Alma Champ Beating Cancer as well
August 22, 2016
By Dick Hoekstra
Reprinted from Gratiot County Herald
MHSAA champion swimmer Evelyn VanDeMark of Alma is back to training normally in the swimming pool after surgery and treatment for a rare form of cancer found in the joints of the arm, neck or leg called synovial sarcoma that was discovered in February.
“It’s really exciting to be able to do what I love to do,” said VanDeMark, now a senior, who won the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals 500-yard freestyle and also earned all-state with a seventh-place finish in the 100 butterfly last November.
“This has been a crazy year. It’s been polar opposites. Both great and awful things have happened to me.”
People are amazing
VanDeMark says she has learned a lot.
“The biggest thing I have learned is how amazing people are,” she said. “When you go through something like this, it gives you a good faith that people will be there for you.”
That’s what VanDeMark felt when Alma High School students wrote letters to her in April when she was starting chemotherapy treatments at University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor.
“Not gonna lie, I totally cried when I got all of the letters everyone sent,” she tweeted on April 25. “I can’t describe how thankful I am for the support. Y’all rock.”
“It was really amazing,” she said. “You never know how much people care about you until something like this happens.
“I had other people reaching out to me that I hadn’t talked to in six years. They just wanted to say I really miss you, and I’m really sorry this happened to you. It was really cool to feel that support when I needed it.”
VanDeMark had been one of the softball team’s top players as a sophomore the year before and attended a few softball games last spring, but she missed out on the Panthers’ District and Regional championships and competing in a Quarterfinal game at U-M.
“Obviously I was excited for them, but it was hard to be watching and not playing – especially for such a big year,” she said. “They did so well, and I wish I could have been a part of it. But overall I’m really excited they did so well, and I’m excited to play with them next year because I think we can be a lot better.”
The first round of chemotherapy, VanDeMark said, she “didn’t do very well.”
“But they switched up the anti-nausea medication, and I actually did a lot better after that,” she added. “I was still pretty worn out, and I needed to take naps every once in a while. But I wasn’t as bedridden.”
She was able to attend a May 21 benefit event held to raise money for her treatment.
“That was cool that I was actually able to go for a little while on that Saturday after the treatment ended that Thursday,” she said.
VanDeMark began doing some swimming in the spring.
“I had to miss a week of school every three weeks,” she said. “So I had a lot of homework to catch up on. But whenever I was not doing that, I was in practice.”
Coming back
After each chemotherapy treatment, she had to take a couple of days to recuperate.
“But normally by the following Monday, I was back in the pool even if it wasn’t for full practices,” she said. “I started with one set, and added a set every day. Now I’m swimming two-a-day practices in my normal lane.”
The last chemotherapy session took place June 28-30.
“The plan at first was to do 4-6, but they stopped me at five because everything looked pretty good at that point,” she said. “My doctor said it would be OK to move on to radiation.”
She tweeted July 18 that she was “so excited to wake up and go to swim tomorrow instead of chemo.”
“I tweeted that because that would have been the day I went back for round six of chemo,” said VanDeMark, who then started radiation July 25. “Compared to chemo, it’s a piece of cake.”
She has radiation sessions five times per week for five weeks through the end of August at St. Mary’s of Michigan Medical Center in Saginaw.
Meanwhile, her strength is returning in the pool.
“It has definitely gotten better,” she said. “I’m still a little bit slower than the boys at this point, but I’m catching up. I’m doing the same workouts I would have been doing if nothing had ever happened, and it feels really good.
“It’s exciting to be able to do something you were able to do before. It makes me feel like I overcame something.”
Yet VanDeMark feels she is “kind of out of shape.”
“I feel like I would have felt starting in May normally,” she said. “It is a little bit weird feeling like this in August when the season is about to start. I really think I can get back to where I was, although just swimming at all is going to be pretty awesome because I wasn’t sure at the beginning of all this what I was going to be able to do or how long treatment would last.”
