Youth football team rallies for cancer-stricken teammate

NEW PORT RICHEY

Youth sport leagues provide more than just fun and recreation. Sometimes they provide a social network comparable to family.

The West Pasco Prowlers are proof of that.

Joey DiBenedetto started the season playing on the Prowlers, offensive and defensive lines. Since turning 14 in early October, however, Joey has been unable to walk after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a common type of malignant bone cancer, in his leg.

"We first noticed a problem back in October because he couldn't walk," Joey's mother, Victoria DiBenedetto, said. "After having him checked out, they said that it was serious and that we'd have to take him to a different hospital because it looked like bone cancer. We were floored."

After finding out the news during a practice one night, the Prowlers immediately began thinking of ways to help their teammate.

"Everyone within the organization was devastated," Prowlers treasurer and Junior Pee Wee coach Steve Bruce said. "Everyone started thinking of ways to raise funds to help his family pay for what he would need. One of the first things we heard was that Joey was upset that he would lose his hair so we had a fundraiser where all the coaches shaved their heads."

Meanwhile Joey's mother was dealing with the possibility of losing her son. After doctors informed her that not only would her son live, but could eventually play sports again, she said it was "like a weight being lifted."

"He has three more chemo treatments left and then he goes in for surgery," Victoria said. "The doctors told me he'll play sports again, and I know it's true. Seeing him go through all this has shown me how strong he is."

Treatment is, of course, expensive and a difficult burden for the family to shoulder on its own. Support from within the Pop Warner community has been essential for the DiBenedettos as it has not only come from the Prowlers, but all Tampa Bay Pop Warner's teams.

For the last few weeks of the season as news of Joey's condition made its way through the league, each team began placing donation buckets at the gate of each game to help raise money for the family. The South Pasco Predators matched what they raised at the gate and presented Victoria with a check for $1,200 at a Nov. 9 fundraiser.

At the same fundraiser, Joey's teammates gave Victoria a present for her son. It was their newest trophy that they won at the Don Clark Memorial Bowl game the day before.

"I looked at it and asked the boys what they thought we should do with it," Joey's Midget team coach Neil Boyle said. "They all looked at me and said they wanted to give it to Joey. That was the way I'd hoped it would go, but it really pleased me to hear them say it."

The trophy was a pleasant surprise for their Prowlers teammate.

"The trophy is awesome," Joey DiBenedetto said in a phone interview from his room at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. "I never expected my teammates to do all the things they've done for me. I'm really happy that they went on to win this."

The gifts haven't stopped there. After an e-mail from Bruce to the producers of the popular radio show Bubba the Love Sponge, the talk radio personality and everyone on his show sent T-shirts, hats and other merchandise for the Prowlers to raffle off. Coaches and parents alike have been moved by the outpouring of support, but no one could be more moved than the DiBenedettos.

"There just aren't enough words to thank everyone," Victoria said. "All these people that have helped us will always be our family."

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