'12 OH OL Ryan Anderson

[wadc45]

Free BN - 'I'm Going To Get Through This'

The date? Monday, April 4, 2011.

The time? 9:30 a.m.

The place? St. Thomas Hospital in Akron.

The verdict? Bone cancer - again.

"It was gut-wrenching," John Nemec said. "If this were the first time out you'd just say 'Ahh, we're going to beat this.' But we know what can happen. I was breathless."

Nemec coaches football at Roosevelt High School in Kent. He's 65 years old and has spent 30 of those as a head coach. He's a talkative, entertaining, fatherly figure whose won his share of games over the course of a storied career. There's one loss in particular however that sticks with Nemec and the entire Roosevelt community. The reminder is a bronze statute that sits prominently inside Rough Rider Stadium.

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[Scarlet&GreyFvr]

This is aweful news. I can't imagine how his parents feel at this point. Thoughts and prayers go out to Ryan and his family.

 

[starBUCKS]

A nice gesture in the above story...

call to longtime friend and current Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman ensued. Bollman relayed the message to Tressel who quickly followed up.
?I said ?Jim, I?m very emotional right now and I?m reaching out,?? Nemec said. ?I told him (Ryan had) gotten 20 letters a day from colleges and that, ?They?re going to stop abruptly. I gotta get something very positive and inspiring to him. I don?t know what you can do or what your limits are but I need some help.?
?Tressel said, ?John, just go hug Ryan.??
Days later, Anderson received a package addressed to him with over 100 hand-written letters from the entire Ohio State football program ? coaches and players combined. Nemec made Anderson promise to read every one.
?The impact of getting over 100 letters from Ohio State was more meaningful than I think anyone will ever know,? Nemec said. ?It just shows you the quality of leadership that the Ohio State football program has. Ohio State has a coach that gets it. (Tressel) understands.?

 

[Buckskin86]

Kent Roosevelt junior Ryan Anderson loses football to cancer but aims to win health fight
Published: Friday, April 22, 2011
By Tim Rogers, The Plain Dealer

Scott Shaw, The Plain Dealer
Earlier this month, Kent Roosevelt junior Ryan Anderson's football career came to an end when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, in his right leg.

KENT, Ohio -- Ryan Anderson has never asked why.

He has never wondered how this could have happened. He has never cursed his bad luck. He has never pulled the woe-is-me card.

"That wouldn't be Ryan's style," Kent Roosevelt football coach John Nemec said. "He's just not that type of kid."

So, what did Anderson do April 4 when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, and was told his blossoming football career was over?

"He told me he wanted to make sure his mom and dad were all right," Nemec said.

Cont...

http://www.cleveland.com/hssports/blog/index.ssf/2011/04/kent_roosevelt_junior_ryan_and.html

 

[tonystarx]

A nice gesture in the above story...

And yet everywhere you turn JT is being painted as a villain due to recent events. None of the major sports media outlets outside of Ohio would dare publish a story like this right now because it shows the true character that Tressel has always displayed. I loved reading this story and will be praying for Ryan and his family.

 

[Buckskin86]

A junior offensive guard at Kent Roosevelt High, and a college football prospect, is keeping his and others' spirits up after his world is shaken up by a pain in his knee
Rough Rider fights battle with cancer on his terms
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published on Sunday, May 15, 2011

Rachel Rosche fixes the hair of her boyfriend Ryan Anderson before posing for official prom photographs at Kent Roosevelt High School. Ryan, a nationally ranked offensive guard for the Kent Roosevelt Rough Riders football team was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in his right leg in April. (Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal)

He's the one with the malignant tumor at the end of his right femur that will require surgery, costing him a major college football scholarship.

He's the one with the port in his abdomen that will carry the toxic chemotherapy drugs that will wrack his 6-foot-31/2, 328-pound body for nearly a year.

He's the one who started losing his hair barely a month after his diagnosis, prompting him to pull out a tuft almost playfully last Tuesday knowing there will soon be nothing left to pull.

Yet he is their crutch.

For his parents. For his coach. For his girlfriend. For his Kent Roosevelt High School teammates.

