Cleveland battles against illness,
makes miraculous return to court
CLEVELAND from page 10
and scrapping for boards every
day with the Huskers once again.
In a season bill of down spots
for Coach Paul Sanderford’s team,
nothing lifts the players’ spirits
more than seeing “A.C” on the
court every day.
"If s a miracle she’s even on the
floor,” Sanderford said
Said senior guard Amanda
Went, the one remaining member
of Cleveland’s recruiting class: “Tb
see where she is and to see her
smile the way she does - telling
jokes and one-liners ... it’s just
amazing.”
NU Medical Director of
Athletic Medicine Dr. Lonnie
Albers calls Cleveland a “model
patient”
“Through everything, we
never saw Amanda once when she
wasn't in good spirits,” Albers said
“She always managed to interject
humor into everything, and she’s
never seemed depressed”
Of course, Cleveland bared no
smiles the moment she found out
she had aplastic anemia, hi the
days leading up to her diagnosis at
the University of Nebraska
Medical Center in Omaha,
Cleveland became overwhelming
ly fatigued
During warm-ups before the
Huskers’ first game against Miami
ofOhioonNov. 14,1997, Cleveland
said she was exhausted by shoot
ing, passing and running. The fol
lowing days, her fatigue got worse.
She had bruises all over her body
and had no idea why.'
“I started getting tired just
walking up stairs,” Cleveland said.
”1 just thought I wasn’t getting
enough sleep.”
Her sleep was fine. Her body
was not. UNMC doctors discov
ered her body wasn’t producing
enough oxygen- carrying red
blood cells, infection-fighting
white blood cells or platelets,
which dot blood. Her bone mar
row, the factory for producing
cells, was shut down, and her
immune system depleted.
Aplastic anemia, Albers said, is
so rare trnly two to six out of every
million people contract it No one
is sure how Cleveland got the non
hereditary disease.
The fatality rate is high, 10 per
cent and staggering in underde
veloped countries, where 90 per
cent die shortly after contraction.
A bone marrow transplant
would have been the best cure, but
after searching through 80 family
members, including distant
cousins, no match to Cleveland’s
blood could be found.
msicdu ui a utuupiiim, sue
was told to move back to Dallas
and receive chemotherapy, radia
tion and frequent medical atten
tion. Basketball was no part of her
near future.
“As soon as they told me,
everything just hit me at once,"
Cleveland said. “As soon as I heard
the words aplastic anemia, I start
ed noticing every little detail - the
bruises, the headaches, the
fatigue.”
And she started crying. It
would be the first of many emo
tional sessions she’d have with her
mother, Doris.
"When I talked to her on the
phone, she was crying," Doris
Cleveland said, “and you could tell
how disappointed she was. She
was just devastated about die dis
ease
“When she got home we just
kind of cried about it, and I told her
we’re going to get through this
together.”
Yet Amanda Cleveland
planned for the worst After spend
ing hours and days researching the
disorder, Cleveland started to
write her own wilL Doris Cleveland
wasn’t about to let her sulk.
“Once I got in the van,
do that or Yd pass out.
And I don't know what
sun was in my eyes an<
doht go to the light! Do
about that light, Ym tal
“It just shocked me," Doris
Cleveland said. “I asked her, ‘You’re
writing what?’ I said, ‘You’re not
going to do this. You put that paper
away. Stay positive.’
“For me, that was the lowest
point. I was thinking ‘My God,
there’s this 19-year-old writing her
own will and die hasn't even tried
yet’*
When Sidney Cleveland found
his daughter lying on the floor that
early January morning, he imme
diately called Dr. Scott McKenzie, a
UNL graduate who spent count
less hours looking after Amanda at
Kaiser, and McKenzie told him to
call an ambulance.
Sidney Cleveland couldn’t
wait He patted her on die face to
wake her up. Amanda couldn’t
move. So Cleveland, an average
sized man, dragged his 6-foot-3,
200-pound daughter through the
house, into his van and rushed her
to the hospital.
Now, Amanda Cleveland can
find humor in what was then a
grave situation.
“Once I got in the van, he was
trying to keep me awake because
he had to do that or I’d pass out,”
she said. "He kept saying, ‘A.C..
A.C, wake up. Wake up.’
“I was just out. And he kept
saying, ’Wake up,’ and I said, ‘I
cant'
"And I don’t know what I was
thinking, but my eyelids were
down and the sun was in my eyes,
and I said ‘I see the light11 see the
light! And he said, ‘No, don't go to
the light! Don’t go to the light!’
