Basketball
Favorite athlete: LeBron James
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Making a three-point buzzer beater to win jayvee game my sophomore year.
Most embarrassing thing that has happened while competing in sports: I got a bloody nose at halftime in one game and had to play the second half with a nose plug!
Music on iPod: Country
Future plans: Major in communications at Millersville University
Words to live by: “Believe”
One goal before turning 30: Be a wish grantor for Make-A-Wish
By GORDON GLANTZ
They say a picture speaks 1,000 words.
How about a million?
How about infinite?
Not possible?
Try this one: A player from a team with only one league win suddenly finds herself part of a championship celebration, cutting down the net when another team wins the prestigious Philadelphia Catholic League title at the Palestra.
Yes, it sounds impossible.
But when your name is Amanda Brett, well, anything is possible.
With a frustrating senior season at Hatboro-Horsham in the history books, Brett was asked to speak to the powerful Neumann-Goretti squad prior to a playoff game to share her inspiring story of surviving a brain tumor at age 11 and then braving the prospect that it had returned eight years later -- only to learn the damage done to her temporal lobe left her with epilepsy.
At the time, Neumann-Goretti - the odds-on favorite to win league, district and state titles - was under intense scrutiny because of foreign exchange student-athlete standouts on the team.
“A lot of my speech was about always believing,” she said. “Believe in never giving up. Don’t turn away when things get hard.”
The Saints won that game with about 50 points to spare, and they kept Brett along for the playoff run – all the way to the triumphant state title game in Hershey, where she continued celebrating as if she had been on the court.
“It was weird being on a winning side,” she said. “It gave me more perspective. It reminded me how much I love the game. They are like a big family.
“Cutting down the net was such an unbelievable feeling for me. I was on that journey with the girls, and it was awesome to see how much my story inspired them and they actually inspire me.
“I've never really been part of a championship team. Just seeing how much these girls were able to do by just sticking together, it made what I went through so worthwhile because I honestly feel I survived for a reason. I made it through so I could do something in life and help people.”
Determined to Win
No one will ever accuse the Univest Featured Female Athlete of the Week of not practicing what she preaches.
“I always want to be the best,” said the straight-A student and hoops junkie, while taking quick glances at the television at Game 4 of the NBA Finals, keeping a watchful eye on LeBron James, her favorite athlete.
She then recounted the first time she used her long-range shooting skills to edge her father – and original coach, Ron -- in a game of H-O-R-S-E in a game outside the family’s home in quiet cul-de-sac in Horsham Township.
“I was so excited,” she said. “I came running in the house, screaming, ‘Mom, I beat him.’”
“That’s what got her through, her determination,” added her mother, Dorothy Brett. “She doesn’t like to lose.”
And what Amanda Brett has fought through to score a victory over cancer makes most battles with daily adversity seem trivial by comparison.
During the summer of 2007, between fourth and fifth grade, she battled powerful headaches that were presumed to be migraines that her older sister had been enduring from an even younger age.
“So, for three months, Mom of the Year over here blew her off,” said Dorothy, who used deductive reasoning about hormonal changes at age 11 coinciding with the arrival of the headaches.
But by November, Amanda was on an operating table at CHOP having a tumor the size of a golf ball removed from her brain by Dr. Leslie N. Sutton.
“It’s very surreal,” said Ron Brett, who allowed Sutton to perform the surgery, without a second opinion, because he “liked his cockiness” and knew time was of the essence.
“You don’t expect it to happen to your family.”
Perspective
In a basketball sense, it may have been “weird” going on a championship run as an adopted member of the Neumann-Goretti squad after enduring more losses than wins in her four-year career at Hatboro-Horsham.
But Amanda surely felt at home in the “big family” setting, as her family – including older sister, Allie, and younger sister, Lexie – fought the battle against cancer together, forming a bond that only soldiers in trench warfare could understand and share.
The Brett sisters are her best friends and confidants.
“As much as we bicker, we’re really close,” said Amanda, who enjoyed being in the same program with Lexie, a freshman, this past season at H-H.
“After Amanda got well, they bickered less,” said Ron, adding that Amanda’s follow-up appointments – which have progressed from regular to semi-regular, and from CHOP to Jefferson Hospital – are family outings, with Allie and Lexie also taking off from school.
Amanda’s sisters were always her cheerleaders, but both stepped up this year after the diagnosis of epilepsy.
“I have a very, very close relationship with them,” she said. “They have been there for me through it all. Before my little sister played on the same team as me, they came to all my high school games to support me.
“With all the health issues that happened to me this year, they have helped me a lot. My little sister always looked out for me at practice by paying attention to see if I had any (seizure) episodes. Since I can't drive, my older sister was a huge help on giving me rides. Whether to basketball practices or just to a friend’s house, she always took time to help me out, and I know that must have been awful and annoying for her.”
