In Memory Of…
There is a certain type of friendship that no matter how many years pass when you connect with that friend be it in person, via text, email, or phone it is like no time has passed. I’m fortunate enough to have a few friendships like this. It is an amazing relationship, but it also hurts more deeply when you lose one. I’m devoting this blog post to one such friend. Who valiantly fought his battle with brain cancer for six years, until it got the best of him.
Chris Sciaudone and I first became friends in high school when he and his family moved to Marion, Indiana from Connecticut. His family were members of Meshingomesia Country Club where my father was the manager. I was working at the pool snack bar when he came up to the window to order. We became fast friends after that, both having a shared interest in Tennis (although I don’t remember us ever playing tennis together). We went to the same Catholic church, but he went to the public high school, while I went to the private Catholic high school.
Although time has passed, 39 years to be precise, I still carry several memories of him including his love for U2 (Chris introduced me to the music of U2), a lunch we had at Chi Chi’s (a Mexican restaurant in Indianapolis) – no idea why I remember that, returning home from a party with him where I had my first experience of a Harry Buffalo (an absolutely disgusting concoction of varying alcohol – I do not recommend it) and a graduation party he threw for me at his house (sans his parents… if memory serves me). Then there were the times just we hung out, at the club, or my house, joking, laughing and just being friends. My sophomore year in College at Purdue my parents moved from Marion and the connectivity faded as things do when you no longer have a common location to bring you together (this was pre-internet). My parents briefly moved back to Marion, and I remember us getting together for pizza at Noble Roman’s (a popular pizza joint when we were in high school), he was recovering from a broken engagement, and I was engaged to Andy.
Fast forward to the age of Facebook… we reconnected briefly in 2009 but then due to some craziness disconnected until January 2021 when he reached out and we started up our friendship again. I’m not a huge fan of Facebook but in this case, I am truly thankful for it. We stayed in touch over the months via text messaging or talking over the phone. Our last message to each other was over Christmas when I wished him a Happy Christmas Eve Day and he responded back “Back at ya!” That was the last time I heard from him. I texted him a month later checking in as I’ve done over the year, and it was radio silence. I didn’t think anything of it at first because we both lead busy lives but then the news came… his wife Stephanie posted a journal entry on CaringBridge that Chris was in Home Hospice. Although I knew this day would come, I was beside myself with grief. Knowing he probably wouldn’t get it, I sent him one last text (perhaps Stephanie would read it to him) saying that I had Stephanie and his kids in my prayers and that I was very much glad we were able to reconnect and that I wish we had more time. A week later I got word that Chris passed away.
I posted on Facebook about the passing of my friend and another high school friend shared an article about Chris from the IndyStar. The article sums up the character of Chris, his strength, kindness and passion. When I first found out about his illness, I remember telling him, he should live what life he has to the fullest and do whatever his heart desired, turns out he did!
Guerin Catholic tennis coach dies after battle with stage 4 brain cancer
Indianapolis Star
NOBLESVILLE -- Guerin Catholic tennis coach Chris Sciaudone, an adored leader who continued coaching even as he battled stage 4 glioblastoma, died Thursday night.
"While we all knew this day was imminent, the reality of this announcement is difficult when it comes to the impact it has on the Sciaudone family, the tennis program and the Guerin Catholic community," the school said in a statement. "We are grateful for the gifts Chris shared with us ... we will dearly miss our friend and coach. May he rest in peace."
Just months before his death, Sciaudone sat down with IndyStar to tell his story.
Original story published Nov. 22, 2021
If not for a fishing trip in Myrtle Beach, one where the waters became rocky, the boat started wobbling and Chris Sciaudone fell face first into the deck of the boat. If not for that fishing trip, he likely would not be on the tennis courts of Guerin Catholic High telling his story.
Doctors call what happened on that fishing boat in 2015 an incidental find — a find before Sciaudone had any symptoms that he had stage 3 anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare, cancerous brain tumor.
Untreated, anaplastic astrocytoma aggressively grows into stage 4 glioblastoma, which has an average survival time of 12 to 18 months.
Because of that fishing trip, doctors found Sciaudone's brain cancer early. And because of that, Sciaudone was able to ward off "the big bad wolf," as he calls it, for nearly six years.
But in April, the day he hoped wouldn't come did. After surgery to remove the tumor a second time, an oncology report found Sciaudone's cancer had progressed to stage 4 glioblastoma.