“That was the funniest thing
through my whole sickness. I told
him, ‘Dad, I’m not talking about
that light, I’m talking about the
damn light (shining) in the car.’”
After several tests at the hospi
tal, Cleveland needed a transfu
sion of three pints of blood. Then,
she was taken to an isolated room
where only doctors and her par
ents could visit - wearing masks
and gloves and having their feet
taped.
She was there for four weeks.
Her hands looked like lizard scales
covered them, and she couldn’t
move most of die time She would
pass out when trying to get up,
requiring four nurses to try to carry
her.
“They had to get these two
men, about 5-foot-7, and they had
the hardest time getting me oh a
stretcher,” Cleveland laughs. “It
was so funny, but at the same time
it was so embarrassing because I
couldn't help them.
“At that time, I couldn't get up
to go to the bathroom by myself.
That was the most embarrassing
thing. They brought in one of those
(portable) bathroom things. I said,
Tm not using it’ I could’ve been
98, but I had no choice. They said,
‘Yeah, you’re using it,’” she said,
laughing at herself again.
As hinny as some moments
seem now, Cleveland’s parents still
shiver at those days in the hospital.
“I saw her laying there uncon
scious, and she was so pale,” Doris
Cleveland said. “Just seeing all
those machines - all those tubes
stuck in her-it just scared me....
Her dad couldn't stay in the room.
He had to walk out”
That month in the hospital,
Amanda Cleveland could do little
more than sleep, watch TV and
he was trying to keep me a\
And he kept saying, ’wake u
l was thinking, but my eyeli
i I said 7 see the light! I see 1
n’t go to the light!’... 7 told h
king about the damn light (
write. She kept a diary of every
thing that was happening to her
and how she felt every step of the
way.
“I go back and read it today,
and I just think ‘Oh my God.’ I get
so emotional,” Cleveland said. “I
was writing about the pain I would
fed and trying to figure out how it
just happened and why. I just had a
lotofwhat-ifs.”
***
The what-ifs continued after
Cleveland got out of the hospital.
For the next several months, she
stayed at home, continuing to lie
around with litde energy to do
much of anything. She couldn't eat
any fresh foods or undercooked
meals, so she drank most meals
and ate most food from cans.
Whenever an NU game was on
TV Cleveland was a mess.
“We’d watch it, andshe’d sit
there and yell and cheer at her
teammates as if they could hear
her,” Doris Cleveland said. “Then,
all of a sudden, she’d get real quiet
and head to her room. I’d go in
there, and she’d be crying. I told
her, look, you’re going to be there
one day. I know you will.’
“Then she’d come out and fin
ish watching the game with us.
Then she’d start crying again and
ask herself, ‘Whyme?WhyamInot
out there?’ It was such a hard ques
tion for me to answer.”
Amanda Cleveland also could
n’t go outdoors for several months,
which frustrated her because she
loved playing with her dog, J.R.
Instead, Cleveland would sit by the
window, watch her three older sis
ters play with the dog and cry.
Besides frequent calls from her
sisters, two things helped
Cleveland’s spirits more than any
thing: a book her dad gave her
about Jackie Joyner-Kersee - the
track and field star who overcame
acute asthma to win several
Olympic gold medals - and the
truckloads of cards, posters and
videos from people of all ages all
across Nebraska.
She spent hours a day reading
cards, and to this day, her bedroom
walls are almost completely plas
tered with them.
"Believe me, it made a differ
ence,’’ Sidney Cleveland said. “It
kept her spirits high and gave her
the will to continue. When we see
those Nebraska commercials with
the man that says, ‘There is no
place like Nebraska,’ we know
what he means.”
It wasn’t until late fall 1998 that
Cleveland’s blood count was high
enough to allow her to go outside
without a mask, which meant she
could go back to school.
Throughout her illness,
Sanderford, although he had lost a
valuable blue-chipper, kept
Cleveland on scholarship with die
university.
She attended classes and par
ticipated in drills at a minimal level
while conditioning herself back
into shape during the 1998-99 sea
son. While doctors would not dear
her for the 1999-2000 season, she
stayed determined to come back
while she continued to recover her
game.
She had litde more than deter
mination - Cleveland had lost vir
tually all her athletic and basket
ball Ability.
vake, because he had to
p,' and I said, 7 can’t.'
ds were down and the
he light!’And he said ’no,
im, ’dad, I’m not talking
shining) in the car”
Amanda Cleveland
Nebraska women’s basketball player
“That made me want to quit
more than anything, because I was
like, ‘Nah, I don’t want to embar
rass myself/” Cleveland said.
