Dundee-Crown’s Sanchez beats the odds
If you were to attend a Dundee-Crown High School girls swimming event, you’d never know that freshman Samantha Sanchez has spent the last three years battling leukemia.
Sanchez was diagnosed when she was 11 years old — in September of 2008 — shortly after losing her mother to breast cancer. She spent most of her middle-school life out of school and out of the water, but it was never hard for her to stay positive and be optimistic that she’d be able to swim competitively again.
“I started swimming in fourth grade,” Sanchez said. “I swam for the club team (at the Dundee Township Park District). In sixth grade, I couldn’t swim because that’s when I found out I had cancer.”
Her cancer is now in remission, with only a 30 percent chance of returning. She still gets blood work at Children’s Memorial Hospital every month, but she is now able to spend most of her time in the water again. She got right back to her aquatic activities when she joined the swim team at Dundee-Crown, mostly participating in freestyle events. She even got her diving permit at the Children’s Memorial camp this past summer; and dove from 40 feet into a lake near Lake Geneva.
She has been performing at a high level for the Chargers at Dundee-Crown and head coach Laura Wayman had her swim with the varsity team last Saturday at the Buffalo Grove Invite, where Sanchez finished the 200-meter freestyle in 3:00.45 and the 50-meter freestyle in 36.28.
“She’s one of our top swimmers for JV,” Wayman said. “I have a lot of very experienced swimmers, so I don’t want to bring an inexperienced swimmer into these crazy meets; but I think she’s earned the right to participate and I’ll probably take her to one or two other varsity meets because she deserves to be there.”
Aside from missing swimming during her battle with leukemia, it was tough for Sanchez to miss out on other aspects of her childhood as well.
“I really didn’t like missing school, because I didn’t get to see my friends,” Sanchez said. “And I didn’t like losing my hair; I really liked it because it was long.”
Sanchez began her own fight against cancer after watching her mother lose the battle with breast cancer. Even through the devastating loss, Sanchez was inspired by how strong her mother was as she fought until the very end, and it gave her the strength to keep going as well.
“It made me stronger,” Sanchez said. “I saw her fight cancer for two and a half years, and it made me think I could do it too.”
Sports have a way of healing, whether we’re watching them or competing, sometimes without us even realizing it. In swimming, even if Sanchez knows she’s behind, she keeps fighting until the very end, just like her mother did. Being in the pool is therapeutic for Sanchez but when it comes down to it, she just knows that she feels good when she’s there.
“I just like being in the water,” Sanchez said. “It’s nice.”
Sanchez is always enthusiastic during practice and at swim meets; and as she always continues to work hard, she takes with her the lesson that nothing is impossible to overcome.
“She seems like she’s excited about everything and anything,” Wayman said. “There’s never been a moment where I haven’t seen her smile. If she gets frustrated with something, she overcomes it and just turns it around and does excellent in whatever it is that frustrated her.”
Sanchez received immense support from everyone in her life during her difficult time, so now she is the one giving back the support to her friends, family, and teammates.
“We have a really great group of girls this year, and they’re all supportive of each other,” said Wayman. “But the most interesting thing is that Sam affects everybody else on the team. She’s the one who gets people smiling. She’s the one who shows them what work ethic really is. It’s kind of the opposite effect — she comes in to a swim team with experienced swimmers, but then she’s the one who is actually showing them how it’s done, and doing it with a smile. She’s inspirational.”
Sanchez’s leadership and inspiration, along with the rest of the tight-knit group of girls that swim for the Chargers, make for a unique and terrific team experience at Dundee-Crown.
“They participate in team cheers, and they participate in team events,” Wayman said. “My assistant, Marilyn Lemke, and I make sure that they are one team, that it’s not a bunch of individuals that are just swimming events. I think that Sam lets everybody on the team know that because she tries her hardest, but she’s always cheering for the team.”
Even with all that Sanchez went through, she and the rest of the team never lose focus on the task at hand and never lose sight of having fun.
“I want them to have fun,” Wayman said. “I always tell them, ‘If you’re not having fun then what’s the point?’ Every girl on this team…they have their days of course, but they all have fun.”
Sanchez is an inspiration. No matter how tough things may have been, she always stayed positive, and continues to do so as she competes for the Chargers’ swim team. She inspires her teammates to do better, and hopes that she can influence other children that are in the fight with cancer as well.
“Don’t forget that you have your family and friends,” she says. “You can still do what you love, just in a different way. Live life from a new perspective.”