Farmingdale State Athletics

Inside Lacrosse covered the event with the article below, written by Joe Santoloquito, which tells the stories of Nick Baratelle of Wheeling Jesuit and Farmingdale State's own Damian Romanelli...

Nick Baratelle is 19 and not afraid. He keeps telling himself it could be a lot worse. Though he has to be driven everywhere and the vision in his right eye is slowly dissipating. He wishes he can play lacrosse again with his friends, or do anything close to what a normal 19-year-old does in the course of a day. 

But he can't. 

Baratelle suffers from a rare form of cancer called Disseminating Oligodendroglioma leptomeningeal tumors, with multiple growths that dot the surface of his brain. It's a treatable, though not curable form of cancer that possesses a 75% survivor rate after five years of therapy. He was once a goalie on the Wheeling Jesuit lacrosse team, and the 2014 Springfield High (Pa.) grad had a chance to see his buddies again on an otherwise dreary overcast Sunday at the ninth annual Nicholas Colleluori Classic at Ridley High School.

"Nacho," as his teammates and friends call him, was the featured speaker at the annual event, named in honor of Colleluori, the former Hofstra player and creator of the HEADstrong Foundation who died of a rare form of cancer on Nov. 28, 2006. And as the words came out of Baratelle's mouth, the underlying murmuring from the group of Division II and III schools that surrounded him went silent. They listened. No one's eyes wandered from the middle of that field as Baratelle stood there telling them how his life dramatically changed. 

On April 18, 2015, Baratelle was suddenly awakened by the barking of his German shepherd, Koda, the day after coaching a local lacrosse program. He woke up with a blaring headache, and called his mother, Annie, sounding incoherent over the phone. She immediately called 911, and Nick found himself in the hospital for four days. He wound up in the ICU. Two months later, he was diagnosed with cancer.

His hands still shake from it. But he can laugh at his situation. 

"It was tough to hear I had cancer, but it sounds a little weird, my dog knew and if he didn't wake me up, my doctors said, I would have went into a coma and no one was home that day," Nick recalled. "I keep positive. I live day-by-day. I have no time for small things anymore. I don't take a day for granted. I was the last person in the world who thought he would be diagnosed with cancer. It's never happened in my family. Giving up lacrosse was one of the toughest things I ever had to do though. I started playing lacrosse in fourth grade and it's the only sport I ever played—and now I'm losing my vision in my right eye. I could barely catch and throw with the young kids that I'm coaching. 

"Giving up the game hit me pretty hard, because it has been, and it is, a part of my life. I love the game. I have optic nerve damage; everything is becoming blurry. I can't drive, so my friends tote me around everywhere. There are days that I do think, 'Why me?' I have anger, but I'm a person of faith. I figure, God doesn't give you a task that you can't handle. I feel He chose me, because I can handle this."

Then Baratelle laughed, retelling how his nickname "Nacho" came about. How as a high school freshman he went to a team workout bundled in sweats, thinking it would be held outside. It turns out the session was held in a humid gym, and Baratelle admits he wasn't exactly in the best shape. After the team finished doing a series of sprints, the coach had his players line up to stretch. A little lean to the right and Baratelle's re-tasted the previous night's dinner—nachos.  

"Nacho it was there, and it's stuck," Nick said, smiling. "I wore the nickname on the back of my cleats until I got to Wheeling Jesuit. It was a great feeling seeing these guys again. This whole HEADstrong event raises awareness for people like me and my family. This is the first time Wheeling is at this event. This is also great, because there is not a whole lot that I'm able to do. I can't do anything. I'm a 10-minute walk from the high school, and I might take a walk over to help out coaching with the junior varsity in the spring. The guys on Wheeling Jesuit team are all my brothers. After I beat this, I plan on returning to Wheeling Jesuit and plan on being the equipment manager, doing anything I can to be associated with lacrosse. Lacrosse is a piece of my life that I'll never give up. It's what Jesuit teaches you — you play for those who can't."

A normal day for Nick is taking chemo at 5:30 in the morning. Then going back to sleep to recover. He'll waking up later, take around 10 pills. Later in the afternoon, he'll take another round of pills and wait for his 12-year-old sister to arrive home and watch her until his mom comes home.

"I'm not afraid of this disease, and I'm confident that I can and will beat it." Nick said. "But there's a chance that I won't. I'm grateful and don't regret anything that I've done. I've lived my life the way I wanted to these past 19 years, and I'm happy with my life. If I were to die tomorrow, I'd die happy."

Farmingdale State senior midfielder Damian Romanelli could relate somewhat to Baratelle. He beat cancer while a junior at Lindenhurst High School. He found a lump on his hip, and right after a game, he came off the field and was told he had cancer.

"I won't forget it, there were two 21-day cycles of chemo therapy and 14-straight days of radiation and the doctors told me how lucky I was," said Romanelli, who beat Hodgkin's lymphoma Stage3B. "I'm happy I wake up every day. I have to go back Nov. 8, and it will be over 5½ years of beating this. I'm thankful I'm here. It's why I live life to the fullest. I like positive people. I don't let the little stuff bother me. I'm looking forward today and playing lacrosse. I broke my thumb last year, and I have a lot of making up to do."

Farmingdale coach Sean Chamberlain was very aware of Romanelli's situation. 

"Damian is a tough kid who works for everything he gets," Chamberlain said. "He's not worried about the little things. I see him and I do shake my head. You have guys worried about class and what they do on the field, and he has a fight no one else has had. He's a scrapper and when he got hurt, we had something missing on the field. Damian is the crease groundball guy who gets the scrappy goals. I think it's why you admire Damian and (Nick Baratelle) for the battle they're going through."    

As the day was wrapping up, Wheeling Jesuit's team bus boarded an additional passenger—Nick Baratelle. His buddies convinced him to go back with them, with no change of clothes or anything but his Wheeling Jesuit jacket, what he had on his back and a cell phone. He smiled and waved to his mom and he walked up the steps.