The four-time all-stater wants to continue the success that saw her finish ninth in the 500 free and fifth in the 100 butterfly as a freshman at the LP Division 3 Finals in 2013, sixth in the 500 free and 10th in the 100 butterfly as a sophomore and first in the 500 free and seventh in the 100 butterfly last fall.
“I think I’ll go back to states for sure,” she said. “I don’t know if I will score as high although I certainly hope so. I want to get better, and be better than I was last year. After all, if you’re not working to improve, what are you working for? But I don’t have whole lot of expectations at this point.”
She asked Alma’s swimming coach since 1980, Jeff Huxley, for advice on how to get back to where she was last season.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Well you know, I guess we’re in uncharted territory right now, aren’t we?’” she said. “Our plan is just to do what I think I can do, and he told me to let him know what I think because he has no idea what I feel like at this point, and how could he? But we’ll figure something out.”
Sisterly support
Huxley also coached Evelyn’s 21-year-old sister Lillian.
“She’s kind of the reason I started swimming,” Evelyn said. “I was the little sister who followed her around and did what she was doing. We swam together for a long time. It helps, because she was really good.
“She’s on the record board for multiple events. Sometimes it’s really helpful to look up at the record board, see the ‘L. VanDeMark’ and think I want to be as good as she was. It’s good motivation for sure.”
Lillian and Evelyn’s 25-year-old sister, Grace, has been helpful during her illness this year.
“We’re all really close,” Evelyn said. “Sometimes it’s not even what they do. It’s just having them be there talking to me. They’re both very strong people. I look up to them, and it’s helpful to have strong people around you when you’re going through something like this.”
Evelyn has adjusted to not having hair.
“It was tough at first,” she said. “When it was falling out, I got a little bit emotional. When we went to shave it off, it was scary. But once I did it, I looked healthier without hair than I did with patchy short hair. That didn’t look good, and it was just easier to get rid of it.
“People still stare at me. That doesn’t really bother me. I’m pretty used to it.”
An experience in Saginaw on July 27 was memorable.
“I was at radiation, I walked in the door, and there was this old lady smiling at me,” Evelyn said. “She said, ‘Can I give you a hug?’ I said, ‘Of course you can.’
“Her husband said that she was worried about losing her hair, because she had just finished radiation and was going to chemo. It was kind of cool, because I got to tell her to not worry about it. She looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, you look so cute.’ I said thank you.
“It was just an amazing feeling, because I knew I never would have gotten that hug if I had hair. That to me is worth so much more than having hair.”
Evelyn expects her hair to start growing back soon.
“But since I’m in the pool, it breaks off a little bit,” she said. “So I think it will take longer than they expect it to.”
She’s excited to see if new hair will come in darker or curly, as has been the case with some who have battled cancer.
Meanwhile, she needs no bathing cap and is more aerodynamic as she swims in the water.
“I talked to my coach and said, ‘You know, I might just shave it again because that would be so intimidating at state to see a bald girl walk up,’” Evelyn said. “They would probably think, ‘She shaved her head! She’s serious about this!’”
VanDeMark tweeted, “It’s an amazing feeling when your someday becomes your today” after earning the MHSAA title at Eastern Michigan University’s pool in Ypsilanti last Nov. 21.
She has since found out that she swam that day with the cancer already progressing.
“It had been an ongoing thing,” Huxley said. “We assumed it was just a bruise or some kind of trauma from playing softball. It might have been around for a long time.
“She’s a trooper,” Huxley added. “She’s been anxious to get back in the water. I don’t know how things are going to play out, but I’m happy she’s healthy. She’s doing the absolute best that I think a human can handle under the circumstances. She’s a battler.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Alma's Evelyn VanDeMark swims the butterfly during a training session this month. (Middle) VanDeMark received her first-place medal from her coach Jeff Huxley after winning the 500 freestyle at last season's LP Division 3 Final. (Photos provided by Gratiot County Herald.)
Stevenson's Siroky Surges Amid Challenges, Skates & Swims to Stardom
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
January 13, 2022
McKenzie Siroky isn't the first female athlete to compete on a boys hockey team in Michigan, but she might well be the best.
