TAMPA, Fla. — When you’re an athlete, you work for these moments.

What You Need To Know

  •  Tucker Witte is a defensive lineman on the Jesuit Tigers football team.

  •  Tucker was diagnosed with cancer last spring and began chemotherapy treatments.

  •  He completed his final treatment the day before Jesuit's 2024 spring game and got to ring the bell, signifying the end of treatments.

The moments that make the sacrifices worth it. Where the countless hours on the practice field pay off.

Jesuit defensive lineman Tucker Witte knows all about hard work. It’s that work ethic that allows him to fully appreciate these moments.

“Excited to play this game with my brothers,” Tucker said.

The Jesuit bells rang loudly just as the team was preparing to kick off their spring football game. The bells that ring at the top of every hour. It’s a sound Tucker’s heard hundreds of times. But it’s a sound that rings differently now.

“It means a little bit more after going through what I did,” Tucker said.

That’s because Tucker rang a different bell, a moment that was a year in the making. A year after Tucker found out he had cancer. This time last year, what started as a shiner at spring practice, turned into a lesion that would not go away. Doctors discovered a five-and-a-half-inch tumor between his brain and his eye. Tucker soon began chemotherapy treatments, sometimes painful.

“His story is very powerful and moving so I hope that folks can look at him as a source of inspiration,” said Dr. Trisha Larkin, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology.

His background as an athlete definitely helped in his journey. And a day before Jesuit’s spring game, Tucker received his final treatment. Then he got to do something all cancer patients dream of — ring that bell.

Afterward, there were plenty of hugs to go around. For his family and friends and teammates who showed up to lend their support. And for the nurses and doctors who treated him. They helped make up Team Tucker and got him back onto the football field.

The spring game against two-time defending state champion Lakeland had been circled on Tucker’s calendar for quite a while. There was a time when he didn’t know if he would make it to the game. Times during his treatment, when the pain almost proved to be too much. But Tucker had faith.

“It really was a big moment tonight to slip on the jersey being officially cancer free,” Tucker said.

Jesuit lost the game to Lakeland, 37-3. But for Tucker, the score didn’t matter. What took place on that football field was bigger than the game.

“Just to be out here with my brothers that supported me all the way through, didn’t give up,” he said. “It meant a lot to be out there side by side. Win or lose, we played our hearts out. It was a total team effort.”