Of course, it was Doris
Cleveland who convinced her to
keep playing. She had stuck
through every challenge up until
that, mother told daughter. So why
quit now?
Then, this past fall, doctors
finally cleared Amanda Cleveland
to play for NU. An ecstatic
Cleveland called home screaming
"I made it, Mom! I made it!"
Once again, tears were shed.
In the Huskers’ first game this
season, ahome tiltwith Oakland of
Michigan just over three years to
the day where she first felt her
body go on her, Cleveland checked
in and played one minute. Since
then, she has played in 15 games
recording eight points, 11
rebounds, five steals, 12 turnovers
and six minutes per game.
While compiling seemingly
ordinary statistics, Cleveland has
amazed and inspired everyone.
“The first time I saw her play, I
was just so proud,” Doris
Cleveland said. “Just to see her run
up and down the court, I was
thinking, ‘This is amazing,’ I am SO
blessed.”
Whenever Amanda Cleveland
goes back home, she always takes
visits back to Kaiser and to hospi
tals, talking to kids and making
them laugh. Her whole experi
ence, Doris Cleveland said, has
made Amanda think about
becoming ai nurse once she's out of
college. Amanda Cleveland
remembers giving food, candy
and jokes to children with cancer
who laid next to her in the hospital,
and she still feels the need to do
mat
“Before aplastic anemia,
Amanda was like most teenagers -
she took most tilings for granted,"
Doris Cleveland said. “She spends
more time thinking about things
now. She spends more time with
her family, and that's brought the
family closer together Her outlook
on life is different
“I see her doing so many
things. I know she wants to help
people. She wants to make them
laugh and tell them, ‘This isn't the
end. You can beatthis.’ Ilook ather,
then I think about my aches and
pains, things that seem to bother
everyone. Then I see people who
went through what she did, and I
say, ‘Hey, that's not so bad.’
“You thank God for the little
blessings.”
Amanda Cleveland feels the
same way. Sanderford, Went and
Cleveland herself have all said she
is making great strides on the
court Sanderford still thinks she
can be an “impact player" in a
year's time.
But in the big picture, that
won't really matter What matters is
Cleveland will live to tell her story
and make thousands laugh and
cry in the process. After all, that's
how she and her mother got
through it
“I want to be able to tdl people
you can do it I don't want people
to be like, ‘Wfell, that's A.C., the girl
who was all good in high school.
Then she got sick, and she can't do
it’" Cleveland said “I want them to
belike, ‘Oh she was sick, butlookat
her now. She didn't miss a step.’
That’s what I want to hear before I
graduate.”
Women, men begin tennis season at opposite ends
BY VINCE KUPPIG
The Nebraska men’s
and women's tennis teams
stand in opposite places
as they enter their spring
dual seasons.
The women return
just three of their top-six
players from last year’s
team, which had its best
finish in school history.
The men are coming off
their worst conference fin
ish in school history but
return their six top players.
• The women’s team
starts its 2001 campaign
today against Colorado
State at 4 pm, followed by
a showdown with Wichita
State on Saturday at 10
a.m., both at Woods
Tennis Center.
After competing at the
Rice Invitational last
weekend, the men's team
starts its season against
Wichita State on Saturday
at 5 p.m, also at Woods.
Entering the season
ranked 57*“, the NU
women are led by junior
Katarina Balan and senior
Ndali Ijomah, who will
play No. 1 and No. 2 sin
gles, respectively. Also
returning is junior Amy
Frisch, who will play No. 4
singles. The rest of the
Huskers’ top six are com
posed of three freshmen.
The Huskers start with
a relatively easy schedule,
\yith their first eight
matches against un
ranked opponents, all at
home, before they take on
No. 5 Texas and No. 37
Texas A&M in Texas.
“Hopefully, we can
gain some confidence
from our first eight dual
matches,” Coach Scott
Jacobson said. “The goal is
to build confidence that
when we go down to Texas
and Texas A&M that we
will be able to play at a
very high level.”
Plagued by injuries
last year, the men's team
will get a boost by the
return of junior Lance
Mills, who played No. 2
two years ago but was
sidelined with a foot injury
last year. NU is led by sen
ior Jorge Abos Sanchez,
who is expected to play
No.1,
Coach Kerry
McDermott, who watched
his Huskers lose all eight
conference matches last
season, said the Huskers
were much improved.
