In this week's edition of This Hits Different, Shelby Cassesse tells the Fan Morning Show about Seneca Valley's football team, which surprised athletic director Heather Lewis at her home as she battles breast cancer.
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Seneca Valley's surprise for AD
On football Friday nights at Seneca Valley this year, there's a noticeable absence. Athletic Director Heather Lewis isn't on the sidelines with the Raiders.
Instead, she's putting her all into a new team. A team, she says, is made of people who didn't try out, but will never be cut.
“I’m a lifelong member of this team of cancer warriors and survivors,” Lewis said.
Lewis was diagnosed with a fast-growing, invasive form of breast cancer in February, underwent 20 weeks of chemo and had surgery last month to remove the cancer and a reconstructive surgery. Now, she's recovering at home before a round of radiation.
“The prognosis has always been, ‘look, this is going to be 8-12 months of not a fun year, but the long-term prognosis is good,” she added.
She said recovery has hit a few hurdles and has been extremely painful at times, but she's slowly doing better.
Looking back on her journey so far, she says there's a key component to cancer recovery that doesn't include hospitals, surgeries and medication.
“It’s really just those words of encouragement and the simple little gesture of a text, or a card, or a visit,” she said. “It will really help anybody walking down this path.”
Nothing illustrates that more than the surprise at her door earlier this month. She thought Seneca Valley football coach Ron Butschle and a couple of his players were going to stop at her house, but Butschle had something else in mind.
“What I wanted to do is make her smile,” Butschle said. “I know one of the things Heather Lewis loves about her job is the kids.”
So when the doorbell rang...
“I opened the front door and coach Butschle was there,” Lewis said. “And I looked out in my front yard and there were 84 football players.“
Every single Seneca Valley football player stood in her front yard with their helmets in hand. But that's not all.
“And (Butschle) goes, ‘we have these pink stickers that we want you to put on their helmets,’” she said. “That’s when I broke down.”
One by one, players walked up to Lewis at her front door and she carefully placed a pink sticker on each helmet. Perhaps a small gesture to some, but for Lewis a chance to form connections she'd been missing and a source of motivation that still hasn't gone away.
“I don’t know if they fully comprehend the impact that they had on me,” Lewis said. “And really, it’s been lasting impact because I really think that moment and that opportunity lifted my spirits and has given me a little more energy, and like, okay, you can do this.”
And a moment Butschle believes his players won't soon forget.
“It was amazing the effect it had on a lot of our kids,” Butschle said. “They got as much out of it as she did. It was a half-hour, were we showed up — a bunch of stinky kids — but I think she really liked it.”
Lewis' support network has expanded far past Seneca Valley. Multiple athletic directors have reached out and started initiatives at their schools. In last week's Seneca Valley-Mt. Lebanon game, Lewis served as the honorary captain for both teams.
All gestures that cost very little, but to Lewis, mean the most.
“It’s lifted my spirits backs tee positive comments are what you need when you go through hits journey,” Lewis said. “But more importantly, it highlights that, through everything we hear these days, we’ve got kids and coaches doing really great things of of the field.”