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Athlete throws troubles aside

Invictus thrower battles cancer, trains to join varsity track team

By Derek McKinley

Posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008, 12:00 am

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Derek McKinley

Matt Harmon was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma at the age of 10.

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In William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus,” – Latin for “unconquered” – Henley writes, “The menace of the years finds, and shall find, me unafraid.” First-year thrower Matt Harmon meets the menace of the years fearlessly every time he steps into the thrower’s circle.

In the past few months, Harmon has been competing as a member of Invictus, the University of Maine club track team founded at the start of the fall semester, with hopes of joining the UMaine varsity team next fall.

“I think Matt is really showing what we want the track club to exemplify, as kind of a stepping stone, which has given him the opportunity to compete and hone his skills a little bit,” Invictus President and Co-Founder Dillon Bates said. “When he does make the leap up to varsity, I think he’ll be much better for it.”

Harmon has competed at meets all over New England, consistently performing at a high level with honors such as a first-place finish at Maine USA Track and Field Club Championships.

“He’s talented, and he’s dedicated and quite simply makes a very good role model for the rest of the team,” Invictus member Krista Ricupero said.

But as with most great athletes, Harmon’s most important and life-changing battles have taken place outside the arena.

At age 10, Harmon was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after doctors discovered a tumor that caused severe spinal curvature, as well as a tumor in his calf and some of the disease in his liver and kidneys.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is used to describe any of a large group of cancers affecting the immune system. It is generally marked by enlarged lymph nodes, fever and unexplained weight loss. More than 66,000 new cases are diagnosed in a year, and 19,000 people die from the disease annually, according to the National Cancer Institute.

After successfully undergoing chemotherapy treatments, Harmon was given a clean bill of health, but recovery proved frustrating at times.

“My spine was curved, and I really couldn’t walk because my spine was messed up,” Harmon said. “I remember going down and playing basketball, trying to jump, and after a year of not being able to do physical activity, I couldn’t jump, and I was so angry. I couldn’t lift my legs more than a few inches.”

Years later, Harmon picked up throwing as a first-year in high school, but described his performances as less than stellar.

“The first time I ever threw, freshman year, first throw: 22 feet with a 12 pound shot. That’s not good,” Harmon said with a laugh.

Harmon blamed his early futility not on his cancer treatments, but on unfortunate genetic circumstances.

“If you saw pictures of me when I was a freshman, you’d swear I was in fifth grade,” Harmon said.

As he matured, his throwing potential was finally tapped, and Harmon began taking throwing more seriously.

“Freshman year, I just [threw] to chill with my friends, and then sophomore year, at Indoor KVACs, I was fourth, and I was like, ‘I could be good at this.’”

Dedicating himself to track entirely, Harmon hit the weight room hard during the summer and placed fourth in the indoor championships again his junior year. After taking second in the indoor competition his senior year, Harmon finally broke through, winning a conference championship in shotput his senior outdoor season. A wrist injury that began in the middle of the indoor season made Harmon’s accomplishments even more special.

“[In the] middle of senior year, I was throwing shot and my wrist started to hurt, so I went to the doctor. At first they thought my bones were softer from the chemo, but then they said that because of the way my bones are, [it was] just my body type. When I throw, one bone hits another bone, and it makes it swell and it cuts the blood circulation off,” Harmon said.

For his efforts, Harmon was invited to compete nationally at the Scholastic Indoor Track and Field Championships and finished 38th out of 54 throwers from around the nation.

With Invictus and UMaine crossing paths at several meets, Harmon has had a chance to get to know the UMaine varsity throwers.

“It’s like being a freshman on a team, where you catch s— and you have to carry all their equipment, only I don’t have to carry equipment, I just catch s—. But I’m buddies with all of them,” Harmon said with a grin.

When Harmon is not on the track, he maintains a slew of eclectic hobbies. Long before throwing, his first love was baseball.

“I did baseball from the time I could pick up a bat until about 10th grade. I was pitcher and second base. The biggest, slowest guy on the team was a second baseman,” Harmon chuckled.

Harmon’s competitive nature often shone through on the field.

“Once I had a no-hitter through six innings, and they took me out. I walked two guys, they were like: ‘you’re tired,’ I was like, ‘I have a no-hitter, it’s the sixth inning.’ I was so angry,” Harmon recalled. “I was good at baseball, but I was better at track.”

Harmon also drums in his spare time and has for nine years. He proudly displayed a tattoo of a large drum kit between his shoulder blades.

When asked about his idols, Harmon expressed an admiration for Olympic thrower Adam Nelson, whom he felt he could relate to.

“[Nelson] was like me. In high school, I was second place all the time until senior year [when] I won KVACs. He was second at the Sydney Olympics, the Athens Olympics and he was second in three world championships, but he finally won one in [the] 2005 [Helsinki World Championships],” Harmon said.

With a year of competition under his belt and a lifetime of adversity behind him, Harmon is poised to make a splash as a member of the UMaine team in the fall.

Henley’s Invictus also said, “In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance, my head is bloody but unbowed.”

For Matt Harmon, whether bludgeoned by chance with a life-threatening illness or career-threatening injuries, his head is held high, proudly unconquered.