#USLAXCHAMPS
For the Love of the Team
Brenden Malloy overcame a slew of medical problems to help his Cincinnati- area teammates win bronze
BY PAUL KROME The Nati Lax Bros’ (Ohio/
Ky.) last ride at the eighth annual US Lacrosse National Championships ended with a bronze medal, cementing a special trip to Hamilton County, Ind., for this group of Cincinnati-area families. That’s especially true for
faceoff midfielder Brenden Malloy, who earned all- tournament team honors in his only tournament this summer. Just playing meant Malloy kept a promise that few in his position could keep. Malloy, a rising
sophomore at Mason (Ohio) High School, started feeling very ill towards the end of the 2015-16 school year. “If he’d go in, he’d be done by 10 a.m.,” said his mom, DeAnna. “If he stayed home, he slept until 1. It was like having mono, but he didn’t have mono. Nobody could figure out what it was.” Finally, doctors diagnosed him with an enlarged spleen and ordered him out of the summer tournament season; in this age of early
46 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » September/october 2016
recruiting, a tough pill for a 15-year-old to swallow. “The spleen [diagnosis] was a bummer, because I had started playing varsity,” Brenden said. “I got through about half the season, and then I had to stop.” The spleen represents a key part of the body’s immune system, filtering blood and storing platelets and white blood cells. Its enlargement sapped Malloy of energy and saddled him with extreme fatigue, cruelly exacerbating a lifelong affliction that manifests similar symptoms. Brenden, DeAnna and younger sister Rilee have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetically passed collection of tissue disorders that alters the biology of the protein collagen. An EDS patient produces collagen of insufficient quality and/ or quantity, which makes the body prone to sprains, strains and fractures. The journey to the spleen diagnosis lasted four
months; nothing compared to the three-year, specialist- full maze that ended with the EDS diagnosis only two years ago. Brenden Malloy has endured some 20 fractures, bouts of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and significant soreness in his muscles and joints since his youth.
Intellectually baffling and physically crippling — Brenden tagged the separation of the AC joint and torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder during a mountain biking accident as his most severe injury — the undiagnosed symptoms took their toll emotionally, as well.
Travis Hitt »U15 BOYS ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Daniel Kelly, A, FCA National (Md.)
Travis Hitt, A, Colorado
Lance Tillman, A, FCA National (Md.)
Brenden Malloy, M/ FO, Nati Lax Bros (Ohio/Ky.)
Louis Perfetto, M, For the Love of the Game (N.Y.)
Xander Wells, M, Nati Lax Bros (Ohio/ Ky.)
Jacob Snyder, D, FCA National (Md.)
Marcus Trujillo, D, Colorado
Connor Whalen, D, FCA National (Md.)
Christian Tomei, G, FCA National (Md.)
Sportsmanship Award: Utah
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©AJ MAST
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