‘THE WOZ’ JUMPS FOR JOY AFTER TACKLING CANCER
Former all-star defensive end doing his most jubilant Woztusi yet, even at age 64
Lyall Woznesensky once entertained fans with his patented post-sack celebration — the Woztusi — as an all-star defensive end with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Lately, he has an even bigger reason to rejoice.
On the first day of June, a physician told the 64-year-old Woznesensky that “you’re about as cancer-free as you can hope to be.”
That is quite something, when you consider the devastating diagnosis he had received in January of 2016 — when “The Woz” was informed that his cancer had spread and that it was Stage 4, which is routinely a terminal condition.
But here he is, nearly a year and a half later, jovial as always and feeling so blessed.
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” the Melville-born Woznesensky says.
Luck did not seem to be on his side in August 2015, when he was initially diagnosed with cancer.
Woznesensky had visited the doctor, at the behest of his wife Debbie, to receive a medical opinion on what was thought to be a blood blister on his chest. As it turned out, the “blister” was evidence of an angry tumour that had migrated into his chest bone.
“The doctor said, ‘It’s melanoma — the bad kind,’ ” he recalls.
Woznesensky soon underwent surgery, along with treatment that included the use of interferon. That routine devoured 20 consecutive weekdays.
“About 1:30 p.m., you’d get the drug,” he says from Lantzville, B.C., which is near Nanaimo. “You’d get home about 3:30 and then you’d start getting migraine headaches for a while. It would be like a bad, bad flu. You’d get the shakes and get real cold and then get really hot and sweaty.
“You’d go through the whole night feeling like that. About noon the next day, you’re just starting to feel what you think is normal again and, boom, you’re right back at it.”
That ordeal proved to be for naught. A CT scan in January of 2016 revealed that Woznesensky had tumours on his liver. He went from Stage 3B to Stage 4.
What was the life expectancy at that point?
“They didn’t say it to me personally, and I didn’t really ask, but my wife looked it up,” he says. “She found out after that the average melanoma patient with Stage 4 is about 14 months.
“I would have been gone already. Everything has been gravy since then.”
Woznesensky credits his remarkable recovery to a clinical trial in which immunotherapy drugs were used.
Although that treatment was ultimately a smashing success, there were some detours. Elevated liver and thyroid levels forced him to use a synthetic corticosteroid drug, Prednisone, for two stretches of time. Both times, the levels returned to normal.
“If I had known steroids were that good, I would have taken them when I played,” Woznesensky quips.
Woznesensky received the last treatment of his clinical trial on May 11. A CT scan was performed 12 days later. He received the positive results on June 1.
“It’s kind of surreal,” he says. “You’re happy. You’re excited. You feel fortunate. Life is so good, but you still get a little bit nervous. The old saying, ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff,’ is so true. I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore.”
Woznesensky is once again working full-time in charge of human resources with the Quality Foods chain.
At all times, he is grateful to more people than he can possibly name over the course of a 45-minute conversation — friends, former teammates, virtual strangers who have reached out, health-care professionals and, of course, his family.
Lyall and Debbie Woznesensky, married for 29 years, have two sons — Nick, 28, and Kris, 27.
“My family support has been amazing,” Woznesensky says. “Every day since my kids were born, I’ve told them I love them. They hear it at least once a day. Now we’re even closer than we could ever hope to be.
“When I say Debbie is the pillar of our family, she is. I don’t know if I’d be around if it wasn’t for her and how strong she is. She’s 5-foot-3 and she’s got more in her than I could have in me.
“She has kept my boys strong and she has kept me strong. She has gone through a lot.”
Recent experiences have also shown Woznesensky what others must endure.
“Why do I say I’m the luckiest guy in the world?” he says.
“After I started getting treatment, you walk into one of those cancer clinics and you see other people beside you. You see people of different ages and people who are a lot younger and how much of a life they’ve still got to live.
“People become pretty open about talking with each other and you hear their stories. Mine doesn’t compare. I’ve had it pretty good in comparison to a lot of these other people, with the pain and everything they’ve gone through.
“What more could I ask for? I got to live my dream as a pro football player and it was fantastic. Truly, I played in one of the greatest towns of all time, in Saskatchewan, and that was fabulous.”
Woznesensky, a CFLer from 1977 to 1983, spent two seasons — 1981 and 1982 — in Saskatchewan.
As a first-year Roughrider, the Simon Fraser University product registered 14 quarterback sacks — thereby performing 14 Woztusis — and was named a West Division all-star for a team that registered a 9-7 record.
“I say this earnestly and honestly,” says Woznesensky, whose family moved from Melville to Winnipeg when he was two. “When I was growing up in Winnipeg and then I finally played, I thought, ‘The last place I want to play is Saskatchewan.’ ”
That changed in 1981, when then-Saskatchewan general manager Jim Spavital made it clear that he wanted to sign “The Woz,” who had played out his option with the Hamilton TigerCats.
“Once I got to Saskatchewan, there was nothing better,” says Woznesensky, whose sister (Veronica Gower) lives in the Qu’Appelle Valley area.
“I swear to God, I got into town and I was buying some gas and some person was across from me. He said, ‘Hey, Woz, welcome to Regina.’ I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’
“I remember in 1981 you had the people in the end zones, because we had sold-out crowds.”
The overflow crowds were well-entertained by the likes of “The Woz,” Joey Walters, Chris DeFrance, Vince Goldsmith, Mike Samples, Ken McEachern and an effective quarterbacking tandem — John Hufnagel and Joe Barnes — that Regina Leader-Post scribe John Chaput enduringly dubbed “J.J. Barnagel.”
There has never been a more likable Roughriders team. The 1981 edition, coached by the affable Joe Faragalli, was full of personalities and endlessly entertaining. Fourth-quarter comebacks were routine for a team that, in the larger sense, had rallied from back-to-back 2-14 seasons.
“For me, 1981 was one of the greatest years I remember,” Woznesensky says. “We had such a great group of guys, with J.J. Barnagel and everyone.”
One of those guys, Greg Fieger, phoned Woznesensky the other day to see how things were going. Former Roughriders presidentCEO Jim Hopson sent his best regards via email.
During the cancer battle, Woznesensky has been contacted by at least one teammate from each of his stops in the CFL — the Roughriders, Tiger-Cats, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Calgary Stampeders, Toronto Argonauts and Montreal Concordes.
At every opportunity, and in many conversations, he spreads the message that a cancer diagnosis should not be the reason to exhaust all hope.
“The Woz” is a walking, talking example of that.
“I don’t know why I’m blessed in this way and being able to experience everything,” he says. “But if something happened tomorrow, I’ve got to be honest, I’d say, ‘You can’t have any complaints from me.’
“Not that I want to go anywhere, but I’ve been able to experience more than anybody.”
That is a reason to jump for joy — and to perform the best-ever Woztusi, perhaps?
“I couldn’t jump before,” Woznesensky says, laughing. “I don’t know how high I could jump now.”
You’re happy. You’re excited. You feel fortunate. Life is so good, but you still get a little bit nervous. The old saying, ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff,’ is so true.