It was a rainy October Saturday night in West New York when 17-year-old Memorial High School football player Justin Cortez was warming up for the game against North Bergen. He hadn’t been feeling well for the past week, but he, his coach, and his family assumed he had a cold.
According to head coach and social studies teacher Oscar Guerrero, Justin attended every practice leading up to the game, even though he was sick.
“That’s the kind of kid he is,” Guerrero said.
Justin ran one play and began to feel out of breath. At half time, the medical team checked his lungs, and everything sounded fine, but “I didn’t feel like myself,” Justin said.
When he returned home that evening, he couldn’t sleep, and every time he lay down he could not breathe. His parents drove him to the emergency room, and the next day, a CAT scan revealed a 10 by 16 centimeter mass on the left side of his esophagus. It was pushing against his lungs and causing the breathing problems.
“It was the most intense week of my life.” –Justin Cortez
____________
“It was the most intense week of my life,” Justin said.
Word spread quickly and Guerrero, school faculty, fellow students, and the community began planning fundraisers for Justin’s medical bills. He did not have health insurance at the time.
“No 17-year-old should have to go through that,” Guerrero said. “I don’t know if I could be as strong as Justin has been. He was and is a tremendous kid.”
Some giant encouragement
While Justin was in the hospital receiving radiation treatment in November, 24-year-old Giants rookie Mark Herzlich, whose number is 58 (Justin’s is 57), visited the children’s cancer ward at Hackensack Medical Center. Herzlich was diagnosed with bone cancer when he was 21 and was told he would never run again. After six months of chemotherapy and 51 radiation treatments, he defied his diagnosis and wound up playing for one of the most well-known football teams in the area.
He met with Justin during his visit, which was televised on Fox’s Today Show. “Don’t ever be ashamed or feel bad that you’re sick,” Herzlich told Justin. “You’re a survivor and you should be proud of that fact.”
The school made orange rubber bracelets in Justin’s honor to raise money, similar to those created by cancer survivor and bicyclist Lance Armstrong. Herzlich wore Justin’s bracelet during his game against the Patriots that evening in support.
It takes a community
“We treat our team as a family,” Guerrero said, “and one of our family was in need.”
The immediate question was how to raise the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time.
Justin’s fellow teammates, classmates, and faculty decided to sell the orange bracelet Herzlich wore and sweatshirts with Justin’s number on them.
A local company, Cover Stitches, sold the school the shirts at cost to help them raise more money, and the team donated the profits they had made on the sweatshirt sales from the previous year. They were able to raise $6,800 for the family.
But they didn’t stop there.
On Senior Night (which precedes a football game), four weeks after Justin’s diagnosis, the bleachers were full of community members wearing the number 57. Justin delayed his routine chemotherapy treatment until the next day so he could attend.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in attendance,” Guerrero said. “And they won the game for Justin that night.”
The student council, the town, and the Board of Education pitched in and managed to raise an additional $2,000 for the family.
Positive prognosis
Justin only has about a month and a half of chemotherapy treatment left, and the mass has shrunk by 98 percent. Strangely, he still boasts a pretty full head of thick, black hair. Most chemo patients lose theirs.
Justin has a theory.
His grandfather passed away from lymphoma two years prior to his own diagnosis. “He was a business person. His appearance mattered to him, and he didn’t want to lose his hair,” Justin said. “So my father says my grandfather’s spirit is holding my hair in.”
Justin has managed to keep up with school work thanks to home schooling, and he hopes to play football again.
“I have my days,” Justin said. “Some days I want to stay in bed, but some days I’m positive. I have to set a good example for my family and my younger sister. They worry a lot about me.”
Justin is in the process of applying to college and is set to graduate at the end of the year with his senior classmates.
Despite the generous fundraising efforts of his community, he and his family still have medical bills to pay. For more information on how to help the Cortez family, call the MHS Athletic Office at (201) 861-2555. Checks or money orders should be written out to “MHS Budget” with the memo “Justin Cortez contribution” and sent to Coach Oscar Guerrero at 5501 Park Ave., West New York, N.J., 07093.
Gennarose Pope may be reached at gpope@hudsonreporter.com