Kickin’ Cancer In the Grass

We, at The Daily Dwayne, are going to depart from the normal updates our readers have come to enjoy and boldly allow a non-English major (who studied geography of all things) to have his crack at the typewriter; his 15 seconds of fame if you will. That said, The Daily Dwayne is not responsible for any typos, misspellings, innuendos, plagiarism, or any other abominations and offenses of the English language that you may read below.

Hello Readers, my name is Greg and I would like to share with you some events from this past Saturday. But first, as with all my stories, let me not get straight to the point and back up a bit: When your boy has cancer, you find yourself thinking a lot about the science behind it all and the protocols that have been chosen for him. How did he get it? Why did he get it? What can be done to get rid of it? Are the team of doctors making all the correct decisions to give him the best possible long-term outcome? These questions and the search for the answers can become stressful at times so I occasionally need a release other than yelling at the TV during football games which everyone around here loves listening to. My release typically comes on Thursday nights and Sunday nights during my two soccer leagues. Soccer has been a pretty big part of my life since I was a kid playing AYSO but disappeared in early adulthood until a dear friend, Scott (pick one H. or W.), reintroduced me to it and I have been part of the adult recreational soccer community for quite a while now.

My two newest friends are on my Thursday night team, Mandy and Kelly. I have known these two sisters for a couple years now and have shared in some of their very close, personal experiences with cancer. They have gone through more than I could ever fathom and show a strength in character and attitude each day that is awe inspiring. I admire them so much. One of the weakest parts of my personality has always been asking for help when I need it. I am not good at it and it makes me feel weird to ask for help. But when help does come despite my typical “no, no, I’m fine” I always really appreciate it and actually feel pretty great that people around me care enough to offer it. A couple months ago Mandy decided she was going to take it upon herself to contact the folks that run our Thursday night league, tell them about Tate’s fight and see if they could arrange some kind of event that would benefit us. This turned into The Turkey Bowl, a small goal soccer charity tournament in which all the proceeds went to our family.

Mandy wasn’t finished there, however, and sent emails out to somewhere in the realm of 500 businesses both local and national looking for donations to support a charity raffle that she organized on the day of the tournament. This woman is gifted because the response she got was amazing and the gift certificates and gear came pouring in. We arrived early on Saturday and set up shop with her amazing band of helpers.

The whole day was just great; beautiful weather, friends everywhere, soccer balls flying this way and that. It was overwhelming how it made me feel and I really don’t have the words to express my gratitude to them and all the soccer pals that showed up.

Here is a team photo which includes Mandy, Kelly (front center) and the gang from my Thursday night team:

And a team photo of some of my Sunday night team featuring an epic photobomb by Ben Daniels also on my Sunday night team but playing with a different group on Saturday.

As the tournament champions (not either of my teams) were departing the field, another friend of mine named Jamie brought the trophy over to me and told me to give it to Tate. He told me that his dad is currently fighting cancer and that he wanted Tate to have it. When I got home, I found Tate hanging out in our room petting his cat. He was really happy to get a trophy. It was a great end to a great day.