Lincoln wide receiver Hanif Gates overcame cancer and learned to fight: ‘I can push through anything’

Hanif Gates recognized the concerned look on his father’s face, but a cancer diagnosis wasn’t exactly what the 15-year-old expected.

Gates, now 16 and a junior receiver at Lincoln High School, was about to be a sophomore in the summer of 2020 when his father, Shavaha, summoned him, interrupting Gates’ game of catch on the sideline at his little brother’s football practice.

Shavaha Gates, 48, considers himself a confident person and instilled similar self-belief in his son, so he didn’t hesitate to relay what doctors had just called to confirm.

Hanif Gates had Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“That’s when we started going down the rabbit hole, for real,” Shavaha Gates said in a phone interview.

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Before the journey began in earnest, however, Gates, in a move that now seems emblematic of his quest to not let cancer keep him from football, went right back to the game he loves.

“He went right back to throwing the football with his friends,” his father said of his son’s immediate reaction. “He really took it on the chin, man.”

Now, Gates, who was recently a guest of the Eagles and met first lady Jill Biden at Lincoln Financial Field, is cancer-free, supported by various villages, and is a contributor to a talented Lincoln offense bound for the playoffs. He also hopes sharing his story will inspire other kids, especially one in particular.

Well before tests confirmed the diagnosis, doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had already explained that chemotherapy might be necessary.

Still, Gates wasn’t quite sure what to expect when his father drove him to his first treatment a few weeks before his sophomore year began.

Earlier that summer, he had noticed a lump on the left side of his chest near his collarbone. Gates figured at first it was a football-related injury, so he waited a week or two for it to resolve. But when it began to throb, he showed his father, who said he didn’t hesitate to have his son see a doctor.

Gates said he had mostly positive thoughts on the drive to his first round of chemo. A port that would deliver the medicine had already been inserted in his chest, so after he checked in and went through pre-treatment protocols, he was allowed to eat.

The meal, however, a Halal platter with chicken and rice, turned out to be a rental that didn’t taste nearly as good in reverse once the chemo’s trademark side effects took hold later.

“Yeah,” Gates said through laughter, “I haven’t been able to eat that jawn since.”

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Nausea and vomiting took a toll. The lump on his chest also grew more painful as, Gates believed, the medicine attacked the cancer.

The plan called for six months of chemo every other Wednesday.

“That had me real down because I was in the house throwing up,” Gates said. “I was nauseous. I was in my bed for like two, three days at a time, couldn’t get up, just feeling bad. Bad, bad days.”

As each treatment Wednesday approached, Gates said, he could feel his body growing more nauseous. He said doctors eventually prescribed nausea medication that he took well before treatments even began.

Tired because he couldn’t sleep, weak because he couldn’t eat, Gates found strength when he saw the concerned faces of his father and older sister.

“They mean a lot to me because they understand me the best and I can express myself to them,” he said. “My dad plays a huge rule in my life, so I had to push for him and my sister because I saw how sad they were.”

After the first few treatments, Gates said, the lump on his chest disappeared. The nausea remained, but after about three months, sometimes he’d recover by Friday afternoon and attend school.

His hair also fell out. That was among the most difficult parts for his father and sister to witness.

“If anybody knows Hanif,” said his 28-year-old sister, De’Shae Gates, “they know he loves his waves. He loves his hair. He has curly, like, pretty hair.”

His father never noticed any cracks in his son’s resolve, “and I was looking,” Shavaha Gates said. But he felt the pain when he finally had to shave his son’s head.

“He’s a very handsome guy, so I know that was hard for him,” the elder Gates said. “But he sucked it up. He had a lot of support from his friends.”

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Doctors believed his son’s cancer was likely gone after three months, but Shavaha Gates said another three months of chemo were necessary to increase the likelihood that it wouldn’t return.

In March last year, Gates, surrounded by family and friends, rang the bell inside CHOP, symbolizing the end of his cancer journey.

“It was a beautiful thing,” Shavaha Gates said. “I told him, you’ve got a story to tell, so don’t be afraid to tell your story because you could help somebody.”

When he returned to school at Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter, a surprise parade awaited. Gates walked the halls as each classroom cheered his return.

“I think about it like almost every day,” Gates said. “Like, I really had cancer, and I beat it. So what am I going to do next?”

Before his cancer diagnosis derailed his sophomore season, Gates said, he had decided to transfer from Sankofa to Lincoln. He had already gotten to know the Railsplitters coach, Hakeem Cooper, through youth football.

For the sake of ease during his cancer treatment, though, Gates stayed at Sankofa, which has a cooperative sponsorship with Frankford High School, where Gates played football as a freshman.

During his cancer treatment as a sophomore, however, he would sometimes attend Lincoln football practices.

Cooper, now in his third season as Lincoln’s coach, said he mostly counseled Gates on the mental aspects of the game. He also just wanted the youngster to know he was supported.

Cooper knew the message was received when he got word that Gates wanted members of the Lincoln coaching staff to attend the bell-ringing ceremony at CHOP.

“It was one of those moments where you don’t realize how important something is until it happens,” Cooper said. “I realized how much it meant to him to know that he had others in addition to his family that had his back.”

With treatment in his rearview mirror, Gates got back to football as soon as possible. He worked hard all spring, got stronger, got faster.

Then after all of that work, he broke his thumb in June and had to wear a cast for a month. Cooper assumed Gates would be devastated by the setback. But Gates, a 5-foot-10, 150-pounder, still showed up nearly every day for conditioning.

“He just wouldn’t sit down,” Cooper said. “He wouldn’t just sit and watch. He was out there catching the ball with one hand.”

“My one-hand catch [ability] is crazy now,” Gates said, laughing.

It took two hands to make his first varsity touchdown catch this season. The score came in his first regular-season action, Sept. 9 against Mastery North Charter. Gates made a diving catch that forced him to land on his chest.

There was no pain, just elation. He was still focused on the game and wanted to get ready for the next play. But afterward, he reflected on all that he had been through.

“I learned that I’m a fighter,” he said. “If I can push through all of that, I can push through anything.”

He hopes his teammate at Lincoln, Syeer “Sasa” Smith, who is undergoing his own chemotherapy treatments for cancer, draws strength from his journey.

Smith, who is a senior, was also a guest of the Eagles when the team hosted the Cowboys Oct. 16. Gates said Smith, however, did not feel well enough to be on the field.

At Lincoln’s last regular-season game, last week against Central, the Railsplitters wore purple in Smith’s honor and displayed his No. 3 jersey prominently before, during, and after the game.

“I just want to tell him that I love him,” Gates said. “I would tell him, ‘Keep fighting. Just keep fighting.’”