Ryan Anderson, a 17-year-old junior offensive guard, is the one carrying them through this crisis.

''When he found out, the first thing he asked for was his mom and I, to make sure we were OK,'' said his father, Jim Anderson. ''He could tell on our faces it was bad news, and he said he accepted it.

''He told the coach, 'Tell the team I'll be back soon. I've got to take care of them.' He's their leader, he's their crutch. They call him 'The Big King.' It's almost like he's like their protector.''

Not everyone in college football has forgotten Ryan Anderson.

Nemec contacted Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who had each of his players and coaches write postcards to Anderson.

''Mary and I read 'em all. There were some fantastic, inspirational notes on there,'' Nemec said. ''A lot of college coaches have called and have called back to check on his progress.''

http://www.ohio.com/sports/121849868.html

 

[wadc45]

GALLERY: Kent Roosevelt's Ryan Anderson stands up to cancer

By Sara Welch | Correspondent

The sign on his front door requests that each visitor pause inside the entrance to use the instant hand sanitizer located on the wall to the left in order to ensure his safety. It is an immediate realization that hits after entering that he is sick and recovering.

Ryan Anderson's promising football career ended rather abruptly when he found out he had a rare form of bone cancer in April.

He experienced discomfort in his right leg during track practice last March, which prompted him to get an X-ray. Following the X-ray that revealed a mass on his femur and a biopsy that confirmed the tumor was cancerous, Anderson began his treatment.

He has undergone two rounds of chemotherapy so far. Each round lasted five weeks beginning with a week of treatment, followed by two weeks of rest and ending with two consecutive weeks of treatment.

After his first two cycles of chemo were finished Anderson had surgery to remove the tumor in his femur. The surgery was performed on July 11. The doctors were able to remove the entire tumor, taking with it 14 centimeters of his femur.

The first part of the surgery involved excising the tumor and it took an hour and a half to complete. In the second half of the surgery, the doctors put a hinged replacement rod into his leg connecting his femur to his tibia. This also took an hour and a half to complete. Although it took him longer than anticipated to recover, the surgery was deemed a success.

"Ryan's doctor was very happy with how the entire surgery went," his mother Sharon Zurbrugg said.

The days leading up to his surgery were long and tiresome. He was nervous and all the "what ifs" ran through his mind over and over, he said.

"I was thinking, 'What if something goes wrong, what if they can't replace my femur so they have to cut my whole leg off, what if I don't wake up, what if I die because I lose too much blood'," he said. "I just kept thinking about things like that."

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[Buckskin86]

Ryan Anderson
Position:Offensive Tackle
School:Theodore Roosevelt High
Location:Kent, Ohio
Height:6-4
Weight:325
Class:Senior
Season Highlights:

A former nationally coveted offensive lineman, Ryan Anderson was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in April. Though it ended his football career, his impact has only gotten stronger. He was named team captain and one of 12 finalists for the 2011 Inspireum Football Award.
Read More Below

Posted: Thursday January 12, 2012

Ryan Anderson had the entire world at his fingertips.

Last March, Anderson was a nationally ranked offensive guard finishing his junior year at Theodore Roosevelt High (Ohio). He held offers to Pittsburgh, Boston College and Indiana, among others, and was attracting interest from Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame.

"My red carpet was laid out for me," he said. "My dreams were there."

Then, in April, he started to feel "sharp pains" in his right knee during track practice. At first, he thought nothing of it. Anderson was 325 pounds and hadn't run all winter -- he was bound to feel some discomfort.

But the pain didn't go away, so Anderson visited team physician Nilesh Shah. Shah ordered an X-ray, MRI and CAT scan, and the results were shocking: The tests revealed a tumor the size of a golf ball in Anderson's knee.

Anderson was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. His promising football career was over.

"On the fourth of April I got a biopsy and it came out cancerous," Anderson said. "Within a couple of weeks I went from being a football superstar, a track superstar, to having my whole world turned upside down."

He added, "Football wasn't going to be an option."

cont...

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...l-potw/01/12/potw.12/index.html#ixzz1jHoGH4s8