Seventh Annual Fremont Center Softball Tournament

In between the dark and the light

With love of family and friends, Nick Mootz battles Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

By RICHARD A. ROSS

KENOZA LAKE, NY - They say that it’s always darkest before the dawn. Likewise, when our lives appear bleak, a ray of hope can burgeon into renewed joy and revival.

When parents Michelle and Tom Mootz received the news on April 22 that their 14-year-old son, Nick, was suffering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, doctors told them it could claim his life. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, the body’s first line of immune defense. Now two and a half months later, the couple, and their younger son, Thomas, sit at their kitchen table with Nick, who is in remission. They look to Nick’s recovery with a sense of relief.

Michelle and Tom’s hearts are filled with gratitude toward all who have rallied to the family’s side—extended family, friends, neighbors, schoolmates, football teammates and Rod McLachlin, the junior high school administrator who organized a fundraising walkathon. Help has poured in from people they have never met. Many more will support them with the Seventh Annual Fremont Center Softball Tournament on August 5 and 6, organized by Loreen Gebelein.

“We can’t find the words to express what we feel,” whispered Michelle.

The Mootz family is close-knit, open and frank when discussing Nick’s disease, which has taken its toll. “We’ve aged 20 years,” said Tom.

In retrospect things happened suddenly.

“He was a picture of health one minute and then…” broke off Tom.

As a football player at Sullivan West, Nick understands how quickly things can happen. When that ball is snapped, things go into hyper speed and you rely on your instincts, strength and courage. Nick has already demonstrated those attributes on the playing field. Now, he is called to deploy them where the stakes are higher than chalking up a team win. Nick Mootz is fighting for his life.

Young and athletic, the soon-to-be sophomore is passionate about football. Despite his youth and relative small size, Nick entered the fray to follow in the footsteps of renowned teammates like recent graduate Brian Hubbert, named Section 9 Class C/D Lineman of the Year, and Steve Musso, the menacing Class of 2005 icon.

So Nick practiced, played hard and waited to prove himself. He got his chance against Webutuck, where he lined up as nose guard and proceeded to record four straight tackles. To coach Ron Bauer, Nick represents the next wave of aggressive football players, in a district that has garnered back-to-back Section 9 titles.

But life, like football, can deliver stunning blows with startling quickness.

After a six-week period of poor health characterized by fatigue, sore throat and difficulty breathing in the early spring, Nick’s health went from bad to worse. Following a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach, he ended up in the Catskill Regional Medical Center emergency room suffering from respiratory distress. Michelle is a nurse there. But this was not pneumonia or mononucleosis. A chest x-ray revealed a 19-centimeter tumor that occupied two thirds of his chest. He was shipped to the Marie Ferari Children’s Hospital in Valhalla and slated for surgery the next morning.

“Don’t worry,” Nick assured his mother. “Pull yourself together,” he said, giving her a thumbs-up sign as they wheeled him away.

Surgery was not a possibility given the size and location of the tumor, but a biopsy revealed the disease’s identity as Stage 2B Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The disease was confined to two or three lymph nodes in close proximity to each other. Nick also had a fever. Nick remembers that he wasn’t afraid: he had already been the target of hulking football players out to obliterate him.

Hodgkin’s Lymphona has a cure rate of 85 to 90 percent, but the ravages of chemotherapy quickly made Nick sick and lose his hair. That was bearable, but Nick suffered great pain with the combination of the drug Neupogen, which stimulates the bone marrow to replace the white cells killed by the chemotherapy, and Bincristine, which is administered a few days after the three-day treatment cycles. At one point, Nick’s white count was 300, instead of a normal 7,000. He was extremely vulnerable to infections. Doctors said a runny nose could kill him.

None of this daunted the young warrior, who never uttered the words, “Why me?”

After failing the first course of chemotherapy, doctors opted for a more stringent routine. Nick’s treatments consist of three-day cycles every 21 days.

But Nick is surviving and on June 28 doctors said that the tumor was greatly reduced. Thomas calls Nick “chemosabi” and his friends continue to be ever-present. They visited him in the hospital, drew his name in the wood chips outside his hospital window and painted a big sign that read “Welcome Home, Nick.” Nick hopes to return to school in the fall and Bauer has promised him a role with the team even though he can’t play.

Nick is restricted from strenuous activity or too much sun exposure, but plans to show up at the tournament to see Tim “Chopper” Ackermann play.

Nick loves the outdoors, hunting and fishing, and riding on his four-wheeler. The latter activity is one thing he has been cleared to do.

A recent tournament in Fremont Center raised $4,400 for Lenny Miret. Organizer Dennis Brockner thanked all who donated their time and money. He and Gebelein hope that the upcoming benefit will do as well or better.

See next week’s story for a preview of the teams playing, and follow-up results of the double-elimination cycle for tournament champion.

Visit riverreportersports.com for a photo album of Nick, his family and friends, and watch for more pictures as the tournament gets underway.