Jack Curtis’ impossible dream: The college quarterback who refuses to let cancer stop his senior year

Curtis has Stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He can be a college quarterback. Typically, the primary circumstance would a minimum of quickly forestall the second from occurring. In truth, docs on the famend Mayo Clinic, the place Curtis was handled, informed him they knew of no college soccer participant who competed whereas present process remedy. Curtis’ personal athletic coach, who spent 16 years within the NFL, is aware of his share of athletes who have been both handled for cancer within the off season or took break day whereas they underwent remedy. He is aware of nobody was handled whereas concurrently taking part in.

Because, actually, who would even need such a factor? The debilitating rigors of chemotherapy – nausea, vomiting, weak point and dehydration – and the psychological drain of combating the illness don’t lend themselves to any sport, a lot much less the brutality of soccer.

A year off, a medical redshirt, is the conventional plan of action.

This fall, Curtis spent each different Monday from September 8 by October 22 on the Mayo Clinic. He’d meet with his workforce of docs and nurses and have his blood drawn to verify his platelet ranges and bone density. Then he’d sit for hours because the medical poison that’s chemotherapy poured into his physique by a port in his chest.

Finally, 12 hours after he and his driver of the week had left, they’d flip the automobile round and head again to Carleton College, the place Curtis is a senior. Tuesday morning, they’d double again to Rochester, leaving sufficient time in order that Curtis may take his immunotherapy shot precisely 19 hours after his closing chemo infusion the day earlier than.

By Wednesday morning, the magic elixir that saved the chemo unwanted side effects at bay had worn off, making it impossible for Curtis to depart his mattress. The fog began to clear by Thursday afternoons, sufficient in order that he may plop a garden chair on the sidelines and watch apply. On Fridays, Curtis normally was steady sufficient to throw just a few passes throughout a stroll by. His offensive coordinator and heart ran by the opponents’ tendencies, going over blitz packages and defensive fronts. This served because the entirety of his weekly sport prep.

And each single Saturday, from September 6 by final week, Jack Curtis places on his helmet, slid his shoulder pads over the gauze that covers the port that delivers the chemo and performs college soccer.

The Knights’ senior quarterback, a physics main with designs on an aerospace engineering profession, has thrown for two,776 yards and 26 touchdowns. He’s damaged two college information this season, ranks fourth within the nation in completions per sport amongst Division III quarterbacks, fifth in passing completion proportion, eighth in each whole passing yards and passing yards per sport, fifteenth in passing touchdowns and twenty ninth in passing effectivity. Twice he’s earned convention offensive participant of the week honors and Carleton is 6-3.

“I don’t know what the phrase to use is,’’ Jack’s father, Scott Curtis, informed NCS Sports. “Awe, I suppose. Yeah. I believe it’s awe.’’

Scott Curtis performed college soccer and tennis at Olivet Nazarene College. His spouse, Amy, performed membership lacrosse and area hockey at James Madison University. Their youngsters have been at all times going to strive sports activities and Jack tried loads of them. He finally whittled away those that he was not so good at – goodbye basketball and soccer – and targeting his strengths, primarily soccer with a little bit dabble in baseball.

Scott acknowledged early that his son not solely had bodily presents however may course of data rapidly and decisively. At eight, Jack and his South Charlotte (North Carolina) Patriots carved up Pop Warner opponents by operating the famed Air Raid offense Bob Stoops introduced to Oklahoma. Jack performed each side of the ball again then, and what he lacked in defensive again finesse he made up for with willpower.

“They nicknamed me Spiderman,’’ Jack Curtis told NCS Sports with a laugh. “I’d get run over but I’d hold onto the other guy’s jersey for dear life and drag him down.”

That ferocity stayed with him, fueled in equal components by his father’s continual philosophical question – are you damage or are you injured? – and his personal unwillingness to miss out. For a workforce image as a child, Curtis grimaced and put his shoulder pads over a damaged collarbone. In highschool, he threw for 327 yards whereas taking part in on a torn MCL as a result of there was no manner he was not taking part in towards Ardrey Kell High School’s heated rival.

