Feb. 24--LOGAN -- Tyler Newbold didn't know what was wrong with him. Neither did his mother, Lynette. Neither did his father, Kelly.
All Newbold knew was that he was always thirsty. He was losing weight at an alarming pace, and he was always urinating. The fact that this was happening to his body was scary enough. The fact that he was 12 at the time made it even worse.
"I couldn't even go a car ride without having to stop and use a bathroom," Newbold said.
For Newbold, now a junior shooting guard at Utah State, the signs weren't good. They knew that something wasn't right. So he and his parents took a trip to the hospital, took some tests and awaited the results.
Newbold, a native of Payson, knew the diagnosis wasn't a good one the day his parents took him out of school so they could alert him of the test results. He had diabetes, type 1 diabetes, the kind where he would be insulin-dependent for the rest of his life.
As a 12-year-old, he was already athletic. Already beginning to show the signs of the Division I athlete that he's become. So with that diagnosis, there were a ton of questions. Would he be able to continue playing sports? Would he be able to live a normal life? Those were the two worries that stuck in his mind.
He already had an aversion to needles, so getting used to taking shots for the rest of his life took some doing. And mentally, getting used to his new routine
took trial and error.
"I remember leaving the hospital and starting to cry," Newbold said. "This was a very scary and intense moment in my life. I didn't know much about the disease. I didn't know how I was going to deal with it. It was scary knowing that I have to take shots for the rest of my life."
Ten years later, the answers to those questions are a resounding yes. But that's because, as Lynette Newbold put it, "Tyler defined the disease. He didn't let the disease define him."
From the beginning, Newbold took control of his own fate. He never let anyone administer the insulin shots. He demanded no special attention.
He didn't let anyone who didn't need to know what his condition was. He changed his diet, and he made sure that his life didn't change any more than it needed to.
"Tyler handled it like a pro," Lynette Newbold said. "He just went about his business. He played sports, he studied, he played with his friends and he did everything he needed to. He was determined not to rely on anyone else. That was a remarkable thing for a kid of his age at the time. I've always admired him for the way he handled things."
And it hasn't been easy. Having diabetes means forever monitoring your blood sugar level, forever pricking your finger, testing the blood to see how your body is reacting. When Newbold plays, the blood sugar goes down. To compensate, he has to make sure before he plays that his blood sugar is higher than normal. That may mean an extra candy bar. That may mean an extra bottle of Gatorade.
At halftime of games, while Stew Morrill is going over strategy, Newbold, in addition to focusing on the task at hand, is testing himself, making sure that he's healthy.
It's not an exact science for many people, but Newbold's turned it into one. He says that he can look at a plate of food and determine exactly how much insulin he needs to take to compensate for whatever he eats.
"Tyler's amazing," Morrill said. "He manages it so well that he's really no different than anyone else. He's never had an issue with his health. He doesn't want to be treated any differently and if you didn't know he had it, you couldn't tell with how he treats himself on a daily basis. If there was ever a poster boy for how to deal with something like that, he'd be the guy. He just goes about his business and lives his life."
Much of how Newbold is in his private life plays out on the court. Morrill once called him, "The ultimate glue guy,".
A three-year starter, Newbold does a bit of everything for an Aggie team heading into Thursday's road contest at Hawaii with a 12 game winning streak. He makes shots. He rebounds the ball. He and Pooh Williams combine to form the finest defensive perimeter tandem in the Western Athletic Conference and last season he led the nation in assists to turnover ratio.
"I try not to draw attention to myself," Newbold said. "But even if I wasn't diabetic, I think it's a big accomplishment where I am right now. It's a rewarding thing and I want to enjoy every minute of it."
tjones@sltrib.com
Tyler Newbold file
-- 6-foot-4 shooting guard
-- Three-year starter
-- 8.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 2.9 apg
-- Hit the game-winning shot last season against New Mexico State in the semifinals of the WAC tournament
Famous diabetics
-- Halle Berry, actress
-- Adam Morrison, L.A. Lakers
-- Nick Jonas, singer
-- Nick Boynton, hockey player
-- Dorian Gregory, actor
Utah State at Hawaii
Thursday, 10:05 p.m. MST
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