Siroky's decision to try out, and be selected, for the Livonia Stevenson boys hockey team this season required a firm commitment and a hefty dose of courage. Siroky easily could have remained on the elite HoneyBaked AAA team she had been a member of for four years but she saw this, competing with and against the boys, as an opportunity.
And Siroky has never been one to back down from a new challenge. Besides, competing against the boys is nothing new for her – she has three older brothers who came through Stevenson coach David Mitchell's program – and she's confident it will eventually lead her to becoming a better player as she prepares to compete at the next level.
Siroky, 16, is a junior forward and arguably one of the top all-around female athletes in Michigan, perhaps the Midwest, over the last 10 years. She recently committed to play hockey at Minnesota-Duluth, one of the country's top programs, and two months ago she set the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Girls Swimming & Diving Finals record in the 100-yard breaststroke.
As a sophomore in 2020, Siroky won the Division 1 title in the breaststroke with a time of 1:01.45. At the Holland Aquatic Center this past November, Siroky won the event with a time of 1:00.85. Her 1:00.48 in the prelim set the MHSAA Finals all-class, all-division record, besting the 1:00.56 swam by Miranda Tucker of Waterford in 2014.
Siroky also was a member of relay teams that finished fourth in both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle.
Although hockey has always been her main sport, Siroky said she intends to compete in swimming next fall.
“I want to be the first to break the 1-minute (mark),” she said.
Given Siroky's track record, it shouldn't surprise anyone if she did. It's that challenge thing.
Sure she's talented, but there's so much more to Siroky than pure ability. She's had to overcome obstacles and heartaches most only hear about – and her work ethic and willingness to sacrifice have Siroky on the road to success.
Siroky said she started skating when she was about 5 years old. A year later, as a first grader, she played on her first organized hockey team, the Livonia Sharks, and she could hardly contain her joy.
“I remember going to school wearing my jersey,” she said. “I was so proud. I wore it all day.”
Siroky has been hooked ever since. But before hockey, there was swimming.
Her mother Michele Siroky also attended Stevenson and was a three-time Class A Finals champion, twice as part of relays and in 1987 in the 200 freestyle, before competing at Michigan State. Michele, who was a teammate of Olympic Gold medalist Sheila Taormina at Stevenson, introduced her eldest daughter to swimming and, although it was more of a summer activity at first, McKenzie’s love for the sport grew.
Michele's maiden name was McKenzie, hence her daughter's name. She coached at a handful of places including Stevenson and was an occupational therapist before working for Livonia Public Schools. In 2012, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Three years later she developed breast cancer and beat that, but succumbed to the brain cancer and died on July 26, 2017.
“She got me in the pool,” Siroky said. “She coached me for five or six years until she couldn't anymore. She also swam the breaststroke. I got most of my training (in that event) from her.
“She gave me motivation. She gave back to the community by coaching at Burton Hollow (Swim Club) and other ways.”
Michele was an exceptional person. She devoted herself to the care of children and her family. She made a seamless transition from being a swim mom to a hockey mom, driving her children to practice, preparing meals and keeping a sharp eye on their schedules.
For Siroky, a day doesn't pass without thoughts of her mother, who was her mentor, teacher and friend. She continues to draw strength from her and remains a driving force in her life.
As much as Siroky enjoyed being in the pool, and having her mother as a coach, hockey has always been her favorite sport. Perhaps it was watching her bothers (Alex, Kyle and Jack) play and compete so well that made such an impact on her. Or perhaps the realization that she was good at it, and enjoyed every minute on the ice, playing or practicing.
As she advanced from the Sharks to the Livonia Knights, Siroky ran into disappointment – and it proved beneficial.
The girls program placed two age groups per level. When Siroky was 9, she tried out for the 10-and-under team and was cut as the coaches leaned toward keeping the older players, leaving fewer spots for the younger ones. Undeterred, Siroky went to nearby Farmington where there was a team for her age group.
