Blanchard finds way to contribute Central sophomore battled cancer

BANGOR – Central sophomore Jackie Blanchard loves basketball and grew up playing in Corinth with some of the current players on the Central girls’ varsity team.

But when Blanchard was in sixth grade she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma – bone cancer – in her left leg and cannot play sports.

Now in remission for the past 13 months, Blanchard has found a way to be around basketball even if the most she can do is shoot around with the team.

Blanchard is the manager for the Red Devils and kept stats at every game for the team this year before it was eliminated in a Tuesday night Class C quarterfinal against Stearns of Millinocket Tuesday night..

“I’ve played since I can remember and I’d like to but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to anytime soon,” said Blanchard, who is the daughter of Scott and Sherry Blanchard and the granddaughter of Roger Chesley, a longtime basketball referee who himself is currently recovering prostate cancer surgery.

“[The doctor] never said not to play but he’s warned me not to because the more active I am, the more wear and tear it will be on my leg,” she added. “I miss it a lot.”

Blanchard’s cancer was discovered when she was feeling pain in her leg about halfway through basketball season. She went to her local doctor, who sent the family to another doctor, who in turn sent the family to Children’s Hospital in Boston. The Blanchards got the diagnosis there.

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer and the sixth most common type of cancer in children, according to kidshealth.org.

Blanchard had surgery in which doctors removed a section of Blanchard’s leg bone from the ball of her hip joint to three inches above her knee and replaced it with donor bone and a prosthesis. She also went through chemotherapy.

Blanchard, who sports one of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s yellow “Live Strong” bracelets in support of cancer research, still sees doctors in Boston every couple of months because the cancer spread to her lung, but she’s clear for now.

Blanchard keeps a shot chart for Central coach Diane Rollins. Blanchard actually made up a new version of the original chart so she could have more room to write. The result, Rollins said recently, is some of the best stats she’s ever had from a manager.

“I keep track of shots and percentages, things like that,” Blanchard said before Friday’s Eastern Maine Class C semifinal between No. 1 Dexter and No. 5 Stearns of Millinocket.

Her basketball experience is a big help, Blanchard believes.

“Some of the other managers don’t know as much and it might be harder for them,” she said.

Eagan speaks for student-athletes

Calais senior guard Tracie Eagan, who scored seven points against Woodland Friday, isn’t merely one of the best basketball players on one of the top girls programs in the state.

She also spent the past year helping shape a report that aims to give guidelines for effective high school sports programs.

Eagan was a kind of student advisor to a panel of Maine citizens from all branches of education and athletics who put together “Sports Done Right – A Call to Action on Behalf of Maine’s Student-Athletes.”

“Sports Done Right” was put together by the University of Maine’s federally funded Coaching Maine Youth to Success initiative.

She became involved with the report through her mother, Husa Eagan, who knows Ruth Fitzpatrick, a field specialist for UMaine’s National Center for Student Aspirations. Eagan told Fitzpatrick about her experiences playing high school sports and Fitzpatrick tapped Eagan, along with former Falmouth High student Trevor Paul, to serve as advisors.

The report was unveiled last month and is now being introduced at regional forums across the state. Eagan was pleased to see a forum set for Washington County.

“They’re doing some things in Machias, so that’s good,” said Eagan, who was a member of the 2004 EM Class C all-tourney team.

The Machias forum will be Thursday at the UMaine-Machias Science Building, Room 102.