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Howell's Zac Cain, middle, died Monday after a two year battle with colorectal cancer. He was 19. Pictured to Cain's right are his mother and father Al and Jill Cain and to his left his girlfriend Amanda Goerge and brother Matt Cain.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Cain)

Friends and family recalled former Howell High School and Club Wolverine swimmer Zac Cain as contagiously optimistic Tuesday. A former coach dug deep into his memory bank trying to recall a time he saw Cain without a smile, even during his battle with cancer.

No luck.

Cain was diagnosed with cancer two years ago while still a senior in high school, and family and friends said his spirit was upbeat through the entirety of his battle with the disease. Cain lost that battle Monday morning, when he died at his home in Howell with his family by his side at the age of 19.

Cain and his younger brother Matt, 18, were separated by just one grade, so along with being brothers the two were close friends who competed together on the varsity swim team at Howell High School. Matt remembered his brother as someone who could get along with just about anyone.

“He was good with people who were 80 and he was good with my 5-year-old cousins,” Matt recalled.

That included a fellow cancer victim Robert Monroy of Grand Ledge, who Zac met through a cancer benefit golf outing at Treetops Golf Club in Gaylord over Labor Day weekend. It’s fair to say the 40-year-old Iraq War veteran and Cain didn’t have too much in common, but Monroy said Cain’s optimism helped him through some tough times.

The two stayed in touch and played more golf together after their first meeting. Monroy called the news of Zac’s passing “a kick to the stomach.”

“When I found out, I just said, ‘it can’t be right,” Monroy said. “Zac is someone who I counted as a very good friend, and it sucks to lose someone like that.”

Golf was something Cain took up when swimming was taken from him. He and his father Al were able to play at Augusta National with NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann the week after the Masters last year through The Rainbow Connection, an organization dedicated to granting the wishes of Michigan children with life-threatening or terminal illnesses.

An All-State swimmer for Howell as a sophomore and junior – both years placing fifth in the 500-yard freestyle – Cain set two pool records at Pinckney High School and a Howell varsity record in February 2012, but complained of stomach pain afterwards.

Zac Cain in front of the Howell Aquatic Center record board, on which his name frequents.

“He came up to me and he told me he couldn’t finish. That’s when I knew something was wrong,” said Howell coach Zach Kasprzak. “He had great intensity."

Cain was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, Stage IIIC, shortly after. It was just weeks before the state championships of his senior year. He was one of the favorites in the 500-yard freestyle, but instead began chemotherapy treatments.

“I’m not giving up,” he said at the time. “It is what it is and it happened, but I’ll make sure it doesn’t ruin my life.”

The cancer eventually ended his life, but friends and family said nothing could ever “ruin” it.

“The kid was always upbeat, always positive. Never a downer, always a joy to be around, always come in in a good mood and tough as nails,” said Kelton Graham, who coached Cain with Club Wolverine.

Graham said the same was true even when he and Club Wolverine swimmers would visit Cain in the hospital.

Cain’s former teammates and coaches recalled him as a fierce competitor whose work ethic was unrivaled. He was at a level beyond others on the Howell team, so coaches would have one practice planned specifically to push Cain, and another for the rest of the team. Cain swam with Club Wolverine in Ann Arbor to work toward his goal of competing in college.

When swimming was taken from Cain, he shifted that attitude toward beating cancer.

“I think he hurt a lot inside even before his cancer. He would push himself beyond human limits (seemingly) and in turn, he/we would win, but at his expense,” recalled former teammate Joseph Brosnan in an email. “I am glad, even if it is death, that he doesn’t have to hurt anymore.”

Matt said a side of his brother not many saw was his deep empathy for others. He was often emotional behind closed doors about others’ various plights, even if he wouldn’t allow himself the same.

“He always had a better attitude about it than everybody else,” said Purdue University swimmer Josh Ehrman, who swam with Cain at Club Wolverine.

After a successful first round of chemo treatment, Cain became an assistant coach with Howell’s swimming teams. A year after missing out on the state championships due to his illness, Cain was there as a coach and congratulated Ehrman when Saline won the team title in 2013.

“He was cheering us all on and I just remember him coming up and congratulating us after winning,” Ehrman said. “It was really awesome.”

Due to his treatment schedule, Cain didn’t go away to school to swim like he had planned, but poured his heart into being an assistant coach.

“That was his life, that’s what got him up,” Matt said. “It wasn’t that swimming was his life, it was the people that he swam with.

“They would all text him after practice. He wasn’t just a coach, he was a friend.”

Cain took over as an assistant for his former coach, Mark Sweeso, who coached Cain from elementary through high school.

“He did a great job at it,” Sweeso said. “Everyone could relate to him, everybody looked up to him.”

Sweeso wanted to elaborate his thoughts on Cain, but when he searched for words only tears came, so he wrote them in an email.

“It’s said ‘only the good die young,’ Zac why did you have to be so good,” Sweeso wrote.

Cain and his girlfriend, Amanda Goerge, started dating just a few months before his diagnosis. One of the goals he shared after being diagnosed was to be able to take Goerge to his senior prom, which he did.

The two stayed together until his death.

Goerge, 18, didn’t exactly sign up for trips to the hospital between chemotherapy treatments when she saw Cain being “really goofy,” at a high school dance the November before Cain’s cancer was discovered. Goerge said he had the same quirky sense of humor until the end.

When people would tell Goerge that Cain’s diagnosis didn’t have to be hers, she would grow upset.

“I never really considered not being there for him,” said Goerge, now a freshman at Oakland University. “He was the best person I ever met, and I was just really lucky to have him.”

Visitation will be 1-8 p.m. Wednesday at MacDonald's Funeral Home in in Howell. A full obituary and online guestbook can be found at the MacDonald's Funeral Home website. Memorial contributions are suggested to the The Rainbow Connection or the Eric Hartwell Foundation.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for The Ann Arbor News. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.