{"id":17859,"date":"2012-11-05T16:35:37","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T21:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=17859"},"modified":"2012-11-05T16:41:29","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T21:41:29","slug":"coaches-honor-team-mom-battling-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=17859","title":{"rendered":"Coaches Honor Team Mom Battling Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

For nearly seven years, Ms. Lisa Wright <\/strong>has battled cancer, but only those in her closest circle know about it. She has undergone three major surgeries since December 2005, when the first tumor was found, and removed it and a portion of her stomach January 2006.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wright<\/strong> said she raised by her grandmother, the late Mrs. Ella Mae Green,<\/strong> who died in June at the age of 93. \u201cMy grandmother was the humblest woman I have ever known. She raised me to keep going and not to give up because you can always find someone who is worse off than you are. \u201cI don\u2019t talk about it. I don\u2019t want people feeling sorry for me because I don\u2019t feel sorry for myself,\u201d Ms. Wright<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

Recently, Ms. Wright<\/strong> was surprised at a pre-game meal when the head coach Jeremy Earle<\/strong> presented her with a pink football. \u201cI still didn\u2019t realize what was going on. When he called me up there, I was so surprised. My son knew about the cancer, but none of his team members knew until that Thursday. It was really touching,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were going to have the coaches and players sign it, but I want them to wait until I get a silver pen. I\u2019m going to put it in a glass case,\u201d the member of First Baptist of College Hill said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wright<\/strong> has been the Team Mom of the Jefferson High School football team, for the past four years. Her son, Keivontae,<\/strong> is a senior and plays strong safety on the team. Her daughter, Mikaila,<\/strong> is a sophomore.<\/p>\n

When Keivontae<\/strong> decided to play football for Jefferson, she decided to become the team\u2019s mom. Instead of getting snacks for the boys, Ms. Wright<\/strong> brought complete meals, such as baked chicken, yellow rice and green beans.<\/p>\n

She begins cooking for the 72 football players and their coaches at 8 a.m., and finish around 4 p.m. \u201cI realized that this is the only full meal some of these kids get. For them to sit down and fellowship, and get a good meal makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

After having the first surgery, Ms. Wright<\/strong> said she did not have to take chemotherapy or radiation. However, in July, another tumor appeared. She underwent surgery and lost another portion of her stomach. The doctor created her a stomach from her intestines.<\/p>\n

In all, Ms. Wright<\/strong> has had three major surgeries in the last six years. Through the years, she has had smaller tumors removed as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people grow tumors in their bodies like wildfire. I\u2019m one of those people. It seems that someone should be able to tell me why these things keep coming back,\u201d the 31-year-old Lakeland native said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wright<\/strong> recently learned that her battle is not over yet. About three months ago, she began feeling sick again. Yet another tumor has been discovered and she had an appointment with the surgeon to make plans for the future.<\/p>\n

Prior to becoming ill, Ms. Wright<\/strong> worked in the Hillsborough County School District for about 10 years. But after becoming ill, she was no longer able to work. The first couple of years were very hard because she was not getting disability.<\/p>\n

She adjusted to the struggle and now she is known as the Candy Lady<\/strong> in her neighborhood.<\/p>\n

When not being Team Mom, she spends a lot of time volunteering at Jefferson. All of the teachers all know her. She loves her children and wants to spend time with them as much as possible. \u201cWe do everything together. We are really close.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from Gibson High School in 1990, Ms. Wright<\/strong> continued her education at Polk Community College, but stopped after 1\u00bd years. She plans to return to school and become teacher. \u201cI email my kids\u2019 teachers and thank them for working with our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if she takes a rest after football season, she said no. Last year she cooked for the 14-member girls\u2019 basketball team.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wright<\/strong> said says she tries to be friendly with everyone, \u201cYou have to watch how you treat people because you never know what they are going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor For nearly seven years, Ms. Lisa Wright has battled cancer, but only those in her closest circle know about it. She has undergone three major surgeries since December 2005, when the first tumor was found, and removed it and a portion of her stomach January 2006. Ms. Wright […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}