Sciaudone says he feels lucky. Yes, lucky. He knows if not for that fishing boat, he might not be on the courts of Guerin on a balmy November day. He might not have just finished his fourth season coaching boys tennis at the school. He might not be working every day in packaging sales and going on trips with his family.
Except for some memory issues, vision loss and fatigue, he is living a normal life.
"I truly do consider myself to be lucky, very lucky," Sciaudone, 55, said. "It makes me much more appreciative of the time that I have and how I spend it and the things that I do with my kids and my family and this amazing opportunity that Guerin Catholic has given me."
The opportunity to, remarkably, coach boys varsity tennis — even as he tries to keep the cancer cells from dividing and spreading, from stopping him from doing what he loves most, coaching kids.
'We see something unusual'
After the fall on the fishing boat in July 2015, which resulted in a severely broken arm and a bleeding head and face, doctors ran a CT scan on Sciaudone's head to make sure he didn't have a concussion.
When the doctor returned from viewing the scan, he asked Sciaudone what he says is the weirdest question he's ever been asked. "Mr. Sciaudone, upon intake, you were asked if you had ever had a stroke and you said 'no.' Are you sure?"
Alarm bells started ringing for Sciaudone and his wife, Stephanie.
"We see something unusual. We don't really know what it is," the doctor said, telling the Sciaudones that when they returned home, he needed to see a neurologist.
Sciaudone didn't think much of it. How bad could it be? He felt great, aside from the broken arm that was so badly fractured he needed surgery.
A couple of weeks later, with his arm surgery done, Sciaudone followed up with a neurologist.
"He popped (the CT scan) in and his eyes got kind of big," Sciaudone said. He ordered an MRI. The next day, Sciaudone's phone rang. The doctor wanted to see him in person.
"He said, 'You have a brain tumor,'" Sciaudone said. "I'm kind of like, 'I'm the guy from the fishing boat, right?'"
The doctor wanted to know if he was having headaches, blurred vision, trouble hearing, difficulty speaking, issues walking, any seizures.
The answer to all those questions was no.
Still, he had a brain tumor. And that, Sciaudone soon found out, would lead to a medical journey, a life journey he never saw coming.
A fiercely advocating wife
If not for his wife Stephanie, a nurse practitioner whom he met when she was a nurse at Riley Hospital for Children. If not for her relentless advocacy of her husband's health, Sciaudone might not be standing in the sun talking to Pat Kniola, the mother of one of his senior tennis players, Carson.
"He's a miracle. He's a miracle," Kniola says as she walks up to Sciaudone. "I'm so glad to see you."
After the brain tumor was found, the Sciaudones consulted with a doctor who said they should wait 90 days, do another scan and see if the tumor had grown. After three months passed, and that second MRI was done, the doctors found no growth.
The best plan for Sciaudone, they said, was to do an MRI every once in a while to keep an eye on the brain tumor.
That's when Stephanie stepped in. "I can't emphasize this enough. She absolutely just took charge," Sciaudone said. "She became my greatest advocate."
Stephanie became an expert on brain tumors and promptly decided she did not like the sit-and-watch idea. She researched and told her husband the best place for brain tumors at that time was the Mayo Clinic. Sciaudone made an appointment.
There, the doctors agreed with Stephanie. They told Sciaudone, he needed surgery to remove the tumor.
"These things never get better; they only get worse and someday you will not be as young and healthy as you are now," Sciaudone said doctors told him. "Even though this is likely some low-grade, likely nothing brain tumor, it will someday grow to be the big bad wolf."
The family took a trip to Disney over Thanksgiving of 2015 and then, a week later, Sciaudone went in for surgery.
"They were wheeling me in and I was more than a little nervous," he said. But Sciaudone started thinking about the Guerin community where his oldest daughter Sophia was a freshman, where she prayed every day in class for him. He thought about Our Lady of Grace Catholic School, where his younger two children, Jack and Lauren, went and their classmates that told him they were praying for him.
"I laid there and I thought, 'You know what? If this is my time, my kids are in great places,'" he said. "They are with people that love them and will take care of them, who will look after them. And what else can you ask for?' That is just a wonderful feeling."
Sciaudone's surgery was successful, but the news after wasn't good. Pathology reports showed he had stage 3 anaplastic astrocytoma, a cancerous tumor.