“This year we’re much
more positive that we are a
good team and that we
will beat some good teams
this year,” he said. “Now
it's just a matter of going
out and doing it”
Entering the season
outside of the top 75, the
men’s first competition of
the year at the Rice
Invitational gave
McDermott high expecta
tions.
He said coaches came
up to him and told him
that NU looked a lot better
than last year and
deserved a spot in the top
75.
Against Wichita State,
the key matches will come
at No. 1 and No. 2 singles,
where the Shockers are
strongest, said
McDermott, who expects
the Huskers to come out
on top against WSU.
Dual sends N(J coach
back to former school
BY DAVID DiEHL
Nebraska Coach Mark
Manning will return to familiar
ground in Northern Iowa
University’s west gym as the
first-year NU coach returns to
face his old sqaud at 7 p.m.
tonight
Manning was the Panthers’
coach from 1998-2000, orches
trating a turnaround in UNI’s
wrestling program. He led his
squad to 10-5-2 record in 2000
and an 11th place finish in the
NCAA's - not bad considering his
first team went 5-9 and finished
30^. Under new coach and for
mer NU assistant, Brad Penrith,
UNI has accumulated a No. 20
ranking and 9-6 record.
Manning has led ninth
ranked NU to a 10-3 record, its
13th straight 10-win season. Win
No. 11 for NU will have to come
against Manning’s old mates.
Assistant coaches Steve
Hamilton and Tolly Thompson
also coached at UNI last year.
“I'll know all 20 guys that are
wrestling tonight, personally”
Manning said. “I played a big
part in recruiting those guys
there and so did Steve and Tolly."
The two teams wrestled to a
20-20 stalemate last year in
Lincoln after NU took eight
points in the last two matches to
escape with a tie.
Manning said he expected
just as big of a dog fight this time
around.
“They're an excellent team,”
he said. “And we’re going to have
to be at our best to beat these
guys.”
Last home meet may
mean touah business
BY TOBY BURGER
Emotions are high for the
Nebraska swimming and diving
teams with some top-notch pro
grams visiting the Huskers in
their last home meet of the sea
son.
Action begins at the
Devaney Sports Center pool
tonight at 7 p.m. and concludes
on Saturday with an 11 a.m.
start
The women will face a diffi
cult challenge against No. 1
Georgia. The Bulldogs enter
Lincoln claiming the past two
NCAA team titles. Georgia
places its 9-0 record on the line
against the NU women’s 7-3
mark.
The Husker men (6-2) also
host a 7-3 Georgia squad cur
rently ranked No. 12. The
Wildcats of Northwestern (4-3)
will join the mix and compete in
the double dual.
• For the women, the close
proximity of this weekend’s dual
and the Big 12 championships
on Feb. 15-17 mean some swim
mers will not swim in all their
events. But Nelsen said with the
intensity of such a meet, he still
expected to see some season
best times on both the women
and men’s sides.
Interim Coach Paul Nelsen
acknowledged the caliber and
quality of teams entering this
weekend’s duals. Hd said that
both Georgia and Northwestern
would poise a challenge for the
men, but he felt they could han
dle Northwestern and keep pace
with Georgia.
This weekend’s duals mark
the last regular season action for
both teams before heading to
the Big 12 championships on
Feb. 15-17 for the women and
March 1-3 for the men. Both
teams are coming of a successful
January where the men finished
6-1 and the women went 7-2.
With the season coming to
an end, Nelsen said the focus
was on getting through this
weekend and forging ahead to
the Big 12 championships.
“We can't question what we
did with all the past success,”
Nelsen said. “We need to stay in
the present and not let this take
away whatever happens at this
meet.”
Huskers primed for Cl)
BIIFFSfrom page 10
perimeter players who can push
tiie ball up the floor,” Ffriend said
of the Buffs. “When they get the
ball inside they are good finish
ers.”
Ffriend said the Buffs were
first on the list of teams the
Huskers must beat down the
stretch run of the season if NU
were to have any hope erf continu
ing into post-season play.
“Ifwe can end up with 17 Or 18
wins and with our strength of
Huskers to
take on 0U
GYM from page 10
crowd, the better,” he said.
Saturday's crowd may come
hoping to see another team scor
ing record, but NU’s coach isn't
guaranteeing a win. Kendig said
OU was a strong all-around
team, especially talented in the
bar events.
"We will be facing a well-bal
anced team,” he said. “They have
had scored rather well through
out the season, and we can't
expect them to hand us a victo
ry.”
schedule, like fifth in the nation...
with that, there's a good chance of
making the [NCAA] tournament,”
Ffriend said. “It’s very critical that
we can get on a run right here and
protect the home court”
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