Nanooks' Blaszczak Has Fighting Spirit

Sophomore Remains Hopeful For Return Despite Cancer Surgery

by Christopher Boulay/CHN Writer (@chrismboulay)

Collegiate life is full of learning experiences, both good and bad. These experiences during the formative years of adulthood help shape the person you will be.

The adversity that Brennan Blaszczak has dealt with the past six weeks, however, is not typical of college students or collegiate athletes. For the 22-year-old Alaska sophomore, that adversity was his doctor informing him he developed Stage One testicular cancer.

Blaszczak broke the news to Alaska head coach Erik Largen and the staff before a team meeting on Dec. 3 following his doctor’s appointment. The coaching staff knew about the visit, but wasn’t aware of the reason for going.

“I didn’t really think much of it, thinking it was an injury, or something like that,” Largen said. “He came in and told us the news. It was silence. It was sadness. You’re still trying to be strong for him and the rest of the team, but definitely when a part of your family has something like that, it’s devastating.”

The team obviously took the news hard. The group decided to continue practice as normal that day as a positive distraction.

“It was therapeutic. It definitely put a damper on practice that day,” Blaszczak said. “But I was able to skate. I skated that whole week and played the following weekend. That was the only time where I didn’t think about the cancer or what lied ahead. It was therapeutic. I just went out there and had fun. That was the best way to handle it, I thought.”

At the end of the semester, Blaszczak flew home to Troy, Mich., to have his surgery and be with his family over break. He saw specialists and had the surgery process explained to him in detail.

On Dec. 18, a surgeon removed the tumor via orchiectomy, and spent the winter break at home recovering.

Back at that first doctor’s appointment in Fairbanks, the urologist explained all the steps to Blaszczak. After that, he and the doctor had to explain the difficult news to his parents, who were nearly 2,900 miles away.

“We had to put them on speaker and have that whole conversation again,” Blaszczak said. “It wasn’t easy hearing them react to the news.”

Luckily, with the surgery being back in Michigan, he was surrounded by his family during the recovery process.

“I spent a lot of time on the couch, with everyone waiting on me. So it wasn’t all that bad,“ Blaszczak said, with a laugh. ”It was definitely painful for the first couple days, hunched over like an old man. I definitely couldn’t get a lot done by myself. But as the weeks went by, I got better and better.”

Another aspect that improved the situation was that his recovery occurred during the holiday season, allowing for some much-needed distractions.

“(Since) I was home for the holidays, the house was all decorated,” Blaszczak said. “My mom loves decorating. Just having family around, and I also saw some friends from high school. It was definitely the right environment to recover (in).”

According to the American Cancer Society, one-in-250 men develop testicular cancer, and the average age of diagnosis is 33. Luckily, it is one of the more treatable cancers in men, with just one-in-5,000 cases being fatal.

Blaszczak isn’t the only player on the Nanooks’ roster who dealt with testicular cancer. Senior defenseman Jack Weiss received the same diagnosis in Dec. 2017, and after chemotherapy, he overcame the disease. This previous experience added some context to Blaszczak’s illness for the team, while allowing him a person to consult about the disease.

“He was my go-to guy when it came to the questions. I asked his ear off,” Blaszczak said. “He was great. He was supportive. He let me know all the steps he took — the whole process. Obviously, his was a little worse than mine, and I can’t complain about that. But he was incredibly helpful in this process.”

Additionally, Weiss’ family acted as a sounding board for the Blaszczak’s family during this situation, in order to learn more about the illness.

“You never want to go through something like this, and it’s something I can’t imagine going through, but I know it helped Brennan and his family to have someone else that has been through the fight before,” Largen said.

For Blaszczak, not only was Weiss a significant help to navigate the tough days, but the entire Nanooks program was a boon to his confidence.

“The support up here is incredible,” Blaszczak said. "It’s one thing to have it back home with your friends and family, but up here, I have 27 brothers in that locker room.”

While the tumor was removed, the cancer isn’t considered eliminated until a series of blood tests and scans every three months for as long as the next couple years. This will begin in March, after a flight back to Michigan.

If this progress continues, his doctor can eventually deem him cancer-free.

“The doctors are optimistic that (the cancer) is completely gone,” Blaszczak said. “But obviously, time will tell for that. So now, the recovery time from surgery is all I have to do.”

Heading back to Fairbanks was a welcomed change of pace during the process, returning to some semblance of normalcy. His first stop was an Alaska basketball game, where he was able to reunite with some of his teammates. The rest of the players saw him for the first time when he arrived to watch practice the next day.

“It’s going to be nice getting back into classes and even just being around practice, because it takes my mind off of it,” Blaszczak said. “Back home, I was on the couch and didn’t really have any obligations. It’s all I would really think about. I’d be a prisoner of my own mind. Now that class is back, I’ll be able to do some homework, and hopefully take my mind off of it.”

Currently, Blaszczak isn’t cleared for much physical activity, which won’t arrive for another couple weeks. He can’t lift anything more than 25 pounds, but that should change soon. He’s still optimistic that his recovery process will allow him to be on the ice in a game before the end of the season, as he gradually ramps up activity.

“It’s just nice having him around,” Largen said. “He’s a great person, he’s great teammate. Just to have him back in the locker room is going to give our team a boost. Just take away the on-ice performance of it, just the off-ice of being around the guys, being a good friend to them and giving them a little extra motivation every day, it has been big.”

During the first half of the year, Blaszczak appeared in 16 games, earning a goal and two assists. To even have the opportunity to add to those numbers before the season ends is a gift to the player who had the health scare of his life.

“Definitely have a whole new perspective on not just hockey, but life in general, because life is so precious,” Blaszczak said. “For my hockey career, the way I look at it, it could be over now. So I’m definitely not going to take anything for granted any more. I like to think of this in life as a small step back, or a small speed bump in the road. I’m looking forward to getting over it and moving on.”

The unfortunate, unlucky things that happen in life don’t define a person. How that person deals with those situations, grows, fights and survives is what defines them. Blaszczak is the embodiment of that fighting spirit, and his bounce back from this adversity is something that the entire college hockey world will be rooting for.

