D10


EZ SU


KLMNO HIGH SCHOOLS


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010


Zach Lederer, bottom right in the picture above, with his family. Clockwise from bottom left: his sister Julia, 15, father John, and mother Christine. Lederer is a running back and defensive back.


At left, Lederer shakes hands with Centennial CoachKen Senisi before the team’s season opener Sept. 3. Lederer has yet to play in a game for the Eagles, who will host Atholton on Friday afternoon.


Lederer wants more than ‘sitting on the sideline’ lederer from D1


quarter-sized lump Zach can feel when he runs his fingers through his hair. Carson even removed twochunks of bone from the back of Zach’s skull to give the brain additional room to swell. Six months later, the removed parts of Lederer’s skull were replaced with a 21/2


-inch titanium plate,


which remains in the back of his head. “His was an extremely unusual


situation. Extraordinarily unusu- al,” Carson said. “In fact, I’ve never had quite that same scenar- io in the 25 or 30 years that I’ve been practicing.” Zach’s tumor has shrunk from


approximately the size of a wal- nut to a mass now with the diam- eter of about a centimeter, the family says. And now, with five years of stagnancy, Carson has cleared Zach to play. “I’ve been practicing neurosur-


gery for almost three decades now, and I’ve yet to see an athletic injury to a shunt,” Carson said. “It’s something you warn against and talk about, but I’ve never actually seen it. . . . Hopefully Zach won’t be the first.”


‘A scary, scary time’ When Zach Lederer was in


sixth grade, he began to experi- ence serious headaches about ev- ery third week—debilitating and often accompanied by vomiting. Migraines or a virus, the family figured. So they saw the family pediatrician near their Ellicott City home, hoping that a week later he’d be fine. Later that day, Christine and


Zachweresent toColumbiaforan MRI exam, and when they fin- ishedaround5 p.m. they expected to go home and find out the results the next day. Instead, the Lederers were directed back to the pediatrician’s office; doctors said there was little time to waste. “It’s a sign things aren’t good


whenthey keep the doctor’s office open for you,” Christine Lederer said. ThetestsshowedthatZachhad


a brain tumor, which led to his first surgery on Dec. 14, 2004, a date John and Christine remem- ber as if itwerea birthday. During the 14-hour operation, Carson found that the tumor was wrapped in blood vessels, negat- ing any possible removal or even a successful biopsy. That operation, complicated


by a clogged path to the tumor, caused Zach’s brain to swell. This created the fear of brain damage, so the Lederer family agreed to place Zach in a medically induced coma. About a week later, when Zach finally woke up — he was expected to come out of the coma inaround48hours—the swelling hadgone down, but hehadlost all of his motor skills. “He could only blink,” John Lederer said. Wary of getting too close to the


tumor and causing another nega- tive reaction to brain surgery, it wasdecided—withZachnowtwo months removed from the first surgery — that whatever was go- ing to be done to neutralize the tumor would have to be done another way. So Zach underwent 30 sessions of radiation, which eventually started to take effect. And through an intense physical rehabilitation program, he began to regain his motor skills. “It was a scary, scary time,”


John Lederer said. During the three-month expe-


rience, the Lederers were visited by Baltimore Ravens tight end Todd Heap, who, upon learning about the story through the team,


PHOTOS BY TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST Lederer gets the thrill of being part of Centennial’s team. “I figure I can contribute to the whole community if I play football,” he said.


posed for a picture with Zach next to his hospital bed. That picture hangs over the door to the fami- ly’s game room, essentially a catch-all for Zach’s personalized memorabilia from the profes- sional athletes who’ve heard his story.


Zach idolizes Heap, the same


way he does Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA men’s basket- ball team.He even thought about


writing Heap to tell him about playing football. But, after much deliberation, Zach decided against it, wanting to ensure he made the team first.


Getting on the field A year ago, it was Zach Leder-


er’s job, as the team manager, to make sure the Centennial football team adhered to its practice schedule, had full water bottles


and practiced on a lined field. During games and practices, Zach charted every play and on Friday nights would even wear a headset. “Itwasthe real deal. . . . I looked


legit,” Lederer joked. “I used to tell everybody I was calling the plays.”


During this time, Lederer be-


came close with Centennial’s coaching staff and one day last


fall had a talk withKen Senisi, the team’s head coach. Senisi broached the subject — half-jok- ingly, at first—of Lederer getting into a game, perhaps to kick an extra point. Lederer scoffed. If he was going to do this, he wanted to score a touchdown or make a tackle.Not kick. But the idea was quickly shot


downat home.Their only sonhad a brain tumor,ChristineandJohn


Lederer reasoned; fantasy foot- ball was about as far as they’d budge. Zach didn’t give up. At one of the team’s offseason workouts, Zach talked to Senisi again and figured this time he‘d approach things differently. “Always go todadfirst with this


kind of stuff, that way I knew I could get some positive feedback before my mother shoots it down,” he joked. So John and Christine talked


again. They knew their son had been cleared by Carson to do pretty much anything he wanted, though they had kept that from Zach, fearful of any unforeseen developments. Eventually, they relented and spent about $300 on a top-of-the-line helmet, com- plete with 18 shock absorbers. “I’m not 100 percent on board


with the decision, but I’m not completely against it either,” Christine Lederer said. “If he gets through the season uninjured, I’ll say it was a great decision. But right now, that’s a little hard to judge.”


‘He’s just another guy’ During a recent seven-on-sev-


en drill pitting Centennial’s start- ing offensive skill players against the second-string linebackers and defensive backs, Lederer lined up opposite the outside re- ceiver, a cornerback in man-to- man coverage. When the ball was snapped,


Lederer backpedaled, arms pumping at his sides. Before the wide receiver broke inside on a post route, Lederer turned and opened his hips.As the ball sailed toward him, recognizing it was a bit underthrown, Lederer jumped in front of the wide re- ceiver to knock the ball away, a textbook pass breakup. “For someone who’s never


played, he’s done a great job pick- ing things up,” senior safety Ed- win Heck said. “He’s just another guy, honestly.” Although he was already re-


spected because of how seriously he took his role as the team’s manager — a few minutes after his pass breakup, Lederer put his head down and quietly volun- teered to catch extra-point at- tempts, a manager’s job—Leder- er didn’t have to win over any of his teammates. “I had a lot of respect for him


already, butnowthat he’s playing, it’s definitely gone up some,” ju- nior quarterback Jeremy Brown said. “Just what he went through and that he’s playing football, that’s pretty amazing.” Lederer, who practices as a


backup running back and defen- sive back, doesn’t fret about play- ing time. Although he’s taken somehits in practice,hehas yet to get in a game for the Eagles, who are 0-2 in Howard County and host Atholton on Friday after- noon. The only thing he does want is for others to take note of his story, to realize that they too can pick themselves up after something uncontrollable has knocked them down. “I guess one of the main rea-


sons I’m doing this is to inspire people to reach their full poten- tial,” Lederer said. “By managing, I was contributing to the football team, but I figure I can contribute to the whole community if I play football because now I’m inspir- ing more [people] as opposed to just sitting on the sideline. So, I guess to just affect more lives and inspire people is the real reason I did it.”


mackeyj@washpost.com l Previewing the area’s top games in high school football, which kicks off a day early this week. D8


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92