Gorman: There's no quit with Upper St. Clair's Harkleroad

Ryan Harkleroad's story starts with a lump on an arm. It will leave you with a lump in your throat.

The Upper St. Clair junior was lifting weights for football last May when offensive line coach Tim Robbins noticed the lump on Ryan's left elbow.

Robbins didn't just advise Harkleroad to see a doctor. He warned him not to return to football until he did.

The diagnosis was a worst-case scenario: It was cancerous and had to be removed. A scan revealed another lump on the lymph nodes under his left armpit.

It was Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer.

“You never want the c-word to come into your home,” said Ryan's mother, Mary Beth. “It's horrible. It was devastating initially. Then you wrap your arms around it.”

Ryan was in disbelief.

“At first I really didn't know how to feel,” he said. “I thought, ‘This can't be happening to me. I'm only 16 years old. I'm a junior in high school. I have my whole life ahead of me. There's no way this can be happening.'

“Almost immediately, I remember walking out of the hospital saying, ‘This isn't going to change everything. I'm still going to do everything I'm doing to the best of my abilities.' ”

That includes playing football, his favorite sport.

Ryan was about to face six weeks of chemotherapy over a nine-week stretch, including three six-hour sessions a week. When it was over, doctors had more bad news.

The cancer wasn't completely gone.

So Ryan continued with daily radiation treatments.

All this time, Harkleroad continued to practice and play football for Upper St. Clair, where he's a 6-foot-4, 230-pound tight end and defensive end.

“There was no way he was missing football,” Mary Beth said. “I asked the doctors every week, ‘Are you sure? Is this a good idea?'

“With Children's (Hospital), the folks there said, ‘This is mental. He needs to keep a good attitude. As long as he's staying on track, we'll let him go.' ”

Despite his stamina sapped from the treatments, Ryan persevered to play.

Which left quite an impression on Upper St. Clair coach Jim Render, who watched former Panthers star Danny Cafaro endure a similar ordeal a few years ago.

“It would have been easy to get a doctor's note and say he wouldn't be there that night — but he didn't do that,” Render said. “I would hope football has been a positive in terms of his positive outlook. I give him a lot of credit. I never saw him down or with a poor-me attitude. What I saw was all courageous and all positive.”

The positive vibes continued last Friday, when Harkleroad completed his final radiation treatment at Children's Hospital in Lawrence.

“It was a great feeling, walking out of that hospital after, hopefully, getting radiation for the last time,” Ryan said. “It was incredible. I hope I don't have to do anything like that again.”

First, Ryan was a featured guest on the WDVE Radio Rocks for Children's Radiothon that morning. Then he endured his final radiation treatment. On Friday night, he was on the field for the Panthers for the opening kickoff against North Allegheny.

“Words can't even describe how I felt,” Ryan said. “It was incredible. My mind was just racing 1,000 miles an hour. I couldn't really think about anything. I just wanted to go hit somebody.”

So at a time when WPIAL coaches are resigning at midseason and players are quitting in the middle of games, Ryan Harkleroad refused to quit playing football.

Despite a cancer diagnosis.

Despite chemotherapy.

Despite radiation.

Despite losing his hair.

Despite losing his spot in the starting lineup four plays into the first half last week.

“Just to see his determination, that's when you realize that it's very clear: This is in his blood,” Mary Beth said. “As long as he's healthy, who are we to say he can't play? He's living proof that if someone really wants something, you go out and do what it takes.”

Living proof that someone can beat cancer and still leave a lump.

Kevin Gorman is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.