As he fights cancer, a Highland basketball player is moved by Red Hook's generosity

RED HOOK - Zach Osterhoudt spent four days in the hospital less than two weeks ago, after a severe fever and unrelenting nausea caused him to faint.

On several days he is listless, without an appetite and in pain. The chemotherapy at times makes him feel even more ill than the cancer itself.

Osterhoudt travels with his mom, Anne Marie, to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan for treatments that sometimes run from morning into the late evening. They’ll book a hotel because the two-hour drive back to their Highland home is too much for Zach to endure on those days.

“It breaks your heart to see your child sick and hurting,” Reggie Osterhoudt said. “You just wish you could take it all away; I’d rather go through it myself than have him suffer. It doesn’t seem fair that a kid should go through this.”

Zach, an active and ostensibly healthy 15-year-old, was diagnosed in December with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare cancer that develops in the bones and attacks soft tissue within the body.

The news was delivered to the family after Christmas, when a biopsy discovered the tumor along his ribs was malignant. Zach began treatment in January, and the 10th-grader has been away from Highland High School since, and away from the junior varsity basketball team of which he is captain.

“I’ve been trying to keep up with my schoolwork at home, trying to push through,” Zach said. “You try to keep things as normal as possible and do as much as you can, but it’s hard some days and I’ve fallen behind.”

There are some good days, though. Weeks, even, when the pain isn’t unbearable and he’s able to get around without much struggle — able to smile.

He did on Friday evening, waving to the crowd as he received a lengthy ovation after being introduced in the Red Hook High School gymnasium. The school allowed him to share the stage with its boys basketball team, hosting a fundraiser in his honor during their senior night festivities, which packed the stands.

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Money was raised through donations and the sale of raffle tickets to spectators wanting to participate in a shooting contest at halftime. It drew about $3,000, which will go to the family to help with medical expenses.

People in attendance wore yellow ribbons, the representative color for Ewing's Sarcoma, and most of the Red Hook student section was clad in black and yellow, a departure from the red and white school colors.

All of that, Zach said, was “unbelievable.”

“I didn’t expect this from another school,” he said. “It’s crazy. I didn’t expect so many people to care about me and be this kind.”

Matt Donohue, the father of Red Hook varsity standouts Brendan and Carter, is Reggie Osterhoudt’s coworker. After learning about Zach’s condition, Donohue asked athletic director Tom Cassata and basketball coach Matt Hayes to host this event. Brendan, a member of the school’s varsity club, helped organize the fundraiser.

“I was wowed, but I’m not surprised,” Hayes said. “This community always comes together for people in need, especially children.”

Zach rode on the team bus to Red Hook and sat with the Huskies on the bench during the junior varsity game, which Highland won 63-59. The Osterhoudts — Zach, his parents and two younger siblings Ben and Lia — sat in the first row of the bleachers and were showered with cheers during the varsity game.

“The support we’ve gotten from our community and outside it has been incredible,” Reggie Osterhoudt said. “Most of these kids don’t even know Zach. But they’re coming together for another; town lines don’t matter. It’s a great thing to be reminded how much good there is in the world.”

A few days after being discharged from the hospital, Zach felt well enough to surprise his junior varsity teammates last Thursday, showing up to a home game.

That, coach Brian Bishop said, was the first time most of them had seen him in about six weeks, since the chemotherapy began. Aside from his closest friends, communication had been limited to text messages and brief phone conversations, or checking in with his parents periodically.

“It definitely helped morale seeing him, because you know it means it’s not getting to him as much mentally,” said Dylan Dutra, Zach’s teammate and best friend since kindergarten. “I know it’s painful, but when you see him up and about, it's uplifting.”

Red Hook won the varsity game, 65-32, extending its win streak to five games. Brendan Donohue had nine points, five steals and a career-high 13 assists. Gavin Cole added 14 points and Shawn Terry scored 12, the trio of seniors leading the Raiders (12-5) as they ready for the Section 9 playoffs.

But much of the attention afterward was on the kid who plays for a rival school, in another county, about 26 miles away.

