Zeller’s Comeback an Inspiration to Mater Dei Teammates

His doctors told him his prognosis was excellent. His friends and family told him he looked great. His football coach gave him a white Mater Dei jersey with his No. 17 on the back, telling him that he was not only going to wear it to the first game of the season but also play in it.

Yet Matt Zeller stirred restlessly in his hospital bed late one night last summer. Playing football again for the Monarchs wasn’t a major concern.

No, Zeller was more worried that he might not be able to walk again--or even live to attend his high school graduation.

Cancer leaves those kind of doubts. Even after doctors say it has been cut out.

But only two months after his second surgery, Zeller was back on the field playing on the Monarchs’ special teams. And now, five months later, he is a spine-tingling inspiration for a Mater Dei team that has won nine in a row after a 2-2 start.

Any time a player doesn’t want to complete another sit-up or follow through on a blocking drill, all he has to do is think of Zeller. This guy overcame cancer. What’s my excuse?

Tonight, Zeller will try to help the Monarchs win a second consecutive Southern Section Division I championship against Long Beach Poly at Edison Field.

“Right when I step onto the field to start the game--especially if we start off with kickoff--I’ll definitely be looking around, saying, ‘Thank you, God,’ ” Zeller said.

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Zeller was horsing around with his teammates in the locker room late this spring when he was hit accidentally in the groin. The pain in his stomach was severe--and it wouldn’t go away.

Two weeks later, Zeller, still experiencing the discomfort, told his family. He went to see a doctor, who delivered the bad news: Zeller had a tumor in one of his testicles.

“That was one of the most devastating and emotional phone calls I’ve ever received,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said, “when his [stepfather] called and told me what we were looking at. But the boy didn’t get down. I think probably myself and his family and even some of his teammates were less comfortable or more down than he was.”

The testicle and the tumor, which was found to contain cancerous cells, were removed.

“Originally, I thought that first surgery was going to be it--it was done, it was out of me, that’s it,” Zeller said. “But they said the next place for it to go is up into your lymph nodes.”

To be safe, doctors performed a second surgery in which they removed lymph nodes from Zeller’s abdomen. Luckily, tests showed the cancer hadn’t spread. It was about the best news Zeller could hope for.

The long-term prognosis remains excellent. “His risk is only 4% to 5% that he may show recurrence in the next two years,” said Donald Skinner, chairman of urology at the USC-Norris Cancer Center in Los Angeles and the doctor who performed the second surgery. “If [it] does recur, it should be 100% curable with chemotherapy.”

Even with the doctors’ assurances, though, Zeller doubted his future. With his thoughts to himself during the long nights, the hospital became a prison.

“It just gave me a lot of thinking time, a lot of thinking I didn’t need,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d recover from it, I couldn’t even picture myself walking again, let alone playing football.”

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Teenagers usually employ some kind of measuring stick for success. Academic stalwarts use grade-point averages. Athletes use yards, points or batting averages.

For Matt Zeller, it was mailboxes.

Exhausted from surgeries that had drained his energy and--temporarily, at least--his spirit, Zeller measured his comeback in the number of mailboxes on his hilly Laguna Beach street he could walk to each day before having to turn back toward home.

The first time he tried to walk outside he barely even made it to his own mailbox. With the help of his stepfather, Richard Watson, Zeller reached the front of his driveway and had to turn back. By the time he made it back inside, his chest was heaving and he was sweating profusely.

“At that point I didn’t think it was going to be tough to come back,” said Zeller, who lost 25 pounds following his surgeries. “I just thought it wasn’t possible.”

His family made sure it was. Richard plopped movies into the VCR to keep his son entertained. Zeller’s mom, Rosemary, made sure he was comfortable and had everything he needed. His girlfriend, Jessica Domenici, stopped by practically every day to bring food and spend the day with him, playing board games and taking him on his walks. And his many friends helped lift his spirits.

About a month after his second surgery, Zeller was able to walk past every mailbox on the street.

By mid-August, Zeller was back at Mater Dei. He lifted a few weights and ran a couple of consecutive laps around the track--both major accomplishments.

Still, Zeller thought playing football was out of the question.

“Not a chance,” he said. “I just knew what it takes to go out there and really play good hard football. It takes a lot of conditioning and being strong and physical and being able to have your lungs hold a lot of wind, and I wasn’t ready for that.”

A couple of weeks passed and “Hell Week,” a rite of passage held two weeks before the season opener, rolled around.

Zeller was there.

“He said he might be out for the season and all of a sudden he came back for Hell Week,” said senior linebacker Robbie Gibson, who has known Zeller since they played youth football together. “He was an inspiration, big-time.”

Coach Rollinson implored Zeller to take it easy, to sit out and just observe if he needed to.

Not a chance.

“I tried to do everything I possibly could--all the conditioning, all the circuit stuff. At certain points I’d have to step back and kind of just go at half speed because I was real winded, and other times I was able to go with everybody.”

The Monday before the Monarchs’ opener against Fresno Clovis West, Zeller, wearing special pads to protect his chest, delivered his first hit since his ordeal started. The crushing blow felt good, Zeller thought, but he was running short on time.

“In about a week I’m going to go against a guy that’s going to want to rip my head off,” he said, “not a guy who’s going to ask me if I’m OK after I hit him.”

Sure enough, though, as Mater Dei prepared for its opening kickoff of the season, Zeller stood on the field, eyes wide in amazement.

“I just couldn’t believe I was standing out there,” he said. “I kept saying to myself, ‘I don’t even belong here right now.’ It was like whatever had helped me get here, thank you. I looked up in the stands and was like, wow. Sitting in the hospital I didn’t think I’d ever get to see this again.”

Zeller has maintained his role as captain of the special teams--units for punts, kickoffs, returns and conversion kicks--all season. He is also quarterback of the scout team. More recently, he has played a little defense. He caused and recovered a fumble during Mater Dei’s first-round playoff victory over Redlands.

The guy is no mere Rudy. He has had an impact--on the field and off.

“What an example,” Rollinson said. “Anybody that pouted if they weren’t playing or things weren’t going right, I would just look at them as if to say, ‘Figure it out. Give me a real problem.’ Matt’s just been an inspiration to all of us.”

Said Mater Dei receivers coach Rich Rogers: “He gives us our motto for this season and for tonight. We’re without excuse.”

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Zeller has learned a lot about cancer, including that he has a family history of the disease. And doctors say that, for reasons unknown, the condition is increasingly common among males his age.

So if a descendant or a friend gets cancer, Zeller is ready to show them that life isn’t over.

He is already an inspiration to many.

Early this fall Zeller’s parents attended a Laguna Beach High football game involving Jacob Griswold, one of Zeller’s best friends since childhood. When they flipped through the game program to Griswold’s bio page, they perked up; the boy had listed Zeller as one of his heroes.

The hero is keeping busy these days filling out college applications. He’s applying to Division II and III schools hoping he can continue to play football.

The next step in his football career comes tonight against Poly. He will playing in front of fans who should root for him as much as either team or any particular outcome.

“He’s on every special team [unit] and he’s going to do something special,” Rollinson said. “I’ve got a feeling he’s going to go out in a blaze of glory. He’s going to have an impact.”

He already has.