As for the role her parents played, from before she got sick to the present, Amanda says their strength gave her strength.
“My parents have been my number one supporters through it all,” she said. “Whether on the court, in school, or just being a good person, they have shaped me into the person I am today. I can only imagine how hard it must have been in 2011 -- and even now -- being so scared of my health and how to deal. They never gave up on me and always believed in me.
“They never showed fear and made me believe everything was going to be OK.”
Ron and Dorothy may have put on a brave front, but their faith was put to the test, only to have it emerge stronger.
Ron explained he was raised Catholic, but was only a casual member of the faith, only going to church at Christmas and Easter or for weddings. He now attends every Sunday, and often stops in the middle of the day and offers up a prayer of gratitude.
“When Amanda got sick, it put things in perspective for everybody,” he said. “Families take things for granted, but life is too short. Everything else doesn’t matter. You appreciate each and every day more.”
Just a Game
Basketball is the genes in the Brett family. Ron was a second-team All-PCL performer at Bishop McDevitt then spent what he calls “the four best years of my life” playing for Susquehanna, which then competed at the Division II level.
Dorothy, the sister of Bernie Fitzgerald – whose coaching resume includes a stint at La Salle High School and current spot as an assistant coach on the men’s squad at Gwynedd Mercy University – gave him three daughters, but that was fine by him.
Ron coached them all, at every level, up to travel basketball.
Before Amanda, Allie gave up basketball early in high school while Lexie was on the H-H junior varsity this past season – putting her in the same program as Amanda -- but suited up for the varsity a few times. She is currently rehabbing a torn ACL, putting her sophomore season in jeopardy.
She will, undoubtedly, receive the same support in her battle to get back onto the court as Amanda did with her dire health issues.
“My mom is the typical supportive mother for student-athletes,” said Amanda. “She's the one you can go cry to after a bad game, or always telling me I did well, even when I know I didn't.
“But my dad had the biggest impact on my basketball career and in life. He was my coach growing up. He taught me everything I know about the sport. He pushed me harder than anyone else, which usually led to fights, but I know it's because he saw the talent I had in me. Even though he told me everything I need to do better after games, I know how proud he was in every game I played.
“I couldn’t ask for better parents, or a better family, than I have. I'm so lucky to have them and don't know what I would do without them.”
Amanda had the opportunity to continue her basketball career at Gwynedd Mercy -- where Allie attends -- but chose another path.
Seeking a larger school atmosphere, she will attend Millersville University. While dad wants her to try out for the basketball team as a walk-on, she is content playing intramural ball.
“I love basketball; I love watching basketball. I will definitely miss it. I know I will,” said Amanda. “It’s sad, but …
But, while she loves the game of basketball, the family game, she realizes it is just that – a game.
Living Proof
Founded in 1980, the Make- A-Wish Foundation plays for higher stakes, with greater rewards, than any basketball team.
And Amanda plans to major in communications at Millersville and continue helping others with the organization that played such a key role in her life.
“I hope to go back and work for the Make-A-Wish Foundation,” said Amanda. “It’s about giving back to helping kids. I have an understanding about where they are and what they are going through. I just want to try to help them.”
She went on to explain how the Make-A-Wish Foundation “reached out to me” when she was in eighth grade at Keith Valley Middle School, asking her to do motivational speaking to groups.
She vividly remembers walking into a room at the Commonwealth Club “in front of a bunch of rich guys” at a golf outing and feeling a bit overwhelmed.
“I was so nervous the first time,” she recalls. “Now, I’m not nervous at all.”
And there couldn’t be any more of a winning team – one that unites families of all creeds, classes and races during their darkest times – by granting wishes to children, ages 3 to 17, who are diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses than the Make-A Wish Foundation.
Making speeches about her journey was the first step. The second came this past school year.
Her senior project at H-H was with Make-A-Wish, where she shadowed Molly Gatto -- the same person who coordinated her wish, which was a dream trip for the family to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas that began when a white stretch limo pulled up in front of the family’s house and included fun in the sun and swimming with dolphins.
“I was fortunate enough to be Amanda's volunteer wish granter several years ago,” said Gatto, now the Director of Program services for the local office (Philadelphia, Northern Delaware, Susquehanna Valley), and who is described as “just an incredible woman” by Amanda.
Added Gatto, who said she feels “like a proud parent” upon learning that Amanda wants to work for Make-A-Wish: “I was impressed with Amanda and her family right from the beginning. It was clear that they were a very caring and loving family. It was also clear that Amanda's family was supportive of whatever her wish would be.”