“It worked out well,” she said. “I started playing at the Triple-A level there. In Livonia they only had Double-A. I feel eventually I would have gone over (to Farmington). Yeah, being cut, I always use that as motivation.”
Other than skating with her brothers, the first time Siroky competed against the boys took place at a developmental summer camp while attending Holmes Middle School in Livonia.
“I felt like I matched up well,” she said. “I was fine.”
This experience made the decision to switch from HoneyBaked to competing with Stevenson this season all the easier.
“It came down to where I was going to develop the most,” she said. “I was playing in an age group, and I had a discussion (with HoneyBaked coaches) to move up.
“Now that I'm on the team, I couldn't be more grateful. I'm trying to get better every day. That's what Coach Mitch says – work to get better every day. And the guys have been great, pushing me every day in practice.”
The more Siroky faces adversity, the more she's inspired to excel.
“Her whole motivation is to be challenged,” Mitchell said. “She's not one to back down. It comes down to how can she become better.”
In July, Siroky was one of 32 players, including five total from Michigan, invited to compete in the USA Hockey Girls U18 Select Player Development Camp in St. Cloud, Minn. This group represented the best of the best for the age group, and from them 23 were selected to the USA U18 women's national team that would compete in the 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's World Championships.
Earlier this month, those 23 players were officially named as members of the 2022 Olympic team that will compete in China in February.
Siroky didn't make the final cut, thus adding motivation and another reason to compete with and against the boys.
“We look at this as an opportunity,” Mitchell said. “Everyone knows McKenzie and the positive energy she brings. She's infectious. It's been a win, win, win for everyone.”
When her mother passed, Siroky found it difficult, at times, to concentrate on her schoolwork. Yes, swimming and hockey provided an outlet, something she could sink her teeth into, but her attention toward school took time. And she received help.
Two years ago, Siroky moved in with her grandmother, Barbara McKenzie, and it was just what Siroky needed. Her grandmother and the guidance she provided filled a gap.
“She does so much for me,” Siroky said. “It gets so busy for me. She'll take things off my shoulders, like some days I'll see that all my laundry is done. That really helps. She knows I like to eat fruits and vegetables, so she'll buy them. And she lives right across from Stevenson, so that saves me time, too.”
Perhaps not so coincidentally, Siroky's grades improved the last two years. She's earned all As.
Her schedule, especially in the fall when she competes in swimming and has hockey practice, is mind-boggling. Three times a week she'll go to swim practice in the morning before school. Then there's practice five days a week after school as well as Saturdays. After swim practice she'll take care of her homework assignments, have dinner, then go to hockey practice. No swim practice on Sundays, so those days are devoted to hockey.
She can't remember the last time she watched television. Energy drinks are a no-no, and she doesn't drink coffee or eat anything that has processed sugar.
“I'm living in the moment,” Siroky said. “I repeat to myself, over and over, ‘How bad do you want it?’”
The results are in full view with hockey and her education taking center stage. She achieved one major goal, that being to play in college. Another would be to make the U.S. U18 national team.
More immediate is this hockey season, which could prove to be quite successful for the Spartans. They started 1-1 (Siroky missed both games due to the swim Finals) and have won 10 of 11 since, including the last five. Stevenson's two losses are to Grosse Pointe South (3-2) and Birmingham Brother Rice (3-1).
“We lost 18 seniors from last year,” Mitchell said. “This group is phenomenal. It's been a high-character group.”
Tom Markowski primarily covered high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. He also is a former correspondent and web content director for State Champs! Sports Network. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Livonia Stevenson’s McKenzie Siroky helps her team to an 8-0 win over Trenton on Jan. 5 (Middle) Siroky sets the all-class/division MHSAA Finals record in the 100 breaststroke during the LPD1 preliminaries in November. (Below) Siroky and her grandmother Barbara McKenzie. (Top photo by Douglas Bargerstock, middle photo by High School Sports Scene, below photo courtesy of McKenzie Siroky.)