May 28th- Former PVI Golfer in the spotlight

May 28th, 2015 Year 4 Day 28

FREE PRETZEL #28

Sean Sanchirico is a 2013 graduate of Paul VI High School and played golf for me for 4 years, in 3 of those years earning a varsity letter.  Sean also played on PVI's soccer team, earning varsity letters in his final two season. Sean improved every year he was on the golf team, but heading into his senior year he wasn't feeling right.  He had what is called Gastroparesis in which he could not keep food down, lost his appetite and as a result lost close to thirty pounds.  He didn't even finish the soccer season.  He was determined to make it on the golf course in the spring and even if he was getting sick on the course he played through it to again not only improve his own game, but lead our team to one of our best records.  He was my captain and just an all around outstanding young man.

Sean went on to Rutgers-Camden and played for their golf team as a walk-on his freshman year.  He was making strides, much like he did for me, trying to improve every day.  He was still dealing with health issues and then during a routine eye exam it was found that he had a brain tumor.  He was admitted for surgery two days later and the tumor was successfully and cleanly removed.  As with any brain surgery, Sean would be in the hospital for a while.  He had to learn how to do things all over again, especially walk and even play golf again. 

As poised as is if he was standing on the first tee.

Sean loves golf and loves life.  Tonight, Sean was asked by PVI to be the guest speaker at the annual Spring Sports Banquet.  Sean spoke eloquently about what it means to be prepared in life for what may be thrown at you.  He talked about what high school sports can do for you as a person and the life lessons it can teach you.  He admitted that what he went through in the fall might be the hardest thing he will ever have to deal with in his life, but that the lessons he learned from playing high school sports, of "never give up, keep working hard to reach your goals and always pushing yourself"  is what helped him in his fight against cancer.

Sean has represented himself, his family, our golf program and PVI with dignity, class and perseverance.  I wanted to let him know about the blog and that he deserved a FREE PRETZEL for just being who he was, all the time.  He was nervous about giving his speech, but he was great.  I was an extremely proud coach watching how poised he was.

Proud coach

I am happy to say that Sean has already started classes again at Rutgers and that he has been back on the gold course recently and plans on rejoining the team again in the fall.  I hope he appreciated the small pretzel gift.  I told him about cheddar cheese in the microwave for 30 secs.  I hope it was good.
Hopefully this summer we will get out on the links and work on his game again.  I'm sure he is pretty happy to just get out there.

Until tomorrow...