Benny Bautista, SPS senior and wrestling team captain, has always lived with a “take life one day at a time” mindset, a trait his closest friends and teammates have long admired about him.
It was this approach to his daily routine that got him through difficult meets, intense exams, hard days and boring classes — but in the summer leading up to his senior year of college, Bautista suffered a seizure. He thought he was okay, but agreed to some routine medical tests at his parents’ insistence. The impending diagnosis was not what he was expecting, nor what anyone wanted to hear.
In January, Bautista was diagnosed with grade 3 oligodendroglioma, a rare and cancerous brain tumor.
“I was in the hospital for 10 days,” Bautista said, recounting his biopsy earlier this year. “They did tests on me but couldn’t find anything. Then we went to the neurosurgeon, and that’s when she found out that this may be a tumor.”
The doctors had initially diagnosed Bautista with a parasite in his brain, leading his friends, teammates and himself to believe that he would get back onto the wrestling mat quickly. However, as medication wasn’t improving symptoms, he underwent more tests and eventually found the tumor.
“It was a shock to everyone,” Danny Lightfoot, Bautista’s roommate, teammate and best friend, told WSN. “I don’t think anyone understood the severity of the situation.”
Wrestling has always been a defining part of Bautista’s life, with the period following his diagnosis marking the first time he has stopped since fourth grade. His little brother, a junior in high school, also wrestles, and Bautista has been helping coach him through the college recruitment process.
Although Bautista was upset at the time of the seizure — it led to bothersome doctor’s appointments, time away from the mat and worried his loved ones — he said the oligodendroglioma diagnosis made him grateful for the initial seizure, and that he has been relying on his faith to assure him that this is part of God’s plan.
“We wouldn’t have known that I had this diagnosis,” Bautista said. “So it was a blessing in disguise. I was completely healthy, no symptoms or anything.”
Bautista underwent surgery to remove most of the tumor in January, followed by six weeks of radiation therapy. Lightfoot and other team members have been visiting him in his childhood home in New Jersey throughout this process, keeping him company and adding some normalcy to this period of uncertainty.
“Me and all these guys love this kid,” said head wrestling coach Bruce Haberli, who visited Bautista in New Jersey. “We would all do anything for him. You know, me, all my coaches, everybody feels that way. Within a couple weeks of him going through his start, I went over there on a Sunday night to find, like, 15 wrestlers with him.”
Both from the town of Montvale, Bautista had always been on Haberli’s radar, right from the beginning of the college scouting process in high school.
“He was very successful,” Haberli told WSN. “He was a good student, and in every way, he was a match for NYU. Win, lose or draw, he was just a respectful, nice kid, and that’s what you want. You want a kid who’s motivated and wants to be successful — but ultimately, a good citizen, a good person.”
While NYU has been a great fit for Bautista, Haberli believes he would have clicked with anyone, anywhere. Between his work ethic and emotional maturity, Haberli — and Bautista’s friends — admire the genuine person he is and consider themselves lucky to know him.
“Even before he got sick, you wouldn’t hear anything different from anyone,” Haberli said. “He was just respectful and friendly and kind to everybody. He’s above his years, he’s not your typical college kid. He’s somebody that I think any coach would want on a team — and he’s also a guy that athletes want to emulate. He just molds himself to wherever he is, whether it be friends, whether it be the city, whether it be wrestling. Everything seems like a comfort zone for him.”
As captain, Bautista has taken a lead-by-example approach, being a star student and wrestler that his teammates can look up to and try to mirror. He is an active member of NYU’s chapter of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a group of athletes dedicated to offering opportunities for all student-athletes at NYU to take part in university and community service events.
Bautista’s co-captain, Finn Eskeland, said the diagnosis and aftermath of the seizure has been a time of reflection for many of the wrestlers. As team members watch Bautista tackle challenges of adversity, Eskeland said they noticed that this hasn’t changed Bautista’s outlook on life, but rather affirmed his uplifting and positive personality.
“When you have a situation like this, you have to face ideas of mortality much earlier than is normal for people,” Eskeland said. “Seeing Benny and his approach to this and how he’s handled it has really inspired me as well. He doesn’t just think on the upside of things, he acts on it.”
Bautista’s method of acting on the positives also bleeds into his leadership style. He has taken a kind of older brother-approach to captaining his team, and friends, teammates and even coaches aspire to be more like him. Eskeland and Lightfoot said Bautista is always the first one to pull a prank and lighten the mood, give his friends a hug on a hard day or just be a listening ear when they need it. Lightfoot said Bautista’s resilience can in part be attributed to the sport he grew up with.
“He’s always had this great outlook on life,” Lightfoot said. “He’s generally very good at seeing the bright side of things. Wrestling has definitely helped him build confidence and the ability to see the good things to come in the future.”
Oligodendroglioma typically impacts older adults and has varying prognoses. Bautista has the most severe grade of the tumor — a type of malignant growth that is constantly subjected to thorough research. Studies have found that around 35% of adults live five years or more following a high-grade diagnosis, but this figure can be as high as 76%, and it is unclear how Bautista will respond to the rest of his treatments.
“Benny’s very pragmatic and very selfless,” Lightfoot said. “He has told me he’s scared and starting to feel a little bit worried about it, but he definitely doesn’t want to worry other people and is genuinely handling it well. He’s a better man than I am.”
Since his diagnosis in January, the wrestling team, athletics department and greater NYU community have rallied behind Bautista — a GoFundMe campaign spearheaded by a teammate’s mom has raised nearly $120,000 with well over 1,000 donations. The outpouring of support has been a shock to his family, but highlights Bautista’s respected character and impact on every life he’s touched with his own. His high school wrestling team designed and wore shirts with the phrase “For Benny” at meets, and he was able to come to the Violets’ senior day ceremony to be honored with his teammates after his diagnosis.
“We finished out the season, but it’s not the same without Benny,” Lightfoot said. “He’s comedic relief, he always puts a smile on everyone’s face. Wrestling is a very demanding sport, and without him in the room, it’s not the same. But at the same time, it’s motivation to keep pushing, because that’s what he would have wanted.”
Bautista’s next steps include graduating from NYU with a degree in real estate and minor in business studies alongside his friends, roommates and teammates — and then beginning chemotherapy. He knows the process will be mentally and physically grueling, but is already looking forward to getting his next apartment and a job in New York City.
“I genuinely think that I’m gonna beat it,” Bautista said. “This is just like another wrestling match. But another part of me is like, I genuinely don’t want to worry anybody and or make anybody worry about me. So, I’m just getting through it, just fighting the best that I can, and keeping a positive outlook.”
Contact Sidney Snider at [email protected]
