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2006
HEART OF A CHAMPION
Sherwood Park Rams cornerback Matt Perry is gutting it out against the toughest opponent of all: cancer
When the metallic aftertaste of chemotherapy gagged him during conditioning runs that signal the end of every football practice, Matt Perry would finally stop moving.
Let cancer have this small victory, he'd think. And only this one, because Matt will give you the underneath stuff for a while, but he doesn't get beat deep.
He's the starting right cornerback for the Sherwood Park Rams, a wildly successful collection of kids aged 13 and 14. Coached by Jim Skitsko and a staff of dedicated volunteers, they're three-time defending provincial champions at the bantam level.
Bantam football player Matt Perry , 14, has endured chemotherapy and radiation treatments since being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease last May.
Their quest for a fourth title continues Sunday as they take on the Leduc Ticats in the city championship at Clark Park.
Matt, who is 14, has been a starter all season despite enduring a chemotherapy and radiation treatment schedule that would have stopped most people in their tracks. And before he even got to the football field, he was playing bantam A lacrosse, a physically taxing sport for even the healthiest kid in town.
"He'd be flat out in a bed for two to three hours on chemo," said Matt's mother Sue. "I'd take him home, feed him, he'd sleep in the car on the way to the arena and I'd say, 'Are you going to dress?' He'd say, 'I don't know.' 'Do you think you can play?' 'I don't know.' He'd walk in there and it was like angels would lift this kid up and he'd go out there and he was flying around. He just doesn't give up."
The competition and team dynamic has a positive effect on him. His worst days, other than those when he was throwing up from the chemo so often he couldn't attend school or football practice, were the days between the two sports when he had nobody to compete against and no teammates to hang with.
"Matt lives for sports. He always has," said Sue. "He's got the agility, he's got some speed. Biggest of all, Matt is heart. I don't know if he has ever played on a team where he didn't win the heart award. His (lacrosse) coach said if every player showed up every day like Matt we would be absolutely unstoppable."
His cancer, it turns out, is pretty determined as well. He was diagnosed last May with Hodgkin's Disease , lymphocyte predominant, stage 1A. It was, as the family likes to point out, the cream of the crap. His prospects were fabulous, a 90-per-cent survival rate. He started four months' worth of chemo treatments on the May long weekend and halfway through, the cancer was gone. More celebrating. Matt had beaten another opponent. Or so they thought.
"They put the shock on me when they said, 'You have cancer again,' " he remembered . " Well, I already beat it and only like five to 10 per cent relapse. Very rare. The nurse said they haven't seen one person relapse on Hodgkin's since she's been there. It was kind of hard for me when she said that."
Seventeen radiation treatments followed and now they just don't know if the cancer is gone. He's not due for another scan until January. While the initial news was devastating, the waiting is harder than they imagined.
"I thought, put it on the back shelf and wait until January," said Sue. "Well, I can't find the back shelf."
Cancer has been in the front of their minds since a teacher found a lump on Matt's neck at school and a biopsy later confirmed their worst fears.
"(A doctor) said it was Hodgkin's and I didn't react to it because I didn't know what Hodgkin's was," said Matt. "I didn't think it would be really serious. In the vehicle, when I asked my mom, 'What's Hodgkin's?' and she had some tears in her eyes, that's when I realized. I kind of broke down. It was really hard for me."
But the last six months have been an awakening, too.
"Fourteen-year-olds fight with their parents all the time and stretch the limits. Matthew does that. But I think there is an awareness of how fragile life is," said Sue.
"That we are to be grateful for everything. Matthew and I constantly talk about the gifts of cancer as well."
Like the support from the community, which has been phenomenal. The lacrosse team did a Kids With Cancer benefit. When Matt's brown, curly, hockey hair first started to come out in clumps, a side-effect of treatment, a friend and his father came over to the house to shave their heads in support. It was the day after Sue scuttled one of Matt's many moneymaking schemes.
"He said there are people at school who don't know I have cancer. If I bet them I could pull out a whole clump of hair for $5, do you think they would bet me?' I said, 'You sell your hair at school and you are dead meat. You can't be doing that.' He's always got an angle."
He's also got two loving and positive parents, two supportive brothers Ben and Alex, great friends, patient teachers and this incredible football team. He doesn't want to let them down and they think he's amazing.
"Everyone looks up to him as being a hero, pretty much," said quarterback Kyle Dunlop. "It's just the spirit he has. Every time he's on the field, you play hard for him. I hope that he someday gets over this. I think he will. That will make everybody look up to him for fighting through it and winning."
Two weeks ago the team started singing along with an old Journey tune before games and after practices. The tortured teenage sounds of Don't Stop Believing fill the air and it has as much to do with their faith in Matt as the belief they will win another title.