He longed to play college soccer however when recruiting realities ran headlong into post-Covid-19 guidelines permitting gamers to stick round an additional year, he wound up at Carleton, a small college with a giant educational fame. Curtis wasn’t bought. Carleton has fewer college students (2,100) than his highschool (3,600) and sits in a city finest recognized for its citizen rebellion towards outlaw Jesse James’ makes an attempt to rob the First National Bank in 1876.

After a bumpy first year, Curtis earned the beginning spot as a sophomore and has since thrown for greater than 8,000 yards and 80 touchdowns. He and the 5 teammates who’ve doubled as his roommates since freshman year partnered with 4 different soccer gamers this year in a home. They play fierce video games of Mario Kart and take turns making and consuming household dinners. In December, Jack will function a groomsman in a teammate’s wedding ceremony.

“It’s been the very best 4 years of my life,’’ he says, earlier than pausing. “And it’s an hour away from the Mayo Clinic. You can name it faith, destiny, no matter, however I do know I consider way more now that there’s a plan for all of us.’’

A deep sudden ache – and shock

He felt the primary few lumps within the spring, someplace round his arm and collarbone. They didn’t damage and Curtis, who pitches for the Carleton baseball workforce, attributed them to put on and tear. By late spring, the lumps grew right into a mass below his arm. Still, Curtis thought it was nothing greater than irritation.

But house in Charlotte in June, he began having chest pains. At first, they have been random and transient – leaving a live performance with his girlfriend one evening, he mentioned it felt like a 3 out of 10. On the drive house it subsided to possibly a one. Playing catch within the yard with his brother, it damage sufficient that he had to take a knee however disappeared inside 20 minutes.

Then one evening Curtis wakened to excruciating ache. A ten out of 10, “like I used to be being stabbed.’’ It lingered for hours, so intense that it left Curtis gasping for breath so badly he couldn’t even muster the vitality to name out for his dad and mom.

Eventually he made his manner to their room and informed his mom he wanted to see somebody instantly.

“In my head I knew I had a tumor,’’ he mentioned.

Once he went again to his room, Curtis sat down at his desk and wrote letters to his dad and mom, to his girlfriend, to his finest associates.

“I simply didn’t see a manner I’d make it by the ache,’’ he mentioned. “I considered life with out Jack Curtis in it.’’

Curtis’s mom, Amy works in hospice. She spends her workday speaking to individuals about finish of life, and although her thoughts was spiraling she grasped at each unfastened finish when it got here to her personal son. Did he sleep humorous? Pull a muscle? Maybe it was an allergic response.

A go to to an orthopedist supplied no assist, nor did an X-ray or an MRI. Even bloodwork got here again with no concrete solutions.

“I didn’t need to say the phrase ‘cancer,’’ Amy says now. “I went down each rabbit gap I may discover.’’

For two weeks the household looked for solutions till lastly a biopsy revealed the outcomes.

At a health care provider’s workplace on Fifth Street in Charlotte, docs informed Curtis he had Stage 2 Hodgkin’s illness, including the phrase “unfavorable” to his analysis to signify that the cancer had unfold in his chest cavity and was surrounding his coronary heart.

Scott Curtis requested questions. Jack Curtis cried and heard nothing, till the physician mentioned it was fully treatable. Then he brightened up. Can we delay remedy, he requested? Just till after soccer season.

“The docs laughed at us,’’ Amy mentioned. “They mentioned, ‘We’re beginning subsequent week.’’’

It is a merciless arduous stop when a physique accustomed to doing not can do, and people early therapies have been debilitating bodily and even worse, crippling mentally.

Here was a child who performed sports activities at a excessive degree since childhood, who studied world sports activities in London and Seville, Spain, and plans to do his senior thesis on hypersonic plane. He is energetic in physique and thoughts and as an alternative spent weeks languishing in mattress, sick and sore and foggy.

“I got stuck in the what ifs. What if I caught it quicker? What if I can’t go back to school?” Curtis informed NCS Sports. “Do I’ve to take a year off of faculty? Delay my skilled aspirations? Is this the top of soccer? I used to be actually spiraling.’’

Good information, luckily, got here rapidly. After his second spherical of chemo, a PET scan confirmed no energetic lymphoma cells. The cancer wasn’t gone, however he was profitable the struggle. That day Curtis went to his room and located the letters he wrote on that darkish evening when the chest ache was so insufferable. He burned them.

