Yocum Has Different Perspective After Cancer Scare

If you’re a long snapper on the football team, you have a high level of pressure considering the small number of plays you’re in, and usually, the only way your name gets mentioned is when you mess up. South Carolina redshirt sophomore long snapper Gunnar Yocum has a different perspective after having a cancerous tumor removed and missing several months of high school.

“Oh yeah, you can’t take anything for granted,” said Yocum, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, who earned a spot as a walk-on three years ago. “I don’t worry about it now. It’s all gone. If it comes back, it’s God’s plan. There’s nothing I can do to control that.”

In February of 2021, Yocum had appendicitis and doctors found a neuroendocrine tumor.

“It’s a cancerous tumor,” Yocum said. “I was diagnosed with that my sophomore year of high school. I ended up having to withdraw from school to go through treatment. Then I ended up being able to come back from it. The tumor was in my appendix.

“It was really scary when they told me, but I had my family to fall back on. They assured me that everything was going to be alright.”

Yocum would go back for checkups every six months and had to repeat his sophomore year of high school after being out of class for several months.

“I don’t feel like I missed out on a lot, but it was a scary time because the cancer was so rare, especially with the age I was and where it was found,” Yocum said. “My doctors were from Iowa and out in Colorado because no one in South Carolina had seen it.”

Yocum played on the defensive side in high school and also found another way to get more snaps on the field.

“When I played JV in high school, our team needed a long snapper,” said Yocum, who is studying sport and entertainment management. “I went home and told my dad, so he took me out in the back yard and taught me how to do it. I’ve been doing it ever since.

“You just have to get him the ball, have a clean spiral, and put it in the right spot. That’s how you do your job. I had a coach tell me that with a name like Gunnar, you have to be a quarterback or a long snapper.”

He was never a quarterback, but he did also play linebacker in high school, so he’s comfortable with running down the field after the snap and trying to make a play. He did his job well enough to earn several walk-on offers and attend several camps at South Carolina and earned a chance to be a part of the Gamecocks.

When his playing days are done, Yocum wants to stay close to the game by becoming a coach.

“I love all phases of football,” Yocum said. “I’ll coach offensive line. I’ll coach defensive backs. I just want to be around the guys.”

For now, he’s just excited to be able to compete and looks forward to the start of the season at Williams-Brice Stadium.

“It’s unbelievable running out of that tunnel. It’s nuts!”