Four years ago Skitsko decided his team should support the Terry Fox Run and they raised $2,200. The next year it was more than $3,000, then $5,400. When cancer found its way into their own locker-room while tryouts were beginning, they decided to "March For Matt." Every kid and coach collected sponsorships and ran on a frigid Saturday afternoon in September. They raised $10,100 for cancer research.
"I said, 'You know what, guys, we don't have to look outside this locker-room to know what a hero is this year,' " Skitsko recalled.
"The boys love him and he loves the game. Matt Perry is a hero in this locker-room for what he's doing. He never complains. He never whines. He's the Timex of football, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. He's taken some big hits and, I'l l b e honest, in a game situation the first few times there's a pile, you're just holding your breath. But he's the first guy up."
Matt considers himself lucky that way, because a lot of kids in chemo and radiation are too weak for school or sports. So he makes the most of every moment he's on the field.
"I kind of play better, I think, in case something happens or I'm sick the next game," he said. "I'd want to make sure I played my best game."
If it was his last game. Those are the words they all don't want to say.
"It's about the worst thing in the world that could happen," said his father Buddy. "You wish it upon yourself if you could take it away from him. Cancer is indiscriminate. When your number is there it grabs you and you deal with it as a family."
Sometimes that family includes a handful of coaches, a bunch of parents and 44 other football players.
"Some of them just think I'm kind of a hero or a strong person who can fight through things and never give up," Matt said of his teammates.
"I think they think I have a good heart."
dbarnes@thejournal.canwest.com
Park Rams Alumni Receive Bursary Benefits
Once a Ram, always a Ram.
A lot of teams have similar mottos but the Sherwood Park Rams Bantam football club really seems to take the message to heart as they continue to help former players in the post-secondary educational pursuits. The Rams continued to dole out educational bursaries to graduated players, this season granting the wishes of eleven former players, the most in the history of the program. It is anticipated that each Rams bursary winner will be awarded between $800 and $900. Receiving bursaries this year are:
Omar Amer – Physical Education at Grant MacEwan.
Stephen Chase – Science at the U of A.
Trevor Ford – Arts at Grant MacEwan.
Kelly Grabill – Computer Technology at N.A.I.T.
Adam Joy – Engineering at the U of A.
Amber Kay – Police Studies at Simon Fraser University.
Cory Lakusta – General Studies at the U of A.
Levy Laseur – Heating and Air Conditioning at N.A.I.T.
Nathan Toonen – Education at Grant MacEwan.
Trevor Topilko – Carpentry at N.A.I.T.
Ryan Tucker – Engineering at the U of A.
This year marks the sixth year of the program. During this time a total of 40 bursaries have now been handed out by the team. The bursary program is designed to financially assist Rams alumni who are in a post secondary educational program of study.
“Because they are advancing themselves through education we want to help them,” said Bantam Rams head coach Jim Skitsko. “Football is fun-Education is forever, is our slogan. We all know it costs a lot to go to school at any level in the post secondary educational world. Our Rams parents and alumni offer all kinds of help with the Rams golf tournament which forms the financial basis of the bursary program. Without the hardworking Rams parents who help at the golf tournament each year, we would not be able to reach these goals of providing any player who applies and passes his year of studies with financial assistance.”
Last year was the most successful of the team's tournaments ever with 162 golfers present at Legends. This year's tournament will be held on June 22.
APRIL 7, 2006
The Sherwood Park Rams made 11 of their alumni very happy last week as they announced the awarding of bursaries to more of their post secondary student alumni.
"The bursary program was really the brainchild of the Rams 1998 executive" said the Bantam head coach Jim Skitsko. "Our motto is football is fun but education is forever. So with that in mind we tried to create a program to make the sport even more rewarding for the kids."
From there, it was decided that the local Bantam team would dole out a one time monetary award to former players that were enrolled in a full time post secondary educational program of studies in any post secondary institution.
"What makes this program unique is that it can be university, technical school, a college or an apprenticeship program and this year's recipients have really run the gamut," Skitsko said.
In the program's six year history, the Rams will have handed out a total of 40 bursaries by the time the June 22 golf tournament rolls around. It is this golf tournament that is used to fund the program."It is at the golf tournament organizational meetings each year that the parent's group become superstars at effort and enthusiasm" added Skitsko. This year's tournament is at Legends Golf Course on June 22. Interested golfers can call Joan Souster at 467-1038.
HIS YEAR'S Bursary RECIPIENTS:
Omar Amer- Physical Education- Grant MacEwan
Steve Chase- Science- University of Alberta
Trevor Ford- Arts- Grant MacEwan
Kelly Grabill-Computer Technology- N.A.I.T.
Adam Joy-Engineering- U of A
Amber Kay- Police Studies- Siomon Fraser University
Cory Lakusta- General Studies- U of A
Levi Laseur- Heating and Air Condidtioning- N.A.I.T.
Nathan Toonen- Education- Grant MacEwan
Trevor Topilko- Carpentry- N.A.I.T.
Ryan Tucker- Engineering- U of A