"So, of course, we about just fell out of our chairs," he said. "That was not what we were expecting. Up until that point everyone had said it was likely a low-grade tumor."
Doctors recommended he do chemotherapy and radiation.
"At the time it was still like, 'I don't feel any different than I did yesterday when we didn't know that I had brain cancer,'" he said.
Sciaudone went back to work, began a life with brain cancer, with a new outlook on life. He counted his blessings each time the scans came back showing the tumor hadn't grown.
And he decided to take on a passion he'd long ago given up, coaching tennis.
'I don't do things halfway'
It was spring of 2018 and Sciaudone was reading the Guerin newsletter when he saw a notice that the school was looking for a boys tennis coach.
He mentioned it to Stephanie, who told him he would be great at that, that he should do it.
"You do realize, I don't do things halfway," he reminded her.
Sciaudone had high-level coaching skills in his back pocket, skills that came from time spent in Los Angeles training elite players 30 years ago.
He had been a tennis player himself. Sciaudone grew up in Connecticut but moved to Indiana between his sophomore and junior seasons of high school when his dad bought a small manufacturing company in Marion.
"I had been a very avid tennis player, but I really didn't understand that I was moving to kind of a powerhouse tennis program," he said. The year before Sciaudone arrived in Marion, the school was a final four team. His junior year, the team finished as state runner up and, during his senior year, they made it to the final eight.
When he graduated from Marion in 1985, Sciaudone went to IU. He didn't play tennis for the university. As he jokes, "No one has ever used the words 'great player' to describe me." But in 1988, the local tennis pro asked him to be his assistant for the summer.
"I started giving lessons and helping coach a group of middle school kids," he said. "And I really kind of got hooked."
When he graduated from IU, he liked the idea of coaching. But he wanted to really learn how to train, develop and coach high-level players.
Sciaudone packed up his Jeep and moved to L.A., where he took a job helping to run an elite junior training program. Those players all carried high national rankings, some aspiring professionals, some collegiate players.
"It was really heady stuff," he said. "I really learned how high-level players trained."
While in L.A., he worked extensively with the United States Tennis Association, was a certified clinician, put on programs for kids in underserved areas and was a member of their player development team.
During that time, he also was asked to come back to Marion and coach the 1991 team the week before they won the state title.
When he returned to California for the next season, things had changed, people had left. Sciaudone decided to come back to Indiana and go into business with his dad — and nearly 30 years passed.
Thirty years without coaching tennis. Until Sciaudone saw that posting and was given the job as Guerin coach.
Sciaudone said it's a blessing that he took that job in 2018, even as he fought cancer. Because Guerin, the players and their families have been some of his biggest supporters.
Especially when the tumor came back with a vengeance.
A second brain surgery
It was 2019 when doctors started noticing cancer cells growing in the spot where Sciaudone's tumor had been and suggested he do proton radiation for 30 days. Instead of helping, the radiation did what doctors refer to as radiation-induced progression.
"Progression is tumor growth," he said. "Progression is a bad word at our house."
Oral chemo pills helped to stabilize the tumor. It didn't get smaller but it didn't grow.
But last summer, when Sciaudone received results of a scan that showed more growth, he and Stephanie started to talk about the possibility of pursuing a clinical trial.
"Chemotherapy, while I know it's got its uses, is something we've tried to stay away from," he said. "I'm living a relatively normal life. I'm able to function. I work every day, provide for my family. I don't want this to become my kids' lives and I realize that's not always reality. But I'd kind of like to keep this going for as long as I can."
If there was another way to treat the tumor, he wanted to try.
Stephanie had again done research and found several clinical trials involving immunotherapy, including one at Duke. They were injecting modified viruses into brain tumor sites to prompt the body's immune system to fight them off.
The Sciaudones went to Duke to discuss the trial with doctors. But with the recent scan showing growth, doctors said he should try oral chemo again. It had worked before to hold off progression.
Sciaudone did the treatment for a month or two then went in for the scan. This time, the chemo had not helped at all.
"It had blown like two and half times its size," Sciaudone said. "I was very disappointed by that. At that time, it was time to make a decision, either go full-bored chemo or trial.
He decided to do a trial, but again that wasn't to be. When he talked to doctors, they suggested he have a second surgery to remove the tumor. In April, Sciaudone went to Boston.
He was sitting in his hotel room the night before when the photos and videos started coming across his phone, players texting to say they were praying for him.
