Tim Gigl was a student at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he was recruited to play Division III NCAA College Soccer. Tim, our latest Time In honoree, is back at school after being diagnosed two years ago with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. As Tim battles to get his strength back, Hamilton Coach Perry Nizzi has told Tim that he will have a place on the Hamilton Soccer Team as long as he is in school.
In Clinton, New York, less than an hour from the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York, Hamilton College is a small school with a big-time soccer program. This past November, the Hamilton men’s soccer team won its first Liberty League Tournament title, finished the season ranked the 23rd Division III NCAA Team in the Nation, went to the NCAA tournament, and continued their five-season streak of at least ten wins every season. Perry Nizzi has been the Hamilton coach for seven years and he has developed a great soccer program. However, perhaps the most inspirational soccer story at Hamilton College is about a young man who did not play a single Varsity game this season and a Coach who is committed to his players both on and off the field.
Tim Gigl is a soccer success story. Like so many children in the United States, Tim started playing soccer when he was just six years old. He grew up in New Jersey, a hotbed of American soccer since at least the 1970’s. New Jersey is the home state of many great United States National Team stars, including goalkeeper Tony Meola, and two of the three most recent U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame inductees, John Harkes and Tab Ramos. From the first time six-year old Tim played soccer, it was clear to his family that he loved the game. He looked forward to practices and games and played with a big smile, reflecting the pure joy of the game that is so common in young children.
By the time Tim was eight years old, even though he was small for his age, Tim was asked to join a travel team and his parents’ lives and weekends were transformed accordingly. Weekly practices, weekend games, and travel around the state and outside the state for tournaments became routine for Tim’s family. Tim’s travel team soon became one of the best New Jersey teams in its age group. Despite Tim’s small size, he was fast and tenacious, and he became a defender, regularly dominating players who were much larger and stronger. Quickness, determination, and commitment were more important than size.
As Tim’s team changed coaches when they reached U-12, Tim faced adversity, because the new coach did not believe a player of Tim’s size had a long-term soccer future. After spending a season on the bench, Tim left the team he had helped lead to a top New Jersey ranking, and he moved to a new, unestablished team. Tim continued to play defense, topping out at only 5′ 6″, and by the time Tim was 17, his new team went all the way to the quarterfinals of the New Jersey State Cup.
Tim’s determination to succeed was demonstrated in the classroom as well as on the soccer field. A good student through elementary and junior high school, Tim was a member of his High School Student Council and the National Honor Society. In addition to travel soccer, Tim played soccer for his school teams, starting for the St. Joseph High School varsity team during his junior and senior years. In both of those years St. Joseph went all the way to the State sectional semifinals.
As he was graduating high school, Tim was an excellent college candidate. Despite his size, he was determined to continue playing soccer in college. He was recruited by several NCAA Division III schools, but chose Hamilton College because of Tim’s immediate rapport with the Head Coach, Perry Nizzi. Tim started at Hamilton in the fall of 2002, and made the team. As a freshman, he primarily played in “B” or reserve games, but his commitment to the sport remained incredibly strong and in the winter of 2002-03 he trained hard to get ready for spring practice. According to Coach Nizzi, “From the first day Tim showed up for his freshman year, he was always the hardest worker on the team. He was a year or two away from having the skills and experience to start for the Varsity Team, but he was clearly on the right path and doing everything possible, everything that was asked of him, to be sure he would get there.”
At the end of March, 2003, preparing to return to Hamilton after spring break, Tim found a small lump on the side of his neck while lifting weights. The next day he went to see a doctor at St. Peters University Hospital, for diagnostic tests. On April 1, 2003 a biopsy confirmed that Tim had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Early tests suggested that the cancer may have been detected in an early stage. However, careful follow-up testing revealed that the cancer had metastasized to the bone in Tim’s right leg, and he was in Stage IV, the most severe stage of the disease. That discovery meant Tim could not return to school in the spring of 2003.
The past two years have been incredibly difficult for Tim and his family. From April to August 2003 he endured six rounds of a very aggressive chemotherapy protocol. After four rounds, Tim was not responding fast enough, so they had to introduce stronger chemotherapy drugs. Tim developed an acute toxic reaction to one of the chemotherapy drugs, his blood pressure dropped to 80 over 30, his fever spiked over 104 degrees, and he developed acute toxic pnumonitis, a swelling of his lungs. Another chemotherapy drug caused Tim to experience excruciating back pain. After the chemotherapy ended, three weeks of radiation treatment began. Finally, Tim’s family received good news for Christmas – as of December 23, 2003 the post treatment scans showed no signs of active disease.
