NOT EVERY memorable player in sports scores the most points, wins championships or flashes super-athletic moves. Some players become unforgettable by overcoming adversity.
Columbia youth soccer coach Jill Fritsch just finished her fourth season with one such player. Her name is Sara McNeeley and, well, it seems appropriate that she introduce herself to you.
"So, tell me about Sara McNeeley," a grown-up stranger said as a way of starting an interview with her one afternoon last week.
"I'm 12 years old, I'm going to be in the eighth grade and I have diabetes," Sara replied.
That's pretty straight-up stuff. But it is exactly that poise that Fritsch says has made the last couple of soccer seasons a learning experience for her and her players. That and Sara's determination to stay with sports despite a life-altering malady and the usual demands of being a middle school kid.
Sara's been playing soccer since she was 5, but she has been diabetic for three years. It's serious. Type 1, it's called, which means she needs regular doses of insulin, to the point where to avoid multiple needles each day, she wears an implanted device, called an insulin pump, which keeps her body stabilized.
She is still early in what will be a lifetime relationship with the life-sustaining hormone that helps her virus-damaged pancreas convert glucose, or sugar, into energy.
Her diabetes came on, as Sara has explained for classmates in health classes at Mayfield Woods Middle School as well as last week's visitor, "because of a flu bug that left me thirsty all the time, and I lost a lot of weight, and on March 30, 1999, I was diagnosed with diabetes."
"You don't mind talking about it," her visitor said.
"No, I'm really open about it," Sara said. "If you ask me, I'm going to tell you because we shouldn't be afraid of diabetes."
Sara was asked if she had to make any changes in sports because of having diabetes, to which she answered: "During games, I sometimes get dizzy and have to come out and have my blood sugar checked. But all I usually need is something to eat. And I can't play in the rain because of the pump - it cost about $5,000.
"But I don't think it should hold you back from doing anything you want to do."
We should mention Sara's taking up field hockey, too, thanks to Kelly Snyder, Long Reach High's evangelistic coach in that sport, and she is also into horseback riding.
Where did this can-do approach come from? Some of it is natural, said Sara's mother, Amy McNeeley, but she and Sara also mention pretty quickly another sports facet that keeps Sara running.
His name is Gary Hall Jr. You might recall the guy - won four medals, including gold, for the United States in the 2000 Olympics in Australia. Sara met him last year at a diabetes convention in Florida, and the experience weighed a ton.
Hall has Type 1 diabetes, too, wears an insulin pump and was told initially to forget competitive swimming, advice he ignored. He finally found a doctor who told him it was OK as long as he made some adjustments in how he lived.
"He told us," said Sara, " 'Do anything you want. Don't let diabetes defeat you,' and that's how I feel, too. That's when I stopping worrying about diabetes. I can do anything I want to do."
Which is exactly why the coach, many players and parents of the under-12 Hericanes, champs this spring, by the way, are apt to regard forward/goalkeeper Sara McNeeley as memorable for some time to come.
Call the writer at 410-332- 6525 or send e-mail to lowell. sunderland@baltsun.com.