A video of the trip – featuring the song “Smile” by Uncle Kracker – still exists on YouTube.Ron admits he cries “every time I hear that song.”
Gatto explained that “granting a wish to a child (and their family)” can provide the “hope, strength and joy” to give them the “leg up” during treatment.
She pointed to a survey shows that revealed 90 percent of physicians concurred that granting a child a wish:
• Improves their patients’ state of mind
• Improves willingness to comply with treatment requirements, their response to treatment, and their physical health
“Amanda is a perfect example of how a whish can have a positive effect on a child both in the moment but also as they grow up,” said Gatto, who added that working with her during this past school was living proof of the theory.
“I was thrilled when Amanda contacted me regarding her senior project. It was an easy decision to help her in any way I could. Amanda spent many days and hours working with our wish granting team to plan and complete wishes. She accompanied me on a wish interview as well as a wish reveal for a very sick child. She then presented her work to her teachers and fellow students and received many positive comments.”
Moment of Truth
Amanda also played soccer and softball growing up, but soon realized that basketball was her game and was focused just on that by seventh grade.
That year also brought another revelation.
“In middle school, in seventh grade, my class was learning about tumors and cancer,” she said. “I was like, wait a second.”
She came home and asked her mother -- who works in the medical field and had first-hand experience when her sister-in-law, Diane Fitzgerald, lost a courageous battle to cancer – and the moment of truth had arrived.
“We never told her,” said Dorothy, adding that she would wait until Amanda was old enough to comprehend.
“At the time, we just didn’t want to scare her more than she had to be scared,” said Ron.
So what did Amanda believe, from fourth grade – when she missed three months of school and was “miserable” because of it – through seventh?
“They said I had a stone in my head,” said Amanda, whose follow-up appointments will continue until she is 25.
Most seventh graders might not have been able to handle the news, but she was not most seventh graders.
For example, shortly after her stay in CHOP, Amanda – not pleased with the choice of “Barney” or Sesame Street” -- started “Amanda’s Mission for Movies” and collected more than 1,500 age-appropriate DVDs for older patients to watch.
She was wise beyond her years, and perhaps had a subconscious sense that she had survived something serious against all odds.
She just had yet to put a name to it.
“I sat down and talked to her about it,” said Dorothy.
Suspicions confirmed, Amanda still had to wrap her mind around the concept that she was a cancer survivor.
“You hear about it,” she said. “You see it on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ You think, ‘that was me.’ It was just weird.”
Don’t Stop Believin’
Feeling more and more like they can exhale with each encouraging CAT Scan, the Bretts can be mentors to others.
What do they tell families going through the same type of crisis, one that almost has no equal?
“Believe,” said Dorothy, while Amanda points the side of her foot at the tattoo – one that sister, Allie, also got at the same time -- with the word “believe” on it. “That’s our family motto. Believe in friends. Believe in family. Believe in God.
“You think you know, but when it turned around on me, it was different.”
The belief in family and friends came in various forms, from waiting alongside the Bretts during the surgery – which came after four days in CHOP’s ICU with steroids to treat the swelling – to taking care of Allie and Lexie on the home front.
After the surgery, when Dorothy was camped out at CHOP, she called home and Lexie said that “Daddy is crying.”
Dorothy immediately began to assure the youngest of the three girls not to worry, and that Amanda, the middle sister, was going to be alright. It turned that Ron was overcome by coming home to a stocked fridge and a cleaned house.
“Family and friends were unbelievable,” said Ron. “They helped us get through it.”
Ominous Signs
Following the summer between fourth and fifth grade, one filled with vicious headaches and nausea – a classic migraine symptom – there was no relief.
“One thing I started noticing that she was 11, and she would just stop whatever she was doing and just vomit,” said Dorothy. “In a summer league game, she ran off the court into the bathroom. I followed her.
“She went back on the court and they won the game. That’s when we started to think to ourselves, ‘What the heck is going on?’”
On a Sunday – Nov. 10, 2007 – Amanda was trying out for a travel team coached by her dad when she took herself out of the scrimmage and ran to the bathroom and threw up.
Dorothy’s instinct was not to wait to visit the doctor on Monday, so they went to the ER, where a CAT Scan revealed a cyst.
“She was not herself,” said Dorothy, adding that had it not been for the cyst, creating the symptoms, the tumor would have grown to the point of being inoperable. “She was really miserable.”
By Thursday – Nov. 14, 2007 – Amanda was on the operating table at CHOP, as the cyst was revealed to be attached to a tumor in her right temporal lobe. It was the approximate size of a golf ball.
The Bretts and their support system were expecting a long wait – at least six hours.
“Two hours into a six-hour surgery, he came out,” said Ron. “I figured it had to be either good news or bad news. He said the tumor was out.”
