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For PDS Field Hockey Player Welsh, Opener Was Latest Profile in Courage
By Bill Alden
Enjoying a crystal clear late summer day and the promise of a new season, the Princeton Day School field hockey team buzzed through a spirited pregame warm-up last Wednesday prior to its season opener against visiting Stuart.
Forming a semi-circle in front of their goal, the Panthers limbered up by stroking shots at the goal and filling the air with laughs, banter, and shouts of encouragement.
For one PDS player, senior midfielder Betsy Welsh, however, the seemingly mundane pre-game rituals took on a far deeper significance.
Having been robbed of her junior season due to battling Hodgkin's disease, last Wednesday marked Welsh's official return to field hockey competition and the latest milestone in her ongoing profile of courage.
Although the Panthers ended up on the short end of a 1-0 decision, not withstanding Welsh running herself into tearful exhaustion at a couple of points, the result wasn't really important in the larger scheme of things.
"I guess I was pretty nervous but I had played a lot at camps this summer and I felt like I was really prepared," said Welsh, who had been the team's leading scorer as a sophomore with 14 points. "I really wanted to prove to everyone that I was as good as I used to be. I remember last year how frustrated I was on the bench and I'd promised myself I'd make up for it."
Last year at this time, Welsh was going through the first stages of her nightmare junior year. Just prior to the start of the season, a series of tests that had started at the beginning of the summer when Welsh complained of nagging back pain had led to the chilling conclusion that she had Hodgkin's disease.
Hodgkin's disease is a type of cancer that affects part of the lymph system which carries fluid, nutrients and waste material between the body tissues and the bloodstream. The first step in battling the cancer is typically a battery of chemotherapy.
Welsh was both frustrated and stunned by the diagnosis. "I was playing the best I had ever played last summer, I was really mad because I thought I was fine," recalled Welsh. "I didn't even want to tell any of my friends that cancer was an option because I thought it was so ridiculous."
So instead of controlling things in the Panthers' midfield, Welsh was in the hands of Sloan-Kettering for seven months of chemotherapy.
"The first part was intense treatment, after that I would have scans and depending on that I would either do that again or go to lesser intensity," said Welsh, who calmly explains her ordeal in clinical detail.
"The first three months were three-week cycles where I'd go in for three days the first week, staying overnight in New York. The second week I'd stay for one day and the third week I had off."
As Welsh battled through the treatments, she fought hard to keep up with her academic load and was able to earn the best marks of her time at PDS.
Although she was far too ill to compete, Welsh turned to sports to help keep her centered as she continued to go to practice on a daily basis, helping coaches and doing what little training she could.
"That was my main way of trying to keep everything as normal as possible," maintained Welsh, a versatile athlete who also plays ice hockey and lacrosse. "I felt just sitting and dwelling on not doing what I could would be pointless. I'd do as much as I could in practice, taking strokes or anything I could do. That helped me so much."
In the view of longtime PDS head coach Jill Thomas, Welsh's presence at practice clad in a headband, covering her head bald from chemo, was a godsend for all concerned.
"It was so important that we had each other, we were there for Betsy and she was teaching us life lessons" said Thomas, who coaches both field hockey and lacrosse and is in her 16th year at PDS.
"It takes a special person to be in her position, giving so much when so much is being taken from her. It reminds me of the line from the Mary Chapin Carpenter song, we have two lives, the one we're given and the one we make. Betsy has taken the full measure when it comes down to the life she has made."
With her cancer having been determined to be in remission, although she can't be declared as officially cured until she has stayed cancer-free for four more years, Welsh has a new perspective as she goes through her senior year and beyond.
"I feel so much more like I won't take anything for granted," maintained Welsh, who worked as a counselor at a camp in Montana this summer working with children 5- to 10-years old with cancer.
"When people complained about the stupidest things at school last year, I'd just sit there and listen knowing that when I'd go to the hospital there would be people so much worse off than I was. I learned to look forward to little things, like dinner that night or doing something with a friend."
Now that she is back on the field, Welsh is looking forward to following in the footsteps of her older sisters who both have played field hockey at Dartmouth.
"I definitely want to play field hockey at college, hopefully Division 1," asserted Welsh, who picked up two assists in PDS' 4-0 win over Moorestown Friends last Friday. "I'm hoping someone will take a chance on me. I've learned so much through sports, making the most of everything and trying my hardest when I'm out there."
After what Welsh has overcome in the last year, she would certainly add a lot more than athletic ability to any college's roster.
