Feb. 19, 2006

Senior infielder Ryan Parker has been through a lot since last May. In 2005, the Hilliard, Ohio native earned first team Academic All-American honors, started 55 of the team's 56 games and finished third on the team with a .340 batting average, five home runs and 51 RBI. As the season began winding down, however, Parker noticed something.

"Last year, I got out of the shower one day and I noticed a lump in my neck," Parker said. "I wasn't sure what it was, so I went to our trainer (Joe Lueken) and he said, `It looks like you've got some swollen lymph nodes.'"

According to what his doctors told him, any number of things could cause swelling of the lymph nodes, which are part of the body's immune system. Parker said he was tested for everything from mono to tuberculosis to cat scratch fever. Only after a biopsy his doctors were able to diagnose him with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer which effects the body's blood and immune system.

Further PET and CT scans showed additional tumors in Parker's neck, chest, underarms and abdomen. The doctors determined that the spread of the tumors indicated stage three Hodgkin's Lymphoma, one stage short of the most advanced type of Hodgkin's.

Parker admits the diagnosis, which came in May, didn't immediately sink in.

"I didn't think much of it," Parker said. "I had so much going on at the time, I didn't have any time to think about it. I had the end of the baseball season coming. We were finishing the Big Ten schedule, and I also had finals coming up. I had other things going on, so it didn't really sink in until three weeks into the summer when I actually had some time to realize what was happening."

This is when Parker began to lean on a support staff of doctors, family, friends and teammates. Parker began a treatment program with Dr. Mark Dayton of Internal Medicine Associates in Bloomington. Hodgkin's Lymphoma is one of the more successfully treated cancers if detected early enough.

Former NHL great Mario Lemieux and PGA golfer Paul Azinger were both diagnosed with Hodgkin's in 1993. Both are now in remission, and Azinger continues to compete, while Lemieux just recently announced his retirement.

"Stories like that (Lemieux and Azinger) definitely gave me a boost," Parker said.

After undergoing a standard treatment program, Parker and his doctors noticed that some of the tumors weren't responding well to the chemotherapy. They decided to try adding different kinds of medicine to the chemotherapy regimen.

"When we heard about Ryan, we were pretty devastated," senior pitcher Josh Lewis said. "It's always tough to hear when bad things happen to good people. That's definitely the case here."

In support of Ryan Parker (right), his teammates shaved their heads. Starting pitcher Josh Lewis is pictured above with Parker.

Lewis and senior outfielder Jay Brant decided to organize a show of support for his teammate. Parker had joked that his hair falling out because of the chemotherapy was the worst part of the disease, so Brant and Lewis convinced all of their teammates to shave their heads.

"It started with a couple of us, and one day in the locker room I invited everyone to do it," Brant said. "I wasn't expecting everyone to go with it, but every single guy on the team did. It was really cool to see that kind of support for Ryan."

Parker said the gesture was greatly appreciated and came at a good time.

"When they shaved their heads, that was just a great boost because it was at the time of the relapse," Parker said. "I was taking a different treatment and wondering if it would work. Then another scan revealed most of my tumors showed almost no activity at all. Later that week, these guys all shaved their heads. This all came at a time when I needed good news and support the most, and I got it from them."

Head coach Tracy Smith and the rest of his coaching staff saw how the team rallied around Parker and even debated whether or not to shave their heads as well.

"It was neat that they got together and did that on their own," Smith said. "If they had come to us and asked us, we would have done it. But, I think that it was nice that it was kind of a team thing, and they kept it among themselves. We have some pretty boys on our team who don't like to cut their hair, but all of them did it, which was nice."

Smith arranged another morale builder for Parker. Through a friend in Indianapolis, Smith set up a visit with St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen.

"I was hoping for just a note or a phone call or something," Smith said. "Once Scott found out, this is just the type of guy he is, he just asked, `Would he mind if I came down and spent the afternoon with him.' I thought he would kind of like that. I didn't ask Scott for that, he just volunteered."

Parker laughs when he recalls how the meeting happened.

"Skip called me one day and asked me what I was doing and I said I just got done with a chemo session, so I was just laying around," Parker said. "He told me to not go anywhere and that he had someone who wanted to meet me. I was thinking it would be a friend of his with a survivor story or something like that, and all of a sudden I see Scott Rolen and his family show up. I was speechless."

Rolen spent the afternoon with Parker and talked baseball and overcoming difficulties.

"He had torn his labrum this past year, and he said he couldn't relate to cancer, but he could relate to overcoming something," Parker said. "He said to try to get on the baseball field anytime you can and to keep taking small steps to get back to where you were."

Rolen's story is one more piece of advice Parker has taken to heart. While he is scheduled to undergo more aggressive treatments, including radiation, in the coming months, he still makes it out to practice whenever he can. According to the players, seeing Parker gives everyone a boost.

"It's great having him around," Brant said. "It's come up a few times how we think we have it hard with practice and school. Then look at this kid who excelled in the classroom last semester going through everything he did, and he's still coming to practice."

Parker remains hopeful that he can return to the field, but for now he is focusing on taking those small steps. Parker plans on continuing to show up at practice as one of the newly-minted captains of the 2006 team and assisting the players and coaches with anything they need.

"Knowing how competitive I am, I would expect to step in and pick up right where I left off," Parker said. "But not being able to do anything athletic for the last three or four months, I know that's not a reality. Even if I'm not able to play, I want to be a part of this team any way I can."

Returning to the field in uniform remains Parker's ultimate goal. But whatever happens in the future, Parker has already made his mark on this team.