Throughout the months when Tim was out of school, home and in the hospitals, Coach Nizzi stayed in touch. As a parent with young children of his own, Coach Nizzi says it was really tough to talk to Tim. “When I would talk to him on the phone, I felt so badly for Tim and his family, knowing what Tim was going through. It was even really hard on me to hear that this young man was suffering so much, so I can only imagine how hard it had to be on Tim and his family.”
But through it all, Tim kept focused on his recovery and the Coach did everything possible to keep Tim’s spirits up. Despite his weakness and health problems, Tim always spoke with Coach Nizzi about getting back to school and getting back onto the field.
On January 17, 2004 Tim returned to Hamilton College. Tim had lost fifteen pounds, was very weak, and was in no position to play soccer. But Tim’s love of the game and his determination to be a part of his school’s team had not left him. Tim went to see Coach Nizzi about the soccer team. Tim was concerned that he did not know when he would be able to play. Coach Nizzi told Tim he was part of the team as long as he was at Hamilton and he should work back at his own pace. “He would get better and then he would have a setback. He would keep working and training, making progress, and then he would suffer another setback,” says Coach Nizzi. “It was incredible to see him come out to practice and challenge himself, pushing himself so hard to get back what he had lost.”
By August 2004 Tim was able to attend fall soccer tryouts. He showed up unable to play, but Coach Nizzi told him, “You just practice with whatever you have. We’ll bring it out there on the field.” Tim would practice for a few minutes and then be unable to continue, coughing and choking, and having to sit down on the side of the field. Reminiscent of young Jackson Alea, the inspiration behind the US National Soccer Team Players’ Time In program, as soon as Tim had recovered, he wanted to go right back onto the field. The other players on the Hamilton team respected Tim’s situation and his toughness and never questioned what he was trying to accomplish.
Coach Nizzi says, “He was always pushing himself so hard. But, I knew that was the way Tim had always been. I told him he didn’t have anything to prove to me or to the other players on the team, he had already proven so much, but he would not hear any of it. He just kept going, determined to earn a starting spot on the team.”
Toward the end of the season, as Tim’s strength started to come back, Coach Nizzi played Tim in a couple of “B” team games, as Tim could play for almost fifteen minutes at game pace. Then, at the end of the season, Tim could play fifteen minutes, rest, and return for fifteen minutes in the second half, but he still experiences weakness and tremendous problems with endurance.
Through it all, Tim has kept an incredibly positive outlook. He never let his younger brother Colin or his sister Katie visit him in the hospital when he was suffering the most, trying to shield them from what he was experiencing. He remains committed to having the college soccer career he envisioned before the diagnosis. Just a few weeks ago, Tim stopped in to see Coach Nizzi, to let the coach know he has decreased his time in the two mile run, and is working on his time running five miles. Coach Nizzi says “Tim is a great contributor to our program. The other players respect him and his toughness and I think he sets the example out there every day at practice. How can you complain or not do your best when the guy next to you was in the hospital too weak to walk just a year before? Tim is a tremendous young man.”
For the Gigl family, an inspirational part of their experience has been the many people they have met along the way, individuals who have volunteered their time, their friendship, and their support to help Tim. Katie Friedman is a leukemia survivor, who also battled blood cancer, in her case leukemia, while she was attending Hamilton. When Tim was first diagnosed in 2003, Katie was still a senior at Hamilton and she called him to provide support and as a result they became and remain great friends. As members of the pediatric cancer community, the Gigl family received the assistance of support groups formed to help parents, children, and young adults whose families have survived battles with cancer. Tim and his family also met inspirational young adults and children who fought cancer until they could fight no more and the Gigls remain forever changed by the time they spent with those individuals and their families.
While he is still overcoming lymphoma, Tim is also doing what he can to help others who are battling cancer, especially children. This summer Tim will be, for the second year in a row, a “companion” at Camp Quality New Jersey, a week-long camping experience and support program for children with cancer. As a “companion,” Tim will spend the entire week with a child with cancer, as that child’s friend, cheerleader, and mentor and as someone to whom that child can look to for support long after the one-week camp experience is over.
As part of the Time In program, Tim’s name will be placed on a brick in the wall of the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York. The goal of the program is to honor people like Tim and their families and to inspire others, both those who are battling leukemia, myeloma, lymphoma and other blood cancers and those who are doing all they can to help.
