Thankful for a chance to play

Leopold senior Dustin Thiele didn't know if he'd ever get the chance to play in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament at the Show Me Center.

He wishes he had a better explanation for his absence the last two years.

"Bad luck," Thiele said Saturday after Leopold's 64-53 quarterfinal loss to Jackson. "That's what I call it. I don't know."

A couple of years ago, Thiele thought he had a pimple on the side of his face by his eye.

That was until his eye swelled shut.

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.comLeopold senior Dustin Thiele works for a shot during Friday's game against Oran at the Show Me Center.

After a trip to the emergency room, a failed round of medication and a couple of doctors' appointments, Thiele was told he had a staph infection.

Thiele, a sophomore at the time, wasn't sure what the diagnosis meant.

"I had no clue," he said. "I was kind of confused. I didn't know what was going on."

After the area was lanced and the infection drained, Thiele spent a week at home using soap prescribed by the doctor and taking "oodles and gobs of pills."

It was a painful ordeal -- he describes it as an intense pinch that wouldn't go away -- and one that Thiele has had to go through time and time again.

"It kept coming back. I've had it, I think, seven or eight times now," he said.

And he said there's no way for him to know when or if it will come again.

"It'll come, I'll go to the doctor, get it fixed and a week later I'm as good as new," Thiele said.

Thiele has not had a serious form of staph that required hospitalization, and since his last outbreak, he began taking a prescription hoping to stave off future infections.

According to him, staph is present in every person's nose, but the infection only presents itself to some people. There is no trigger or cause that he or his doctors are aware of.

"I've had it on my finger, on my stomach and I think I had one on my lip one time -- just random places it just pops up," Thiele said.

It popped up on his finger just before last year's Christmas Tournament.

Because there is a chance he could spread the infection to others, Thiele was forced to sit on the bench last year and helplessly watch as Leopold, the No. 9 seed, was eliminated by the tournament's bottom seed in the consolation quarterfinals.

This year, Thiele stepped onto the Show Me Center's court for the first time and scored 14 points in helping Leopold win its first tournament game in more than a decade and improve its record to 6-0.

"I was pretty nervous and excited all at the same time, and happy," Thiele said. "I've always wanted to play here, and I finally get my chance to. Last year, I was pretty upset about it, especially watching us lose to Delta."

While the Wildcats were not able to upset third-seeded Jackson on Saturday night, Thiele got his moment in the spotlight.

As the clock ran down at the end of the first quarter, Thiele launched a shot from beyond half court and listened to the crowd erupt as the ball fell through the basket, pulling his team within one point of the defending champion Indians.

This was one event the 6-foot-2 guard didn't mind not being able to explain.

"That was goofy and good luck at the same time," he said. "I don't really know."