Apr 16, 2016 4 min read

Luke Blanock sat in a dugout at Peterswood Park, watching as Peters Township took infield practice before a key Section 5-AAAA game on a chilly night last April. With dark bags around his eyes and a pale complexion, Blanock didn’t look like he was ready for anything but rest.

He just finished a rigorous five-day chemotherapy treatment that drained his energy, but like the rest of his battle against Ewing’s sarcoma, nothing could dampen Blanock’s spirit or his love for being surrounded by teammates.

Blanock could barely keep a meal down, and he lost 20 pounds in the days leading up to the game. There were no indications he would make an impact under the lights at Peterswood Park that night.

Canon-McMillan lost the game, 5-2, but when the Indians prepared to bat in the fifth inning, Blanock slowly walked out to the mound. His control was off and his fastball was a few miles per hour slower than usual. Errant breaking balls outside the strike zone brought a smile to his face, but in a game where Peters Township won, it was Blanock who stole the show.

He pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out one. Six days later, he went strike-for-strike against Mt. Lebanon’s Division I recruit, Austin Kitchen. Between innings, he pulled his cap off and showed his teammates the chunks of hair in his hat.

Even under these circumstances, Blanock didn’t just play baseball, he excelled. In a whirlwind two months when his cancer went from remission to aggressive, he was never fazed. That fearlessness has continued since his diagnosis became terminal in November.

Blanock will be honored with the Observer-Reporter Sports Headliner award at the Tri-County Athletic Directors Coach of the Year Banquet April 24 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in the Meadow Lands.

“During it all, I was just playing because I was having fun and that’s what I wanted to do,” Blanock said. “Even if my body was saying no, my head was saying yes.”

Blanock, 19, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma – a rare cancer that forms in the bone marrow and soft tissues – in December 2013. A year after he was told his athletic career was over, he started and scored his first varsity points in Canon-McMillan basketball’s win over Burgettstown.

On March 17, 2015, just weeks before the WPIAL baseball season was set to begin, doctors discovered a tumor in Blanock’s left femur. The cancer returned, but that wasn’t going to stop Blanock from pitching.

During four games in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Blanock went 3-for-9 at the plate with an RBI, he threw out three runners from left field and made a diving catch. Against Moore Catholic (N.Y.), Blanock started and pitched 4 1/3 innings with four strikeouts.

“He got out there and he was able to feel normal,” Kurt Blanock said. “He was able to feel like he didn’t have cancer. It was the ultimate escape. Sports were a very important part of him getting better – just as important as the doctors and the medication.”

He has undergone numerous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, as well as two surgeries, including the replacement of most of his left femur with a titanium rod to prevent the cancer from spreading.

Results in late November showed the cancer spread to multiple spots on his spine, pelvis, lungs, lymph nodes, arm and right leg. A month later, his white blood cell counts were so low doctors feared further treatment would be a risk. Tumors formed in Blanock’s jaw, preventing him from talking, eating or even swallowing a pill for days. His weight dropped to 130 pounds – almost 50 pounds lighter than his weight before last year’s baseball season.

Since those grim December days, Blanock has gained 30 pounds, the energy returned to his voice, walking is less agonizing and he married his high school sweetheart, Natalie Britvich.

His athletic career is over. Pitching and shooting a basketball once acted as his distraction. Now, his family and friends fill the void. But the pride he feels when looking back on those spring days have not escaped his memory.

“It’s cool to have that to look back on and say that I did that; I would play games the day I had chemo and even if I wasn’t feeling 100 percent,” Blanock said. “I guess I was never back to 100 percent, but at least I played. That’s all that matters.”