WW-P South junior is thankful for cross country
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Christian Balevski’s year began with uncertainty and fear, but the West Windsor-Plainsboro South junior has found reason to give thanks on Thanksgiving.
”This whole situation has matured me so much,” Balevski said. “I feel like I’ve gained so much from it, even though I had so much taken away. I’ve gained 10 times what was taken away.”
Balevski was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, a form of cancer, in January, and the chemotherapy treatment he began immediately thereafter ended his wrestling season.
Then in late May, his mother suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and doctors feared she would not come out of her month-long coma. Now she is recovering in a nursing facility.
”I think she’ll make a full recovery and be home sometime soon,” Balevski said. “We’re relying on God.”
Through it all, Balevski never lost his faith. He also never lost his desire to return to athletics. After making the golf team last spring, he tried something entirely new, cross country, this fall.
”I didn’t want to just lay on the couch and do nothing,” Balevski said. “Before this thing happened to me, I was really athletic and involved in sports. I wanted to get back in shape, back into participating in the team. I didn’t want it to just pass by.”
Balevski wanted to play football, but his doctor would not clear him for the contact sport because his platelet count was too low, which would have prevented his blood from clotting properly in case of injury. That left cross country as an option.
”I knew it was so much running and it would be so hard,” Balevski said. “But then I knew I could do it. I thank God for giving me so much strength. Now five miles is nothing.”
Balevski gave motivation to the Pirate boys all fall. If anyone thought they were hurting a bit, all they had to do was look at all that Balevski had been through over the previous six months and see how hard he was working. He had undergone chemotherapy, which sapped him of his strength, cost him much of his hair and left him heavier and out of shape.
”He’s definitely a rock for the program,” said Pirate boys cross country coach Kurt Wayton. “The kids knew what he was going through. He’s a quiet kid, but he was one we could look to for motivation.”
Like any cross country team, the Pirates preach improvement through their season, and Balevski saw plenty of it.
”Before I started cross country, I could maybe jog half a mile or a mile at most,” he said. “Halfway through the season, we did a 10-mile run on the Princeton towpath. I was able to do that and didn’t walk at all.”
His inexperience cost him a finish in his first race, but he returned to finish his first 5-kilometer race in 32 minutes. He shaved three minutes off that time in his second race and cut another three minutes from that time for his season best of 26:40, nothing that would place at the Meet of Champions but something that definitely had his teammates viewing him as a champion in his own right.
”I think they respected his efforts so much,” Wayton said. “A lot of our sport is about hedging giving up. Moving forward is the biggest message we talk about. Here’s a kid that’s moving forward, he’s continuing to swim upstream in a flood. I think everybody respected that so much that it made us stronger as a group.”
Balevski has a way of strengthening those around him.
”I was really upset when I was in the hospital,” Balevski said, “but I had such a strong feeling that everything was going to be OK. One of the pastors who came to visit me, he said, what can I say to encourage a 15-year-old kid with this? When he saw me, he said that I was encouraging him. I was upset, but I knew everything was going to be OK. I relied on God and I prayed a lot.”
Balevski had hoped that his running would strengthen one person in particular. His mother is never far from his thoughts.
”When I’m running,” he said, “I’m running for her and my brother and my family and God.”
Balevski and his brother Dan visit their mom in the nursing facility two to three times per week between balancing their schoolwork and extracurricular activities.
”She’s able to talk and eat now,” Balevski said. “She’s able to communicate. Some of the words aren’t perfectly clear, but she’s made so much progress.”
Balevski’s brother Dan graduated from WW-P South last year. Dan is a former football kicker and is continuing his basketball career at The College of New Jersey. Their parents are divorced, but their father has been living with them since their mother’s stroke. Dan is in the process of becoming his mother’s guardian, and this fall he helped ensure that Balevski made it to cross country practices and meets.
”He wanted to give it his all,” Dan said. “It was good for us. It shows the other kids, no matter what is going on you have to stay focused.”
Balevski isn’t stopping with cross country. His platelet count is back to normal and he has been cleared to wrestle. He will also try to make the golf team for the second straight year. Though he will undergo monthly treatment for his lymphoma for another 13 months, he was feeling better than ever as he celebrates Thanksgiving with family. It’s been a tough year, but he is feeling back to where he was last year.
”If I’m not where I was, I’m really close to where I was,” Balevski said. “Back then, I didn’t have endurance. I might be better than I was.”
Cross country helped. He got everything that he wanted out of it.
”It felt great,” he said. “I felt like it was all coming back to me. I lost so much, but it’s all coming back. I couldn’t be happier with my choice to join the cross country team.”
He is not alone. The Pirates were thrilled to have him, even if it was only for the one season. He could follow Dan’s footsteps as kicker as a senior next fall. But for at least one fall, he raced on his road to recovery as a part of the Pirates cross country program.
”He came out for this sport to get better, to get healthier and become a part of something,” Wayton said. “His brother was a great athlete at our school. His family knows the value of athletics. I know it wasn’t easy for him, but I know he got a lot out of it. I was very proud to have him on our team. I hope he comes out for the team again next year.”
Maybe his mom will be out to cheer for him. Certainly there are others who are rooting for Christian Balevski and his family.