Jan. 23, 2005, 4:48PM

Westfield DB won't let even MS put end to dreams

• Photo gallery: Top recruits • The list: Top 100 recruits

Kim Christensen / Chronicle Neither a knee injury nor multiple sclerosis has stopped Westfield's Robert Kibble from his dream of playing college football. UCLA has stood by its scholarship offer, and Kibble hopes to make it official on national signing day (Feb. 2).

He committed to play football at UCLA. His team made it to the state final. His daughter was born last fall. And he's one of five finalists for the Watkins Award, presented annually to African-American scholar-athletes.

It doesn't seem to bother him that his playing time was limited by a knee injury and his world was forever changed when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in August.

"If you asked me a month ago, I might have answered differently," Kibble said. "Life changes. This makes me a better, stronger person. After these past few months, I can handle anything."

If a person is defined by how he reacts to the things that happen to him and not what happens, Kibble is more of a man than his 18 years would indicate. With his world changing, Kibble hasn't faltered.

"I admire him for how he handled the whole situation," Westfield coach Corby Meekins said. "Robert's very disciplined. He's very serious. He's taken everything that's happened in stride. He's like, 'This happened; this is what I need to do, and that's what needs to be done.' "

Kibble was — and is — a picture of health. He started his senior season in the best condition of his life.

He had no recruiting worries since he had committed to UCLA over the summer. His concerns were preparing for the birth of his child, making the most of his senior football season and keeping up his 3.7 grade-point average.

All that changed on Aug. 27, when he was diagnosed with MS — an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system.

During two-a-day practices, Kibble experienced numbness in his right foot. He mentioned it but wrote it off to poor circulation.

"I thought I tied my shoelaces too tight," Kibble said.

When the numbness moved up his leg, he sought more advice — an MRI and blood tests. He tried to continue, though his hands were swollen and he felt numb from neck to toe, making it hard to breathe. When the test results came back, he was told to go to Tomball Medical Center.

"I knew it was bad when they told me to go straight to the hospital," Kibble said.

The rush to the emergency room was the beginning of an anxious week in the hospital.

Kibble was quickly diagnosed with MS, but it took another 48 hours to find out more details. An MRI showed Kibble had three lesions on his brain and one on his spinal cord. Each lesion affects the nerves' ability to conduct electrical impulses to and from the brain, producing the symptoms of MS.

The MRI painted a bleak picture. But by the end of that week, he found a little relief in knowing he could still play football.

"You heard of MS and you know the bad side effects," Meekins said. "Here's a guy in the best condition of his life and you don't know what's going to happen."

Living with MS

"It scared me real bad," Kibble said."The hardest thing was thinking I couldn't do all the things I'd been doing."

There are four courses of MS: relapsing-remitting characteristics; primary-progressive characteristics; secondary-progressive characteristics; and progressive-relapsing characteristics.

•Relapsing-remitting affects 85 percent of MS sufferers. There are "flareups," but periods of remission with no symptoms.
•Primary-progressive involves a slow but continuing progression of the disease and affects 10 percent of MS victims.
•Secondary-progressive affects 50 percent of MS patients. There is an initial period of relapsing-remitting disease, followed by a steadily worsening disease course.
•Five percent of MS patients experience progressive-relapsing characteristics. This is a steady worsening of the disease with clear acute relapses.
Kibble, 18, has one of the "mildest" forms in relapsing-remitting characteristics. The condition is controllable through medication.

He injects medicine in his thigh three times a week. The medicine has a side effect of flu-like symptoms ranging from nausea and chills to headaches.

Except for an extreme reaction the first time he took the medicine — sending him back to the emergency room — life has become routine for Kibble. He can take the medicine at night and sleep through most side effects, which are similar to a common cold.

Memorable senior season

He was drained from the treatment and said it took him several weeks to get close to full speed. Meekins kept a watchful eye on Kibble — especially in practice. Hydration and keeping the body temperature cool are important points for MS sufferers.

"It was as scary as I don't know what," Meekins said of Kibble's return to the field. He wasn't in any specific danger, but that didn't stop either Meekins or Kibble's mother, Joyce Webb, from worrying.

MS didn't slow Kibble's season as much as his knee, which was surgically repaired as a sophomore. A meniscus tear kept Kibble out of the starting lineup but not off the field. Kibble put off the "cleanup" arthoscopic surgery until after the season.

He did so to keep playing — as a backup.

"I was very much a part of the team," Kibble said. "I was a natural leader. I just had to do it more on the sideline. We made it the farthest in school history. It was a great year."

No stopping

"I was determined to beat it," he said. "I didn't want that to be the end of it."

Kibble has a strong network of friends and family who helped him. Whether it was his family, friends, doctors, coaches or other school administrators, Kibble had someone to turn to.

He had the desire to keep all his dreams alive — whether playing in the NFL or becoming an orthopedic surgeon — and he got plenty of encouragement.

While the most prevalent images of MS are of people in the latter stages, like comedian Richard Pryor, Kibble soon learned more more positive images.

"It kind of amazes me," his mother said. "Robert is a strong-willed person. Not much is going to get him down. It's amazing that at his age, the acceptance to deal with this."

In an informal survey of major NCAA Division I conferences, there are only a few current student-athletes known to have MS. Delaware's Julia Shapiro is a three-year letter winner in tennis. Bowling Green senior goaltender Jordan Sigalet is playing in his second hockey season since being diagnosed.

Football examples include Michel Dupuis, a linebacker who played in the CFL, and Khiawatha Downey, an offensive lineman who finished his eligibility at Indiana University (of (Pa.) in 2003 and had a brief stint at the 49ers training camp.

"It can be done," Kibble said. "I don't expect that's (MS) one of the things that will limit my success."