DUNEDIN — Dunedin High baseball is heading to states.

“It’s been a grind, we’ve learned from it,” head coach Ron Sexton said. “I certainly feel like we’re battle-tested.”

It has been a season filled with adversity, but a new member on their team has taught them how to handle it.

Senior Tyler Nolan, also known as Tyno, is the Falcons assistant manager.

"I’m on and off the field, I’m either in the dugout, or out and about wandering about some,” Nolan said. "Then I come out, talk to them, I watch the game from different angles.”

He’s there for every practice and game.

"It’s been a lot of fun to have him out because there have been practices where it might get a little stale, it might get a little slow and he’s always the fireball in the dugout,” said senior shortstop Ray Sass.

Nolan knows how crucial it is to have the right mindset in the game of baseball and life. He was born with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system. It can cause tumors to grow throughout the body.

At 10 years old, Nolan has his first major surgery for fluid on the brain. Then this year, symptoms became worse.

"It became more vomiting and stuff,” Nolan explained. “So my dad took me in to see what was going on.”

Doctors discovered a tumor in the middle of his brain.

"Had to go in for surgery and then, a couple weeks went by, we were told that it’s bigger and chemo is going to start and then another surgery happened,” Nolan said.

Just weeks after surgery, he was back on the field.

"There are always things that you take for granted,” Sass said. "He’s out here going through surgery, going through chemo now, he’s still out here with a smile, he’s excited to be here.”

It has given the Falcons a new perspective.  

"We’ll see him come in a day after chemo with more energy than some of our guys and I think it’s a great check for all of us to go, look, I need to pick up the pace a little bit.”

Nolan has 18 months of chemotherapy, but it hasn’t stopped him from doing what he loves most.

"I probably get more motivation from the guys than I do anything else,” Nolan said.

The Falcons say Tyno is the one who inspires them.

“He brings energy — honestly, everything to be honest,” senior third baseman Lake Fisher said. "We love him so much. He’s definitely a big part of our team. We’re definitely doing this for him.”

He’s given them a reason to play a little harder, along with a lesson that goes far beyond the diamond.

"He has just been a godsend to our team during a season where we’ve had so much adversity, what a great godsend to have somebody that kind of taught us perspective,” Sexton said. "There are so many bigger things than a win or a loss or a strikeout or a bad day on the baseball field. It’s a young man whose lessons will continue for years and years to come.”