One of his team parents had arranged a rosary for Sciaudone; nearly 100 people showed up.
"It was just so moving. It is so humbling to know that you have a group of people behind you," he said. "It really is, it's overwhelming."
Sciaudone's surgery the next day went well. But when the oncology panel came back, the news wasn't good. Doctors had studied the tissue and determined that Sciaudone's cancer had progressed to stage 4 glioblastoma.
It was devastating but not necessarily shocking. All these years, doctors had told him that could happen.
So Sciaudone counted his blessings again and decided he was ready to coach again. He was ready to start the 2021 season out right.
But in his first match, the effects of his cancer would sideline him.
'He does it selflessly with such grace'
While the tumor had been removed, it was growing again just months after the surgery.
As the doctor told Sciaudone, no matter how successful surgery is you never get all the cancer. It's like pouring sand on a driveway and trying to clean it up. There will still be grains of sand, just like cancer in the brain.
In July, as the tennis season was ready to begin, Sciaudone took part in a clinical trial. He had a virus injected into the cavity of his brain where the tumor was. Doctors warned him that four weeks after, the side effects would begin. Inflammation and swelling of the brain, issues with coordination.
Four weeks to the day after the injection, Guerin had its first match of the season at Fishers. Stephanie told Sciaudone before the match that he didn't look right. Maybe he shouldn't go. He didn't listen.
Sciaudone doesn't remember any of that first match. What doctors predicted happened. He was unstable, having trouble walking. His daughter Lauren, a manager on the team, and his mother-in law took him to the hospital. He ended up spending a week at IU Methodist and a few days at a rehab hospital.
His players filed in one after another to wish him well.
By the weekend after Labor Day, Sciaudone was released and returned to coaching. Guerin had an invitational at North Central.
"And they played, and I coached," he said. "And we went on our way and we finished the season."
This season was a special one. It was the first time he had seniors, 10 of them, who had begun with him as freshman
"That is the neatest thing," he said. "Now you've seen them go full circle and really grow up.
The past two years, Guerin won its Circle City Conference and last year Cole Metzger, Guerin's No. 1 player, advanced to the state singles finals.
"It's amazing what coach has done with tennis at Guerin," said assistant coach Neil Rafferty. "He has grown the program (from 36 his first season to 53 players this past season), improved the level of play and, most importantly, delivered every day on what Mother Guerin calls us to do: 'Love them first; then teach them.'"
The players know Sciaudone loves them, Rafferty said, and every player from No. 1 to No. 53 gets individual attention.
"And, he does it selflessly with such grace and passion," he said. "That is inspiring to all who know the fight that he has on his hands."
'I want to hold my grandchildren'
Earlier this month, Sciaudone was in Boston to get his latest scan. The one in September showed no major change in tumor growth, which was the first time he had heard that in a long time.
This month's scan came back with even better words from the doctors: "minor improvement."
"So what that means we'll find out," Sciaudone said. "Knock on wood, obviously we are super excited to hear that and super grateful."
Sciaudone wants more than anything to be around for his children. Sophia is a junior at IU on a pre-dental track. Jack will play collegiate golf in the fall. Lauren is a junior at Guerin involved in theater and music.
"In life, I want to walk my daughters down the aisle. I want to hold grandchildren in my arms someday just like anybody does," he said. "Maybe that's in the cards. Maybe it's not."
And he wants to coach.
"As long as I'm worthy of it and doing something of any kind of value, I want to keep coaching these boys," he said. They are, after all, part of why he feels lucky.
"They are amazing kids with amazing families," he said. "And they have just been there for me every step of the way."
It is a sad yet beautiful story of a beautiful man that I first got to know as a teenager. I told him once when the time came that, if at all possible, could his family (whom I’d never met) let me know so I could attend his funeral. His response was “I was on the list” … and Indeed I was. I returned to Indiana on February 24th, met at the airport by yet another dear friend John Vielee (I feel very blessed in that regard). John and I go back to sixth grade. I stayed with John and his family, and they came with me to Chris funeral mass on February 25th, John’s daughter was a cheerleader with Chris’ daughter (the world really is a small place when it comes to things like this). It was a difficult time to say the least but I’m thankful I was able to show my respect, finally meet Chris’s family and say goodbye. Friendships that can withstand the test of time and distance are truly a blessing. Rest in peace my friend, you will be missed.