The mild on the finish of the tunnel was dim however he may see it. And it shined straight on Carleton. Two weeks after he questioned what the world would possibly seem like with out him in it, Curtis requested his docs if he may return to college, switch his care to the Mayo Clinic, and even larger – may he play soccer?

“Well,” his physician responded, “it’s not like soccer goes to provide you with extra cancer.’’

As unorthodox because it was, the medical workforce at Norvant Health devised a plan. It required a precision of care so exacting that even the slightest little bit of deviation would smash any probability of Curtis taking part in on a Saturday. Treatments had to be Monday – and early Monday – not Tuesday. Immunotherapy had to be administered Tuesday morning, not Tuesday afternoon and positively not Wednesday.

The groups processed the tedious paperwork and did the yeoman’s work to dig by the entire laborious insurance coverage duties.

“They moved mountains,’’ Scott Curtis mentioned. “They really did.’’

Amy Curtis admits she wasn’t a direct endorser. While Scott Curtis doubled again on his tried-and-true “hurt or injured” gauge, Amy thought of her 21-year-old son – 1,100 miles away, coping with cancer, going by chemo all whereas taking part in a place that has a number of gamers devoted to hitting him as arduous as they’ll.

Parenting is strolling a tightrope over a canyon, an impossible selection between hoisting each attainable security web to shield a baby and permitting them to take the dangers they want to stay. Keeping Curtis secure by her aspect was the simple selection; letting him go, Amy knew, was the correct one.

“Denying him was not an choice,’’ she mentioned. “It by no means crossed my thoughts. It was how can we do that to help him, in order that he has no regrets? So that he is aware of he tried every little thing, and we gave all of it of our effort.’’

Tom Journell was in Boston, in between recruiting camps at Dartmouth and Harvard, when his beginning quarterback referred to as. Players sometimes don’t name their head coach in early summer time with excellent news, so Journell steeled himself.

Curtis shared his analysis, explaining that he purposefully waited till he had the entire data earlier than reaching out.

“And then he says he’s going to play,’’ Journell says. “I used to be like, ‘You’re going to what now?’’

Curtis returned to campus just a few weeks after apply began. He hadn’t thrown the ball all summer time. Along with the port in his chest, he had a gash below his arm the place surgeons eliminated an egg-sized piece from the mango-sized tumor. For weeks he couldn’t even elevate his arm above his head.

Without a precedent to refer to, everybody let the docs and Curtis dictate the trail ahead. If the blood checks mentioned he may play and Curtis thought he may play, he would play.

In the primary sport towards perennial Division III energy Wisconsin-Whitewater, Curtis accomplished 30 of 43 makes an attempt for 202 yards and a landing.

The following week – fortuitously a bye week for the Knights – Curtis had his first chemo remedy on the Mayo Clinic. Journell took him.

“We had guys preventing to take him,’’ the daddy of two boys recalled. “But if you’re a head coach, you are taking a accountability to assist increase these youngsters. They’re like your individual. When he determined to come again, we informed his dad and mom we might care for him. So, there was no manner anybody else was taking him besides me.’’

In his subsequent sport, towards rival Macalester, Curtis threw for 478 yards and 6 touchdowns.

When Cutis’ dad and mom couldn’t be there, the Carleton village rallied round him. His housemates made dinner. Teammate Rye Storrs did a Rochester run. Starting heart Isaac Mouacheupao did the sport prep. Athletic coach Ron Roche met with the workforce docs, monitored Curtis’ vitamin and saved a cautious eye on his hydration.

They cared for him, however made certain not to coddle him, a vital distinction they acknowledged intuitively. After first being recognized, Curtis didn’t need to inform anybody – not Journell, not Carleton directors, not even Amy’s dad and mom. He craved normalcy and letting his story out would imply giving that up. He wouldn’t simply be a college child, or perhaps a college quarterback; he’d be a college quarterback with cancer.

His dad and mom knew he couldn’t maintain it in, however additionally they revered he had to get there on his personal. They took one other stroll on the parental tightrope, gently guiding Curtis to a spot the place sharing his story felt empowering, not demoralizing.

