Beating the odds

When Albemarle kicker Dwayne Jones had two extra-points blocked against Monticello, head coach Rick Vrhovac saw his body language change in a big way.

“I saw his head go down,” Vrhovac said. “On Monday, I said, ‘It’s your job, Dwayne — just relax.’”

Albemarle went to work after the loss to the Mustangs, attacking the problem by shoring up its protection scheme and changing Jones’ steps to a one-step boot. The adjustments paid dividends immediately — Jones went 5 for 5 on extra points in a 35-13 victory over Western Albemarle.

Not that Vrhovac had to worry much about Jones’ ability to bounce back. Jones has a strong history of attacking problems head on and overcoming them.

“I’ve always been the kind of kid to just attack things, I’m just up for a challenge,” Jones said.

Few warning signs

Up until age 10, Jones hadn’t been sick a day in his life. Colds rarely even hampered him as a kid.

“He was never sick — he never missed a day of school,” Dwayne’s mother Sheila Jones said.

Around late August of 2001, he did develop a rash that prompted his mother to send him to the dermatologist along with his father, Keith, who’d recently developed a rash.

“I just figured I’d send them both,” Sheila said.

Keith’s rash was harmless, but during Dwayne’s exam the doctor found a golf ball-sized mass under the 11-year old’s arm. An initial diagnosis by the Jones’ pediatrician suggested it was cat scratch fever, a bacterial infection caused by cats or ticks.

The medicine for that didn’t have much impact, though, so the Joneses went back to the doctor, who took some tests and then scheduled Dwayne for an MRI. Before they could get to the MRI appointment though, the pediatrician’s office called and asked them to come back by the office to talk.

“They took my parents back first,” Dwayne said. “Then they brought me back and I knew something was wrong because my mom was crying.”

Jones was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma and wasn’t given a particularly optimistic prognosis by his doctor — a 20 percent chance of survival. Stage IV is the most severe progression of Hodgkin’s, a stage where the infected cells have moved into organs other than the lymphatic system — Jones’ disease had already spread to his lungs.

“It was definitely frustrating — I [thought], ‘How is this happening to me?’” Jones said. “I was like, ‘I can’t let that happen.’”

Settling in for a fight

That sentiment quickly turned into a resolve to take the challenge head-on. There was little complaining from the 10-year-old after he learned about another nearby patient in the hospital, a

5-year-old dealing with wounds from a lawn mower accident who was facing disfigurement.

“He said, ‘I will never complain again, Mom — I’m going to get better, and he has to deal with that for life,’” Sheila said. “Dwayne had to grow up at 10 years old. He never got to live that carefree life.”

It didn’t take long for the treatment process to kick into high gear. By Labor Day weekend, Jones was going through a lymphectomy and the insertion of a central line catheter near his heart — but he wasn’t going to stop playing soccer because of it.

Jones’ doctor cleared him to play in a tournament that weekend, but explained to his parents that he probably wouldn’t feel up to it. Jones played anyway, his chest wrapped tightly in gauze to protect the central line and the incision — and he scored in the opening game of the tournament.

“The tears and the cheers, I can’t even describe it,” Sheila said. “Because we didn’t know then what his future was going to be.”

Turning the corner

That future quickly became a bright one. Jones took to chemotherapy and radiation at UVa Medical Center extremely well, as the positive results began to show through almost immediately.

“I can’t say enough about the care they gave him,” Sheila said. “There was a nurse whose shift ended and she came in and sat for just an hour holding his hand after her shift was over.”

There were frustrating moments, as there are during any cancer treatment, but after five long years, as a high school sophomore, Jones was declared in remission by doctors. At 15, he was a cancer survivor.

He’s taken to the designation well, continuing to provide comfort for recently-diagnosed children at UVa hospitals, talking with those young patients about everything that goes with battling cancer — from hair loss to keeping an upbeat attitude. He’s been a speaker at Relay for Life rallies as well, conveying a message on how patients can help those around them help out through open communication.

There were, of course, side effects and long-term impacts that are still being realized now. It took years for Jones to gain back his stamina for soccer in part because he lost two-thirds of one of his lungs and suffered some kidney damage during treatment. He also has to take penicillin on a regular basis partially because the three spleens he was born with were removed for fear of the organs harboring cancer cells.

“They said they’d seen two, but they’d never seen three,” Jones said.

It was around the time that he officially entered remission that he began to contemplate kicking for the football team. He approached Vrhovac about trying out as a sophomore, but the Patriots had a senior kicker, so he put it off for a season and made the team as a junior. He split duties with Adam Utz in 2007, but he’s now handling everything for Albemarle as a senior.

He also isn’t the typical kicker who spends all his time at the end of the bench, apart from the rest of the team. His twin brother, Kyle, is a defensive lineman for the Patriots, and Dwayne has shown he isn’t afraid to stick his nose into the fray with Albemarle’s toughest.

“I sometimes get in hitting drills,” Jones said. “They put me up against the punter.”

Soccer remains his first love though, and he’ll enter the spring as a contributing member of the Patriots’ offense, a team that advanced to last year’s regional semifinal and brings back a host of strong players primed for another, perhaps deeper, playoff run.

Whatever happens with soccer though, it’s clear Jones has learned to take on problems rather than shy away from them, be it hitting drills, a couple of blocked kicks, or stage IV lymphoma. Either way, he’s going to attack.