(mentions CMT) Ohio State's Kurt is a true leader

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Ohio State's Kurt is a true leader

When the safety's father received a diagnosis of breast cancer three years ago,

he began a campus group to raise awareness and money for little-known diseases.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-kurt-coleman31-2009dec31,0,131074.story

The phone call came three years ago this month. Kurt remembers it as if

it happened yesterday.

It's hard to forget the night your father called to tell you he was dying.

" It was Dec. 3, 2006, " said , Ohio State's All-Big Ten strong safety.

" And he basically just said 'I have cancer.' I started laughing. Why are you

joking?

" And he was like, 'No, I'm serious.' "

It was breast cancer, a disease so rare among males it strikes fewer than 2,000

American men a year. But it kills more than 20% of those it attacks.

In the time it took for the laughter to turn to tears, football took on a new

role for , then an Ohio State freshman. If millions of people were

willing to hang on his every word just because he could run fast and jump high,

he figured he might as well take advantage of it.

So , now an Ohio State team captain, started a campus group to raise

money and awareness for the fight against little-known diseases such as male

breast cancer, kidney cancer and Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), a debilitating

neuromuscular disorder similar to muscular dystrophy.

The results have far exceeded anything the eighth-ranked Buckeyes have

accomplished on the field this season.

" I can't speak higher of Kurt, " said M. Hall, chief executive of the

Charcot-Marie-Tooth Assn., a national nonprofit education and awareness group.

" For Kurt to, on his own, adopt the cause and reach out to us, brought us a

degree and an awareness and a spotlight that, quite frankly, we didn't have

before.

" Kurt created a momentum that helped us in everything we did this year. "

That included pressuring Congress for a recently awarded $1-million allocation

to help diagnose and treat the disease.

" I can't tell you what it says about these guys, " Hall said. " Kurt , in

my opinion, will be running for office one day. He's a leader. "

Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel agrees, and 's teammates voted him most

valuable player.

Tressel says that leadership comes not from 's team-leading five

interceptions or his 64 tackles. Nor from the various honors that, with a win

over Oregon in Friday's Rose Bowl, would make him the most accomplished player

on the winningest senior class in school history.

Those qualities, Tressel says, were forged not in on-field success but rather in

tragedy, beginning eight months before his father's cancer was discovered.

" Adversity, in my experience, is probably one of the few things that makes you

strong, " Tressel said. " It's just the kind of person he's become. "

's strength was first tested just weeks after he graduated from high

school, on an otherwise ordinary play during spring practice at Ohio State. A

walk-on wide receiver named Tyson Gentry ran a simple curl pattern in front of

and as he turned to run upfield, made the tackle, snapping a

vertebra and leaving Gentry paralyzed.

" When I had to go see him for the first time, it was honestly a very hard

experience, " remembers , who was so distraught he nearly quit football.

" His family kind of came and hugged me and said everything was all right. And

then [Gentry] came and told me everything was OK. Ever since then, our

friendship, it's been getting closer and closer. "

needed friends that winter when his father received his diagnosis of

cancer.

" It's a life-changer for you, the whole family, " said , who found himself

drawn first to the Bible, then to hospitals, where he would visit the sick or

work with disabled children.

With former teammate Matt s, whose father had kidney cancer,

founded a campus chapter of Uplifting Athletes, a nonprofit organization

established to help those with rare diseases.

" I've always felt like I've been a person that's been mature for my age. And

going through that I had to lean on God, " said. " But I think [those

events] kind of built me to who I am and I think they made my family a lot

stronger. "

says his father, Ron, a high school assistant principal in Ohio, " is

100% cured " and has embarked on his own educational crusade about male breast

cancer.

Gentry, who has regained some motion in his extremities, may walk again someday.

" He's still got a long way to go, but he's made so much progress, " said.

So has , who has turned the two tragedies into something positive.

" He knows when he was going through tough times there were people there for

him, " Tressel said. " He has the podium, per se, to be able to help out his

teammates. "

He used the platform he had as a star athlete last summer when he staged a

well-attended benefit to combat CMT, the inherited neurological disorder that

plagues the father and aunt of Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

" What Kurt did, that's cool, " Pryor said. " He went out of his way and picked

that because it was my father's illness. "

For , who knows what it's like to have a sick parent, it's a way to give

back.

" We're blessed with so many things, people in our position, " said. " It

doesn't take a lot of time, it doesn't take a lot of energy. It just takes a lot

of heart.

" And I feel like if more people could do it, this world could be a lot better.

I'm just fortunate enough to be in a position where I can make a difference in

someone's life. "