Fighting cancer takes a team effort

Zak Imig needed to get some air.

The Ashwaubenon native’s face went pale as he gave the phone to his mom and stepped outside of the pizza parlor near Marinette to collect his thoughts on a curb that cold January day.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Imig said. “Hearing that word – cancer – I was sure my life was going to change forever. It has changed my mindset on a lot of things.”

Imig will be one of several individuals the Ashwaubenon football team is recognizing tonight at Goelz Field during a Sting Cancer awareness effort.

The players are recognizing people in their lives that are battling cancer, are cancer survivors or a caretaker for someone with cancer.

It’s an effort that showcases how cancer affects the lives of everyone, whether directly or indirectly.

“It’s scary,” Ashwaubenon football coach Mark Jonas said about the disease. “You have to find a way to fight it.”

Imig credits the people around him for giving him the strength to get past a scary time in his life earlier this year when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 20.

It instantly changed the former three-sport standout’s perspective.

“For 20 years of my life I was this big, tough guy that didn’t want to ever express his emotions,” said Imig, a 2016 Ashwaubenon graduate. “When this happened, I started expressing my feelings and talking to people and reaching out.”

Imig was at first hesitant about talking to someone when he noticed a possible lump after taking a shower in May of 2017. He brushed it off, hoping it was nothing.

When the lump remained prevalent, Imig finally worked up the courage to bring up the subject to a few friends in December. They encouraged him to see a doctor.

Not wanting to alarm his parents, Imig initially told them he was going to get just a routine physical since it had been a couple of years since he had one.

The doctor’s visit prompted a follow up ultrasound, which is when he informed his family about the situation.

“Things could have been a lot worse for me,” said Imig, who spoke to the Ashwaubenon football team at the start of the season. “It’s not worth it to not tell anyone when it comes to things about your body.”

Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in men 15-35 years old, according to the Testicular Cancer Society. About 9,000 men are diagnosed with it each year. However, it is one of the most treatable cancers if detected early, with a 5-year survival rate at 95 percent.

Imig got an ultrasound on the way to his family’s cabin before returning to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for the spring semester of his sophomore year of college.

Less than an hour later he received the call with the scary diagnosis. Imig had surgery about a week later and a follow-up scan fortunately revealed he was cancer-free.

“I’m super lucky that I had the cancer I had and it didn’t spread,” Imig said. “A lot of people aren’t as lucky. We have a limited time on this earth and we have to use every single second we get to 100 percent.”

Imig knows all too well the effects cancer has not only on the person battling the decease, but the individuals around them.

His father, David, overcame prostate cancer a few years earlier.

Much like how Imig’s coaches, teammates, teachers and friends had been there for him while his dad was battling prostate cancer, Imig was overwhelmed by the number of people that reached out to him to wish him well following his diagnosis.

Imig wants to thank his family and everyone in the Village of Ashwaubenon for their support.

“I can’t tell you how many friends I made through high school sports that contacted me,” Imig said. “Those texts and phone calls really helped. I can’t tell you how much they meant to me.”

The outcomes and results of high school sports will be an afterthought for student-athletes after their prep careers are over.

However, the lessons learned and the relationships built will remain for a lifetime.

Imig shared that message when he spoke to the Ashwaubenon football team.

“You have to live out each chapter of your life,” said Imig, who is a finance major at UW-La Crosse. “You can’t be skipping chapters. You don’t want to regret anything in life. High school is an important part of your life and before you know it, it’s going to be over.

“The biggest thing I took from high school sports were the relationships I made. If I would have went through what I went through without the relationships that I have in my life, no way would I have been able to be as strong as I was.”

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