Serious illness put baseball in perspective for Henderson ace
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A year-and-a-half ago, in January of 2022, Henderson All-Stars pitcher Nolan Gifford and his family were battling COVID.
While other members of his family recovered, the same was not the case for Nolan.
He contracted Ulcerative Colitis after his bout with COVID. It is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes inflammation in the digestive tract and it’s a bear to deal with. It can be in remission, but it’s always there.
“He just never got better after (COVID),” Jena Gifford, Nolan’s mother, said. “We all had it as a family, but he just kept getting worse and worse and worse. He ended up getting so sick that he couldn’t play baseball, couldn’t leave the house, couldn’t do anything.”
Nolan lost near 20 pounds while trying to recover. He is homeschooled, meaning he could still focus on his studies. But it was difficult. His condition was misdiagnosed for months.
Mental toughness is key for any athlete and it’s the same with an accomplished Little Leaguer. Kids are a resilient bunch, but this was something far more serious than striking out or giving up a home run.
So, Jena said, Nolan went to see former major league player Chad Hermansen at Mental Edge Life Coaching, which works with athletes ages 10 and older to “regain their confidence, understand their anxieties and work through them.”
It helped. A lot.
How he would respond to his return to the competitive pressures of Little League is what most worried his parents, how the stress of a sport Nolan so dearly loves might cause a flare-up of the disease.
Say what you want about what values Little League stands for — and it’s still very much the same in several areas — there is pressure at this level of the game. There is pressure when you advance this far.
“Initially watching him was horrible as parents,” Jena said. “To have a child who is sick, you just want to take it from him. It was really hard. You don’t want him to suffer so much. We told him that he would get better and it would make him stronger as a person. He relied on prayer and his faith that he was going to be OK.”
Nolan would miss five months of baseball and yet gain a new perspective while doing so. He also learned to watch his diet. He also had a terrific supporting cast at home.
“He learned a lot from the adversity he’s had,” Ryan Gifford, Nolan’s father and the manager of the Henderson All-Stars, said. “He’s only 12 but it made him so mentally tough. He knows he has been through much harder things now than just a game. Now, he’s just out there playing.”
Jena talks about watching her son compete now, about how different things are than a year ago. Nolan is healthy and thriving, having pitched Henderson to the Little League World Series.
Henderson, whose players were given the day off Thursday to spend with their parents, plays again at 3 p.m. on Saturday. It needs a win to remain alive in the tournament.
Nolan was on the mound for the team’s opener Wednesday, a 3-1 loss to a team from Rhode Island. He went three innings, allowing one run while striking out eight and walking one. He didn’t have his best stuff and yet still allowed no hits.
“The (sickness) really messed with me,” Nolan said. “But then I realized this is just baseball. It’s just a game.”
Contact sports columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
