a smile. "They lifted me up through all of this and gave me so many prayers and blessings."

The sophomore defender needed all of them as he spent his season battling cancer. He pointed out what he thought was a blister on the bottom of his foot to the UK training staff this summer.

Doctors removed the spot. When Paschal was going back in for a follow up, expecting to get the OK to start walking again soon, he was told another procedure was necessary, and that it was a malignant melanoma.

His mom and sister wrote scriptures and put them on the wall of his bedroom. That helped him get through the shock and worry.

"It was a lot of healing scriptures, too," Paschal said. "So whenever I felt down about it, I just looked up to my wall and just get my power from God."

It was that faith that got him through the worst of it. Paschal was baptized with a teammate this summer, just before he got the diagnosis.

"I felt like that was just God testing my faith," Paschal said. "Just my faith and believing in God's plan for me and not being so selfish with my plan and thinking everything should go my way. I just trusted in God."

He leaned on his family, his teammates and coaches. Like everyone else, Paschal said he felt inspired watching offensive line coach John Schlarman out on the field every day at practice "so juiced up and energetic" despite his own battle with cancer and ongoing chemotherapy treatments.

Paschal's treatment involves amino therapy taken intravenously every four weeks. He'll continue to get that through August, but said he's 100 percent healthy with a good prognosis.

Once his foot healed from the various procedures, Paschal was determined to get back on the field to finish out a special season with his Kentucky teammates.

The sophomore did that on Saturday in the win over Middle Tennessee. He was announced as a starter at outside linebacker. He recorded one tackle on a key third-down stop and heard the Kroger Field crowd roar around him.

"It meant a lot to me just because of where I was a couple months ago," he smiled.

It might have meant more to his coaches and teammates to see Paschal back out there on the field with them.

"That was the highlight of my year, seeing JP out there doing his thing," middle linebacker Kash Daniel said. "It's unbelievable."

Those outside the program knew the story, but they didn't see the little hurdles that Paschal had to get over to get to this place. But Daniel never saw it drag the sophomore down.

"He's always so positive about coming back, coming back," the junior said. "There's never a negative day that he had. That tells me something. The kid has a great attitude. ... Josh is an unbelievable guy. I'm honored to be his teammate."

And even though Paschal had spent the spring working at defensive line after a freshman season at outside linebacker, UK decided to keep him at linebacker for this game. It was a spot he knew and was comfortable with, and the Cats were shorthanded at that spot as well.

"We gave him the start just because we thought it was right and it was good," Coach Mark Stoops said. "It was inspiring to the team and fun, and we got off to a really good start."

Looking over and seeing Paschal back meant everything to his teammates, safety Mike Edwards said.

"He's a tough person on the field, off the field, so that's definitely fun seeing him go out there and make plays after what he went through, that's big."

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