March 25, 2008

By Mike Stetson
Idaho Press Tribune

CALDWELL - As a two-sport star athlete at The College of Idaho, Amy Rhoades had no reason to worry about her health.

After all, the junior was enjoying a great season on the soccer field after helping the Yote softball team to a record-setting season.

All that changed in October after Rhoades found a lump in her chest.

"It probably had just moved but in a certain spot where I could just feel it," Rhoades recalls, adding that her mom, Rhonda, worked in a doctor's office, so they went in to check out the lump.

"They said 'let's just go get you a mammogram and make sure,' and I had the mammogram," Amy said. "Two days later I had a biopsy, and two days after that the biopsy came back positive saying it was cancer.

"My mom's boss actually had to call me," Rhoades recalls. "(My mom) answered the phone and the radiologist said they had my results and she said that's 'my daughter.' They go, 'Oh.' So she started crying.

"The doctor called me and I was in with the surgeon within four hours of that call."

They found a tumor just larger than a quarter (2.4 centimeters) and removed it, but found no other traces of cancer. Still, the ordeal wasn't near finished.

They removed her lymph nodes, leaving her with stitches under her arms, a scar on her chest from the surgery to remove the lump, and a small plastic port in her chest where she says: "I receive the chemotherapy. I had six sessions of chemotherapy, all 3 weeks apart and it's four different IV drips, so it's about a 4 1/2 hour thing every time."

During it all, Rhoades kept taking classes, scaling back to part time, though, and never got too sick. She did, however, battle an ear infection, sinus infection and bronchitis all at one time during her recovery.

It is a recovery that is still on-going, in part due the patience of the Coyote goal keeper in women's soccer and second baseman in softball. She could have played on the diamond this spring, but after discussing returning to the field with coach Al Mendiola and her teachers, she opted to take a little longer to rest and recover.

"(We) thought it would be better for my health just to postpone this year and take two more eligibility years, because I didn't want to come back and get an injury," she said.

A pretty big loss for the Yotes on the field, as Rhoades was having a stellar season in soccer when sidelined by cancer. She posted a 3-1-2 record with three shutouts and a .074 goals against average.

She also was an All-Cascade Conference pick in softball the year before, hitting .303 with six home runs and 28 RBI to help the Yotes win their first-ever league crown.

"Looking back at what she accomplished last year and looking back at what we as a team accomplished last year, it's tough," Mendiola said. "... I definitely miss her both offensively and defensively."

Of course, what the junior has brought to her team through this ordeal has proven just as valuable.

"It's been difficult for me but I've learned to deal with it," Mendiola said, adding that the entire team has done the same and sports pink wristbands to support their teammate and breast cancer awareness.

"She still helps our middle infielders, she helps our infielders in general. And she keeps our team at even keel, she's got the best attitude," Mendiola said, adding that when players have a bad day, "all you've got to do is say 'look at Amy, because on your worst day you'll never have to go through what she has had to go through.' That gives our players a different perspective about what's important and what isn't important."

Of course, Rhoades is more than a role model, occasionally practicing with her teammates, plus adding plenty as a student coach helping chart other teams' tendencies, which Mendiola adds "it's just helped us so much."

It's been as much a benefit for Rhoades, too.

"It's awesome," she said of staying involved with her team Wednesday, "because if you have a bad day, like I just had my doctor's appointment, you can come out here and these girls laugh and joke, 'cause they treat me like nothing's ever happened. That's the best way for me right now to get away from it and really be me again, back on that softball field."

That bad day is just the reality of breast cancer, though, as Rhoades and her doctor discuss the next step, a mastectomy (removal of all or part of a breast) or radiation treatments.

Needless to say, the Coyote junior knows that even if the cancer never returns, it will always be part of her life.

"I'm happy that it's gone now, but I am so young I have a greater chance of it coming back," she said. "It's always going to be a worry in the back of your mind now that you have it. No girl at 20 thought that (she) would have cancer."

Rhoades adds that 20 percent of women with breast cancer are under 30, so it's not necessarily uncommon.

But her recent health battles won't define her future, as she has spent the past few months working out with her family's personal trainer, has started a running regime to get back in shape, and plans to work out all summer to get ready for next season, in soccer and softball.

"(I have) a lot more motivation to get strong and get healthy, and do everything in my offseason to make sure I don't have injuries," she said, "and I'll be stronger mentally, that's for sure."

And she'll do her best to help both teams chase her dream.

"Hopefully a national championship at some point," she said, adding of the softball team. "I know we have a great team coming in and we have a great team now and they're pushing to accomplish it at any point. But I'm just hoping I can make the team stronger now as a coach, per se, and be better when I'm back next year."