So proud

Over the years, I have found many reasons to be proud of my hometown Ft. Sumner, New Mexcio.. but this takes the cake.. This article is in the Clovis News Paper this morning: (there is a picture on the internet, but copyrighted so I can't copy)

http://www.cnjonline.com/articles/sumner_1654_enmvarsity__article.html/fort_normal.html


Foxes' title gives boost to child
Sunday, Mar 22 2009, 12:38 am
By Eric Butler: FNM correspondent
Things were back to normal at the Kenyon place in Fort Sumner this weekend.

At least as normal as they can be.

Last Saturday, when the Fort Sumner Foxes earned the school’s first boys basketball state championship, little Reagan Kenyon was right in the middle of it all. Invited on to The Pit floor right after the Foxes edged Springer 67-66 for the Class 1A title, the 6-year-old girl was given the honor of draping the first-place medals around the necks of the victors.

She’s earned it.

In November, ironically the day after Fort Sumner won the Class 1A football championship, Clifford and Molly Kenyon were alarmed to find something jutting out of Reagan’s abdomen.

It was discovered that Reagan had a Wilms tumor, a cancerous tumor of the kidneys that typically affect children. Only about 500 such cases are diagnosed each year.

For Reagan, the tumor was the size of three softballs. It, and one kidney, were immediately removed.

“It’s kind of been surreal how it all happened. They won and we ended up there (at a Lubbock hospital) and she ended up staying because they had to take out one of her kidneys,” Molly Kenyon recalled. “She went immediately into surgery. We couldn’t hardly celebrate the state (football) championship because our world fell apart the next week.”

As she started chemotherapy treatments, Reagan Kenyon became a rallying point for the Foxes basketball team that included her brothers Zachary on the varsity and Reed on the junior varsity.

Shortly before participating at a tournament in Santa Rosa, the varsity and JV team members shaved their heads in support of Reagan. Though weak, Reagan was given the honor of starting each haircut.

The Fort Sumner players took the court with white headbands with Reagan’s name written on them.

“I called them little halos,” Molly Kenyon said.

At the state basketball tournament, Berry Stinnett and Skylar McMath were still wearing the headbands although their hair had grown almost all the way back.

“During the season, we found out that she had cancer. She shaved her head, well she didn’t really have to, but with the chemo she was going to lose her hair,” said Stinnett, who scored 22 points in the title game. “We kept her name on our headbands, because she was part of the team.”

Given the team’s winning run at the end of the season, Stinnett certainly didn’t see any reason to stop wearing the headbands.

“I’m keeping it,” said Stinnett, who will graduate in May.

These days, Reagan’s chemotherapy treatments have been reduced from once a week to once every two weeks as she improves in health.

“These boys, Zach and the other seniors, have been playing since kindergarten together. It’s been really special. They’ve been real supportive,” Molly Kenyon said. “I think in the end, it just kind of brought them closer. I think it did have something to do with them winning the championship.”

It’s unlikely anyone on Fort Sumner’s first boys basketball championship would disagree.
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I have never been more proud of a group of boys than I am of these Ft. Sumner Foxes.. not only for their championship but for having the grace and heart to love a little girl so unconditionally, and to include her in their victory.. you will all ALWAYS have a place in our family.. and we love each one of you!!