Before Sutton could pivot and return to the operating room, Ron gave the doctor not known for bedside manner an embrace for “saving my daughter’s life.”
Able to laugh about it now, the Bretts remember the physician’s assistant relaying it was the only time she saw Sutton show any affection.
A Senior Moment
One visit to Amanda Brett’s Facebook page reveals that she is ready to move on to the next chapter.
With the ink not even dry on her diploma – and before she even left for Senior Week in Ocean City, Md. – she already listed herself as a student at Millersville.
“I'm so excited for the next chapter of my life-- to get a fresh start next year and meet friends that'll last a lifetime,” she said.
And you really can’t blame her, not after the senior year she had at Hatboro-Horsham.
She had put in her dues for the Hatters, earning a call-up to the varsity as freshman and then a starting role at shooting guard for Steve Flynn, also her AAU coach since eighth grade -- as a sophomore and junior.
She averaged around 6 to 7 points per game those years, but it is all relative, as the team often struggled to get to 40 points a game.
Suddenly, as a senior, Brett was not only without Flynn, but assistant Mike Elton – who she credits for having “a huge impact on me, basketball-wise” -- but was eager to show new coach Kathie Sims, a former Villanova player, she could be relied upon as a veteran presence.
“It was a tough transition she had to make,” said Ron. “They had different (coaching) styles. “
And then, on top of that, fate had other plans.
Amanda started getting strange auras and other neurological issues that were reminiscent of 2007.
“It was almost seven years, to the day,” said Dorothy, adding that Amanda was experiencing many of the “exact same symptoms” from that challenging time they thought was in the past.
“It was hard,” said Amanda. “At first, I tried to just keep it to myself.”
But the symptoms were too persistent.
Suddenly, basketball didn’t matter as much.
“I was terrified,” said Amanda. “I remember crying in the car.”
While a diagnosis of epilepsy is nothing to celebrate, it is better than the nightmare scenario of the tumor growing.
The next struggle was to find the right medication, and right dosage, to control the seizure auras (known as “partial” or “focal” or “localized” seizures).
When people learn of her diagnosis, they immediately think of full seizures, commonly known as “grand mal” seizures.
“Everyone thinks that,” said Amanda, who said her form of seizures never last more than 10 seconds. “I try to explain to people that’s not what it is.”
But it is still a serious chronic condition, requiring daily medication, to control.
This process leads to a lot of overlap of medications, as the patient is weaned off one and started on another.
For Amanda, who was not allowed to drive for six months as a result of the diagnosis, a corner was turned when she was put on an effective dosage of Lamictal. While her grades never suffered, as she maintained a 95 or above in every class, basketball was not coming as easy.
“It was hard,” she said. “It made me drowsy, but I didn’t want to show it. I just wanted to keep going. I wanted to play.
“It was definitely not what I hoped it would be.”
Walking Away a Winner
Although she was down on herself, her parents had a more objective view and could not a have been more proud of how she handled the adversity.
“She never missed a practice,” said Dorothy. “She never missed a game.
“She was very upset after games. She felt like she wasn’t playing up to her full potential. The problem was, it wasn’t her fault. She kept trying.”
Meanwhile, with the Hatters struggling to an eventual six-win finish, her playing time varied from game to game in what was quickly becoming a “transition year.”
“I understand, but I was an asset,” she said, frustrating at small things she took for granted, like facing her “best basketball friend” Shelby Schoonover for extended minutes when H-H took on Pennridge. “It affected me. It was such a downer. I felt like I was getting worse as a player.
“It was like I had to try out all over again.”
After her mom added that she thinks the experience was a big reason why her middle daughter with an indomitable spirit decided not to play in college, Amanda was silent for a second before chiming into the conversation around her kitchen table.
“I lost my driver’s license,” she said. “I lost my starting spot.”
“But she didn’t lose her drive,” Ron was quick to add.
“My senior year did have a slight impact on whether to play next year but mostly it depended on what I thought would be better for me,” said Amanda. “Gwynedd Mercy was too small of a school for me and I really enjoyed Millersville when I visited it.”
While she put on a brave front -- cheering on her younger teammates from her strange vantage point on the end of the bench – she was taking the losses hard and was often bewildered on bus rides when she would be angry about the outcome while younger teammates who played more minutes would be laughing and texting on their phones.
“I was discouraged and down,” she said. “I just wanted to be part of a winning team.”
But when your name is Amanda Brett, winning—even against all odds – is a given.
The impossible was possible.
She won a state championship with one of the best teams in the country.
She gets her driver’s license back on July 7.
And will she move forward well aware of where she has been, grateful for the second chance she has been given at the game of life.
