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Health, love put softball, college on hold for Hartley

After beating cancer, the former Hernando High star is taking a year off to get healthy and get married.

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 25, 2001

[Times photo: Kevin White] Standing on second base after driving in two runs for Hernando High in May, Chrissie Hartley flashes a smile at her coach.

BROOKSVILLE -- Three months after being named the Times Player of the Year, Chrissy Hartley has made two difficult decisions for this year: no college, no softball.

Those weren't easy to give up for someone whose greatest love was taking the field with a ball in hand, but two words from doctors last month put it all in perspective: no cancer.

The 18-year-old Hernando graduate was diagnosed with a moderate-level precancerous growth, and two days before she was to begin classes at Pasco-Hernando Community College on a softball scholarship, Hartley instead was preparing for surgery.

She had four operations on Aug. 24: one to remove the growth, another to remove her appendix and two other abdominal surgeries.

"The doctors came out and told us there was a 93 percent chance it will never come back," her father, Rick, said last week. "They say there's no guarantees with cancers, but 93 percent, that's just like it."

Her father said he could only imagine confronting such a life-changing obstacle as a teenager. His daughter said it has quickly changed the importance of many aspects of her life.

"When someone tells you you might have cancer, you look at things totally different," Hartley said. "I'm 18. I haven't even lived my life yet. When you hear something like that, it's very scary. It scared me to death."

What made the threat of cancer more frightening for Hartley was that her mother, Ruth Maconi, has battled a similar cancer for the past year, having surgeries and recently finishing four months of chemotherapy.

"They got rid of it with the chemo," Hartley said. "She conquered hers, but she didn't want me to go through what she went through. It wasn't just chemotherapy, but six months of bed rest, too."

Maconi, who lives in Asheville, N.C., said her mother and grandmother battled the same cancer. While the women in her family have a history with the disease, Maconi said they also have a history of finding it early and fighting it hard.

"I told her this is nothing to fool around with," Maconi said. "I just said she had to get it taken care of immediately, and she knew that. I was real fortunate in that mine was caught early, too."

The operations haven't been the only major event for Hartley this summer -- in July, her boyfriend, 26-year-old Matthew Carter of Brooksville, proposed to her, and the two will be married Oct. 6.

"He's a nice guy, and we're very happy," Hartley said. "This (health scare) has hit me pretty hard, but having Matt and my dad behind me, having somebody right there to talk to, that's helped me a lot."

Maconi said that as a parent, she was surprised and concerned to hear her daughter was engaged, but she also has learned not to make judgments about a marriage at any age.

"My mother got married at 16 and was married for 52 years (until she died in 1998)," she said. "You also see people wait and get married at 27 and they're miserable. All I want is for her to be happy."

Hartley's hospitalization coincided with the first week of school at PHCC, and even when she returned home after four days in the hospital, Hartley was taking medication that did not allow her to drive to the campus in New Port Richey.

By the time she was able to get to school, she had missed two weeks and was still in pain from eight staples in her stomach.

"I talked to my dad and said, "Maybe I should take a semester off,' " and my dad backed me 100 percent," she said. "He said that he wasn't the one they cut, so he didn't want to rush me to get back to something before I was ready."

Hartley said people have misunderstood her decision as having more to do with her upcoming wedding, but she said her health and the number of classes she had already missed were the reasons she chose to withdraw from school.

Hartley approached PHCC coach Tom Ryan about taking a semester off but said they had already discussed her decision to get married and he told her taking time away from school was "a foolish choice." Hartley said she would have had to pay more expenses related to her education if she enrolled in January.

"My scholarship wouldn't be the same," she said. "It would have been more money, and I just don't have that."

Ryan was quick to reiterate that Hartley's decision had nothing to do with her athletic abilities or academics, adding that the door would be open for her to return to PHCC in the spring or even next fall.

"There isn't anything bad that's occurred here," Ryan said. "It's not a closed-door situation by any means. Once she gets herself healthy, the opportunities will be endless for Chrissy."

Hartley, too, went out of her away to show no animosity to a coach who had given her an opportunity to play on the next level and, most important, gain a college education.

"I don't want to say anything bad about Coach Ryan -- he's a very nice man," Hartley said. "I understand where he's coming from. He had his roster set and wasn't expecting this."

Because she did not attend classes and withdrew within the first 15 days of the semester, Hartley's eligibility has not been affected. She is essentially a free agent now -- she had signed with PHCC before last season, and her dominant performance in leading Hernando to the state final four drew interest from bigger programs. She said she is retaking the ACT college entrance exam this fall and her performance on that would affect her decision.

One option is Lees-McRae College, a Division II program in Banner Elk, N.C., about an hour from her mother in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hartley was recruited by the school last year when the coach was Casey Bates, a 1995 Hernando graduate, and first-year coach Barb Russo confirmed Monday that she has spoken with Hartley as a recruit for next year.

"I haven't made a final decision," said Hartley, who cannot play softball for two months on doctor's orders. "But I haven't given up on softball. I love the sport, even more now that I can't play right now."

Hernando coach Ernie Chatman, who coached Hartley in youth softball leagues before she played four years with the Leopards varsity, said he has talked with her about her decision to take a year off and hopes she stays committed to a future in both softball and college.

"It's an unfortunate situation, in that she would have been a vital part of the program (at PHCC)," he said. "She needs to do what's best for her, and hopefully, as time goes on, she'll be able to do that. There's no question she has unlimited potential, so I just hope that things work out for her."

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