CORVALLIS — The ice cream man knew what to expect from Skyler Thomas.

From the time he was three years old, Thomas would run out of his family’s home in Menlo Park, California with his order ready. He insisted the driver wait for his mother, Tamica Garner, to come out with the money. The man complied.

“I don’t know if I’ve never seen a kid born with a chip on his shoulder, but he literally has always been this person,” Garner said. “Soft-spoken, sweetheart, always had a big heart, but always determining that if he said he was doing it, he was doing it.”

Thomas carried that determination into adulthood, eventually becoming a defensive captain for Oregon State football. Saturday is senior night for the Beavers, and Garner will join her son and the rest of the family on the field in cele

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