I dont really tell anyone about it, Pima Basketball guard Daniel Ortiz says, brushing off the kind of story most people would find to be a pretty big deal."

But the Pima Community College freshman has a barely noticeable scarand a pastthat speaks louder than he ever will.

It started in seventh grade. Something didnt look right. I was still living life. I wasnt worried about it, Ortiz remembers. Inside his right cheek, a giant mass was growing. To him, it was invisibleuntil others noticed. I didnt realize it until people pointed it out, he says. A big golf ball growing on the side of my face.Doctors first thought it was a cyst. It wasnt. It was secretory carcinoma of the parotid glanda rare salivary gland tumor.

The operation was longnearly six hours. They had to take a whole chunk of my

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