Scott Curtis shared a speech he had heard throughout a soccer coaching session he attended, telling his son a couple of quarterback who talked in regards to the phrase ardour.

“The Latin word is ‘passio,’ which means to suffer, or to endure,’’ Scott Curtis said. “And this quarterback said a good quarterback is willing to suffer, to endure in order to help others get what they need to be good. I told Jack, ‘Son, this is your opportunity to help others but it’s also their opportunity to help you. You can’t do this alone.’”

Statistically, it is senseless.

With little to no sport prep every week, his physique wracked by the ravages of chemo, Curtis is having the very best season of his college profession. With a sport left to play, he’s thrown for probably the most yards in his 4 years, is averaging 38 yards per sport greater than any season and is simply two touchdowns shy of his career-best season.

“There are Thursdays the place he simply appears terrible,’’ Roche mentioned. “You take a look at him and assume, ‘No way.’ And then he goes on the market on Saturday and zings the ball round. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it.’’

Curtis needs to be clear. This has not been straightforward. Against St. Olaf in week three, he scrambled to hit huge receiver Tyler Dimond for a 37-yard acquire over the center and on the following play, linked once more with Dimond, this time down the sideline for a 40-yard rating. Ordinarily Curtis would have dashed to the top zone to rejoice. Instead, an exhausted Curtis dropped to a knee. His linemen carried him off.

Nor is all of it storybook. As he preps for the ultimate sport of his college profession, he does so with a damaged index finger on his proper hand, the one he throws with. It is about as dangerous an damage a quarterback can endure.

Against fourth-ranked Bethel final week and with a shot at a playoff berth on the road, Curtis eliminated himself from the sport. He couldn’t grip the ball. Carleton misplaced 49-7. Roche has spent the week doing strengthening workout routines and fashioning a customized splint. Will it work?

“I’d by no means rely him out,’’ Roche mentioned.

Curtis’ cancer journey is just not fully behind him, both. On November 19, he has a gathering to plot his radiation schedule. Beginning December 1, he’ll return to the Mayo Clinic day by day for an hour and a half of remedy. If all goes as deliberate, he’ll lastly ring the bell on December 19.

But as he considers all of it – the highs, the lows, the improbability of taking part in and the absurdity of his success – Curtis thinks he perceive why it’s labored out the best way it has.

Before cancer, Curtis was a singularly targeted, rule-following perfectionist arduous wired to chase success in its most black and white phrases. He was the child who, upon spying a “no outside food or drink” signal within the zoo, promptly ratted out his mother to a safety guard.

“She has a bottle of water in her purse,’’ he mentioned.

He was the child Amy and Scott had to beg to take a break from learning. In highschool, he woke at 5 a.m. to get his work out in earlier than class, double again house to bathe, return to take his eight Advanced Placement lessons, apply with his teammates, do his homework and go to mattress. He’d do all of it time and again.

He not has the luxurious of such singular focus. He has to stay within the grey. Each week he takes a check and hopes he can play. If it says he can, he hopes he can play the entire sport, and if he can play, he hopes his workforce would possibly win.

Yet it’s been adequate. All of it’s adequate.

Because when he noticed that mild on the finish of the tunnel, he didn’t envision information or padded stats or, if he’s being trustworthy, wins and losses. He noticed himself sitting within the locker room after a win and watching his teammates cross round an imaginary fiddle whereas “Dixieland Delight” blasts from the audio system. He envisioned his title on the spreadsheet his statistics-major housemates created to observe their Mario Kart scores. He noticed household dinners with his teammates.

He got here again for the entire strange issues he thought he would possibly by no means do once more. The extraordinary issues he’s achieved on the soccer area have been simply that – additional.

When Curtis was in highschool, he and his dad devised a form of get together trick to check Curtis’ arm power. They’d drop to their knees and throw the ball, aiming for the crossbar. The purpose was to see who may ding it from furthest away. Curtis quickly bested his dad.

This season, after he finishes his pre-game heat up, Curtis walks to the 50-yard line and drops to his knees. He can’t fairly hit the crossbar. Instead, he flicks the ball towards the top zone.

“I can get it there,’’ he says. “And that was adequate.’’