The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kirtland’s Aquila playing in honor of his mother
Nancy Aquila lost battle with leukemia on Sept. 6; ‘she has the best seat in the house for every game’
A hush of anticipation fell over Rogers Field the evening of Sept. 29 as the crowd at the Kirtland-Independence football game anxiously awaited the announcement.
“And the 2017 homecoming king is,” the public address announcer said, pausing to extend the drama a smidgen longer, “... Dylan Aquila.”
The senior candidate turned, engaged his father Tim in a long hug, and then both wiped tears from their eyes.
It was supposed to be a happy moment.
The entire 2017 football season was supposed to be one big, happy moment for Dylan Aquila.
But no matter how well he plays, and rest assured he’s had a stellar year for the Hornets, and no matter how far Kirtland goes in the playoffs, there’s a huge void.
Aquila has played his senior year without his mother, Nancy, who lost her battle with leukemia on Sept. 6.
So when Aquila and his teammates hit the field at Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium on Nov. 24 for a Division VI state semifinal against Nelsonville-York, he will do so under the watchful eye of the best guardian angel he could have.
“Dylan has handled this incredibly difficult family situation with class, strength and maturity. As one of our captains, he has been a great role model to our younger players. I am proud of his work ethic and commitment to his teammates and his family.” — Kirtland football coach Tiger LaVerde
His mother. “Is there a void? Of course. Of course,” said the youngest of three children born to Tim and Nancy Aquila. “But I can talk to her every day, and I do talk to her every day about what’s going on in my life.
“It’s really hard, but she’s here. I believe she has the best seat in the house for every game.”
Nancy Aquila, high school sweetheart of her husband Tim after they first met as sophomores at Wickliffe 41 years ago, battled her leukemia for a year after being diagnosed Aug. 30, 2016.
But the baby brother of 20-year-old Carly and 22-year-old Danielle knew something was wrong when he got a call on Aug. 25, that he needed to be at the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus downtown.
Over the previous months, there were plenty of highs and lows as his mother fought the blood disease.
Dylan says his heart breaks a little more every time he remembers his mother, laying in a hospital bed, apologized to him for being so sick for such a long period of time.
The day Dylan got the call to rush to the hospital, the Hornets were set to play Chagrin Falls in the 2017 season opener.
“She had a brain bleed,” said father Tim Aquila. “She was life-flighted to the main campus and she survived the first brain bleed. We thought she was going to be OK.”
Dylan had a difficult decision to make, but he thought like his mother would think.
“I knew she wouldn’t want me there,” he said. “She’d want me with my brothers on the field.”
So he left the Cleveland
Clinic. When the Hornets came to the locker room at halftime of their season opener, there was Aquila suiting up to join his brothers.
“We were very surprised,” said senior Brett Diemer, who shares the team captaincy with Aquila and others. “We found out about the surgery before the game. Him showing up helped our confidence to finish off that game for her.”
The strength Dylan showed that day has spilled over throughout the season for Kirtland, which wears a commemorative decal on their helmets for a season they have dedicated to her.
Despite living and playing
with a heavy heart, Aquila has answered every call his team has asked this season.
He starts at receiver for the Hornets, has caught five passes for 56 yards in the run-oriented offense and has run for 136 yards and two scores.
Defensively, he has turned into a feared defensive lineman despite his smallish 5-foot-7, 165-pound frame. He has six sacks, 12 quarterback hurries and 30 tackles.
He has also taken over kicking duties. A week ago in the regional final win over Rootstown, he kicked a pair of extra points, as well as a 23-yard field goal while also playing his best
game of the season on defense, according to Coach Tiger LaVerde.
“Dylan has handled this incredibly difficult family situation with class, strength and maturity,” LaVerde said. “As one of our captains, he has been a great role model to our younger players. I am proud of his work ethic and commitment to his teammates and his family.”
Tim Aquila smiles when talking about his son’s work ethic this past offseason, working tirelessly in the weight room and taking care of himself physically in order to ensure the best senior season possible.
When Nancy went to a diet of healthy, vegetable
blends, Dylan — as well as the rest of the family — joined her in the regimen of healthy drinks.
The smile on Tim’s face disappears when he thinks to the day he told everyone to go home from the hospital, a plea Dylan rebuked.
“He said, ‘I’m not going home,’” Tim said, tears flooding his eyes. “He said he was staying there with me. He wanted to be there with me and his mother until her last hour.”
Another brain bleed a few days later was too much to overcome, and she died.
“I’m so proud of him,” Tim said. “He’s had to mature too quickly. I’m so, so proud of him.”
Dylan praises the Kirtland community for the support of him and his family.
“I have people to lean on, I really do,” he said. “There are days I break a little. It’s day to day.”
When life is seemingly too difficult to bear, there’s a safe place for Dylan — and it’s inside the white lines of the football fields he shares with his 76 brothers every Friday night.
He hopes there are two more such meetings — this week against NelsonvilleYork and then next week in the D-VI state championship game, should the Hornets top the undefeated Buckeyes.
Every step of his senior year — the games in which he plays, the homecoming crown he wins, the tests he aces, the friends he makes — is a special moment he wished he could share with her.
His faith tells him his mother is enjoying it all, even if he can’t see the smile on her face.
“Me and Mom were so close,” he said softly. “When things happen, I always think, ‘I want to go home and tell mom.’
“I know she’s here with me. Like I said, she has the best seat in the house.”