Bulldogs’ Pettry ‘wins the day’ against cancer

For Olmsted Falls junior Tom Pettry, the hard part is over. Now, it’s all about football and brotherly bonds.

Hanging loosely above the entrance of the Olmsted Falls practice football fields sways a sign that reads “Win the Day.”

Between the click-clack of cleats meeting concrete, Bulldogs players raise their helmets against the sign as a reminder of their job each practice; to go out and be better each and every day, not matter how hard you have it.

For junior Tom Pettry, the hard part is over. Now, it’s all about football and the brotherly bond the sport has formed in his life and the Olmsted Falls community that has his back.

Flash back to a little over a year ago to Week 1 of the 2016 high school football season. A sophomore, Pettry lined up at defensive end for his first start on varsity against Parma in front of packed home crowd in the blazing heat of Friday night football.

But even before his first snap on varsity, Pettry’s story is already much different than almost any other.

Less than a year before that game, Pettry wasn’t a freshman on the sideline watching his teammates play, he wasn’t in

the weight room pushing for a starting job or even in the stands with his friends trying to have fun on a Friday night.

Pettry couldn’t do any of those things because he was in the hospital recovering from surgery that removed 14 inches of his intestines and 52 lymph nodes to remove cancer from his body.

Where Pettry’s real story begins is Week 7 of his freshmen season with the Bulldogs in the hunt for a Southwestern Conference crown.

“I was running the ball. I ran it for like 25 yards, got tackled and then a kid speared me in the back of the head, which gave me a concussion, and I was taken out of the game,” Pettry recalled. “The next day I woke up with a terrible headache, stomach ache and was not doing well and around 7 o’clock that night my mom thought this is a bad concussion, I need to take him to the ER. So I went to the ER and they said, ‘Yeah you do have a concussion, but on top of that you have appendicitis.’ So within 24 hours I had the appendectomy and was home.

“Ten days later my surgeon called my mom and said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry to tell you this, but we found a carcinoid tumor in his appendix and it’s big enough that we need to meet with you again and think what we need to do next.’ ”

Still recovering and only visiting his team as they took on Avon for the SWC title, Pettry’s family waited for the right time to tell him as the 14-year-old just focused on getting back to football.

“My parents sat me down in our living room, my whole family was there and they told me they knew about this for three days prior and didn’t know how severe it could be,” Pettry said.

In life and in football, Pettry’s personal faith and purpose mixed with a nofear attitude had made him into the man he was, so when the news hit him, Pettry was ready for whatever came next.

“So they told me and I kind of laughed and looked away and I looked at my mom and said, ‘So? What’s the next move? How are we going to handle this?’ ” Pettry said. “They were shocked. My whole family could not believe that I was so OK with it. But the wheels start turning in your

head and I was thinking if I wasn’t on the football field and I hadn’t gotten that concussion, I wouldn’t have went to the hospital. My mom would have thought, ‘Hey, he just has the flu.’ My appendix would have burst with the tumor inside and cancer would have spread throughout my body and I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Tackling the first round of news with his family, now Pettry had to tell his best friend and teammate, Nick Dailey, about why they wouldn’t be playing football together for a while.

“I just remember him coming into the locker room saying, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this’ and then came out straight with me and just said it,” Dailey said. “It really shocked me. Really, really shocked me. I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there and looked at him for a second.

“I know the kind of person he is and the look he was giving me, I knew he was going to be OK. And look at him now. He’s out there playing football.”

Forced into a hospital bed for just under two weeks, Pettry started the long process of not just getting better, but getting back into football shape. Dropping 40 pounds since the surgery, Pettry’s doctors

didn’t know the determination level he had to get back to the game he loved and to be normal again.

“I think about football all the time, I mean I knew I had a concussion, but I thought I’d be back by next week and it turned into this. I never thought this would happen and I hated it,” Pettry said. “It was tough being away from my team because we’re a tightknit group and we’re all very close to each other like a family.”

Pettry missed the rest of his freshman year, but he kept himself close to his team and football, even though doctors said it would be a year before he would be back to himself.

“They told me you won’t be back to normal, back to 100 percent, for at least a year and I said, ‘Screw that, I’m coming back better than ever,’ ” Pettry said with a grin.

Launching his comeback with the help of his coaches and physicians, Pettry was back in the weight room less than five months after surgery and got the attention of the varsity coach Tom DeLuca.

“I mean, the first thing that went though my mind, it may sound bad, but the kid went to the next game. I mean he goes and travels

with the team. There was a big game against Avon for the conference championship. He gets on the bus and goes,” DeLuca said. “That says a lot about who he is and that’s just how he is and I’ve never quite met a person like him. I mean when someone tells you that you have cancer, especially at his age — he’s 14 years old — I don’t know that I would handle it that way. I’d be terrified and it doesn’t seem like he’s scared of anything.”

Spotting Pettry in the weight room soon there after, DeLuca knew not to be impressed with his strides, but to expect them as Pettry grew stronger every day.

“We just wanted the boy to be healthy and we wanted Tommy to be able to do the great things that a high school kid can do. Whether that’s football or not, just get through high school, go to the school dances, play sports if he can,” DeLuca said.

“He came into the weight room around May and I was like holy smokes, this kid looks like he just got out of them and I asked where did you come from and what did they do to you in that treatment. But really, he built himself up. He did a really good job getting prepared. We had no expectations,

nor should we, but he came out and did really, really well and won the job as a sophomore.”

Being that leader on and off the field, Tommy has brought his story to the school and community and Olmsted Falls has responded.

Joining Touchdowns Against Cancer, the school has pledged to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for every touchdown scored between Sept. 14 and Sept. 30.

One of 400 schools involved in the first of its kind program, thanks to Pettry’s story, the Olmsted Falls community will help to see an end to childhood cancer one touchdown at a time.

Facing off in a big SWC showdown against red-hot Amherst, Pettry will not be in the lineup against the Comets as he recovers from knee surgery, but as his head coaches knows, if the Bulldogs do face some tough moments against Amherst, they have Pettry’s determination to look at.

“Anytime I start to feel the day’s too long or work stinks or this is too hard, I think of Tommy Pettry and laugh because this kid has looked a much more grim situation in the face and smiled,” DeLuca said.