Heart of a champion
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Dominic Holly, 14, has his eyes on the prize—playing in the National Football League someday.
Right now, football is everything for this Southeast member, a middle school athlete who plays defensive tackle for the Hikes Point Lobos senior team.
At 6-foot-2 and already wearing a size 12 shoe, he literally is head and shoulders above the rest.
Few people who watch him play know what it has taken to be there or how much he has overcome to be part of the team.
That’s the way Dominic likes it.
His first hurdle began at birth—a stroke on the left side of his brain probably caused by a difficult delivery.
The stroke affected speech and gross motor skills. As a baby, he didn’t use his right side.
Years of therapy with First Steps, a statewide early intervention program for children with developmental disabilities, helped him overcome challenges and build
new pathways.
Dominic and his mother, Debbie Marasa, spent a lot of time with therapists.
As a single mom, also working fulltime as a Louisville Metro Police officer and caring for Dominic’s older sister Erin, life often seemed overwhelming
Those were tough days for Marasa.
“In the beginning, I was really mad at God,” she said. “Dominic hadn’t been around long enough to have a problem. I felt as if I was being punished.”
Therapy worked, and Dominic progressed even further at Emmett Field Elementary School, which specializes in helping developmentally challenged children.
Then the second whammy hit.
When he was 6 years old, Dominic was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and went through eight rounds of chemotherapy and 10 rounds of
radiation.
In the middle of this second, serious challenge, Marasa began to reach out to God instead of step away.
“This cancer normally is diagnosed in teenage boys,” Marasa said. “While I couldn’t understand why it happened to Dominic after all he had already been
through, I was no longer angry with God.”
Dominic does not remember therapy after the stroke, but he does remember cancer. He looked at difficult treatments as something that had to be done. It took
an invisible toll.
Dominic was so sick during chemotherapy and missed so much school that he had to repeat a grade. While recovering, he lost touch with friends and had to
spend a lot of time alone when blood counts were low. When he went back to school, it was hard to find his place and make friends in a new classroom.
Marasa worried that he was too quiet. He didn’t even bother his sister.
Those days are done.
Dominic has found his voice. He is funny, engaging and focused on sports.
“Football is my favorite, but I also like basketball,” Dominic said. “People tell me I’ve come a long way, but there are a lot of things I want to do.”
When he was 11, Dominic asked to play football. A Baltimore Ravens and Ohio State University fan, he watched games with his dad and wanted to be on the
field instead of in the stands.
“It took a while for me to agree to let him play,” Marasa said. “We had worked so hard for so long to keep him healthy that I couldn’t think about an injury or even
worse, a brain injury that would undo everything.”
She finally relented to let him try. Since then, football has become the best part of Dominic’s day. He likes the challenge of the game and being with friends.
Marasa, Dominic and Erin go to Southeast together on Saturday nights or Sunday morning and often listen to the service in Café 920.
“We are the coffee shop class,” Marasa said. “It’s like having our own small group.”
On June 29, 2011, they decided to be baptized together.
“We are just now settling into all the things the church as to offer,” Marasa said.
“I plan to take the Financial Peace class and the kids look forward to getting involved in Student Ministry.”