“The atmosphere tonight was one of the best I’ve seen and it’s heartwarming to know that our town showed up like that for Zach,” Brendan Donohue said. “These are the important things. It means everything.”

‘A thousand scary thoughts’

Zach had felt pain in the right of his back, radiating from the side, for close to a year. But, as a member of the Highland soccer, basketball and baseball teams, he dismissed it as normal athletic soreness.

He played the first five games of the basketball season and starred in the first, Bishop said. Zach is a facilitating point guard whose speed and effervescence fuel the offense.

He strained a quad in the first game and didn’t seem to play with as much verve in the next four.

“I attributed it to the quad,” said the coach, who has known Zach since he was in the third grade, playing on a CYO team run by Bishop’s mother. “He struggled a bit with energy after the first game, but never would I have imagined it was this.”

Zach’s parents were concerned about the back pain persisting and eventually were alarmed when they felt a mass near his ribs. That prompted a visit to a specialist, and an MRI revealed the tumor.

When the family arrived at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie to hear the results of Zach’s biopsy, Reggie Osterhoudt said, they immediately were told that an appointment already had been scheduled for them at Sloan Kettering.

It is a renowned cancer treatment facility, but just hearing those words from a doctor can be jarring.

“We were stunned; we were floored,” Reggie Osterhoudt said of himself and his wife. “A thousand scary thoughts are going through your head at once. You see that scene on TV, and you know so many other families go through it, but you never think it’s gonna be your kid.”

A team of oncologists spoke to them. Zach was shocked, too overwhelmed to process all the medical jargon he was hearing, or even have much of a reaction. But he knew what his parents’ tears indicated.

“I’m playing basketball, things are good, it’s right after Christmas,” he said, “and then you’re hearing you have a rare cancer.”

Ewing's Sarcoma affects mostly people between ages 10 and 20, and only about 200 children are diagnosed with it each year in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. There is, however, about a 70% survival rate if the disease is caught before it metastasizes.

Zach’s oncologist has assured him that his condition is treatable and they are “confident” he will make it.

“We were at Sloan at 9 o’clock the next day and one of the first things the doctor told us was, ‘We’ve cured 900 of these cases,’” Reggie Osterhoudt said. “He told us Zach will be okay, but it’ll be a long road.”

‘I’m gonna beat this’

Anne Marie Osterhoudt is Zach’s primary caregiver, his father said. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, only one person can accompany a patient to the hospital.

The first round of chemotherapy began in January, and Zach travels to New York City with his mother for those appointments while Reggie Osterhoudt remains in Highland with Ben, 14, and 10-year-old Lia. But they’re all in constant contact with Zach, and try as much as they can to lift his spirits.

“I have faith and I’m staying optimistic,” Zach said. “The doctors definitely think I’m gonna beat this and they’re confident, which gives me some confidence.”

He is expected to undergo another round of chemo through the spring before another evaluation. Based on the assessment then, he could be facing surgery, radiation treatment or more chemotherapy this summer.

He weighs 126 pounds now, about the same as he did before this ordeal, he said. But there are steep fluctuations. He’ll lose weight rapidly during chemo, but the hydration treatment helps offset that. He gained eight pounds in a day, he said.

If all goes well this summer, Reggie Osterhoudt said, Zach could return to school as early as this fall and, ideally, rejoin the basketball team next winter.

“I try to keep up with people and what’s going on on my phone, and try to get outside and do stuff when I can,” Zach said, “but I absolutely miss being in school and with my team. You miss things being normal.”

Despite his condition, Zach mostly has maintained his jovial demeanor. Bishop called him “friendly and enthusiastic.” Dutra described his buddy as a “goofball, who’s secretly smart.”

Zach, sporting a sweatsuit and covering his head with a brown knitted beanie, joked that he never could've predicted he would start balding at this age.

A group of his longtime friends got haircuts and Dutra shaved what was a large shock of red hair “to show Zach that he’s not in this by himself.”

“My friends going bald with me, that’s all part of the amazing support system I’ve got, and I love that,” he said. “And I still have my eyebrows!”

Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4826, Twitter: @StephenHaynes4

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Osterhoudt: Red Hook basketball helps Highland athlete fighting cancer