Al Pike: Scott's memory will live on the links

By Al Pike
Bench Jockey
apike@fosters.com


Article Date: Thursday, May 8, 2008
It happened more than five years ago, yet it remains one of Ralph Ruocco's favorite memories of Scott Chamberlain. With his dad in the final stages of ALS and watching from a wheelchair, Scott had a great game for the Dover High School boys lacrosse team, scoring seven goals in a win over Somersworth.

"It was unbelievable," said Ruocco, the Green Wave's head coach in 2003 and now an assistant with Dover. "It was like he knew it might be the last time his dad would see him play. He was doing things in that game he didn't do all year. It was like he had a premonition."

It was indeed one of the last times Brian Chamberlain saw his son play the game he loved. Brian died shortly before Scott concluded his senior season with the Green Wave. Almost five years later Scott suffered the same fate. He died of ALS in early April. He had been diagnosed with the disease seven months earlier, shortly before he was scheduled to return for his senior year at Plymouth State University.

More commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, it attacks the motor neurons in the brain. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to control muscle movement is lost. Scott Chamberlain had lost the use of his arms and legs and was confined to a wheelchair when he suddenly came down with pneumonia and died at age 22.

"I was devastated," Ruocco said. "I couldn't believe it. What else can that family go through? He lost his dad his senior year in high school and now they have to go through this. I don't know how much more his mom can take."

"It's all about distractions," said Carol Chamberlain, Scott's mom. "I just try to take it one day at a time. It's very unusual for someone that young to get it. It's kind of like being hit with a baseball bat."

Family and friends have come together and will hold the Scott Chamberlain Memorial Golf Tournament this Saturday at Nippo Lake Golf Club in Barrington, which they hope will become an annual event. Proceeds will help fund a scholarship in Scott's name for a current Dover High lacrosse student/athlete who excels in the classroom and on the field.

"When we found out Scott was sick we thought about things we could do," said childhood friend and former Dover High teammate Scott Sanders, who is the driving force behind the benefit golf tourney. "We weren't sure what to do with the money. After he passed we thought this was a way to remember him and give back to the community."

"With Scott being sick, these kids are 22 years old and it would be very easy for them to turn their backs on him and continue with their own lives," Carol Chamberlain said. "Scott had an amazingly large number of friends who went out of their way to spend time with him and take him places. And taking him places wasn't an easy task for a long time. It was a very delicate operation. It helped us too. Scott couldn't be left by himself. It gave us an opportunity to have a break here and there. It also gave Scott an opportunity not to spend so much time in the house. I think for his friends to make such an effort was by far the thing that amazed me the most."

A percentage of the proceeds will also go toward the Angel Fund to help find a cure for ALS. Carol Chamberlain said earlier in the week they were expecting as many as 17 foursomes for a shotgun start Saturday with some people traveling from as far away as Dallas and Chicago to play.

"We certainly didn't expect it to be a memorial tournament," said Carol Chamberlain. "This year has been a little bit tough. Scott didn't want to be forgotten. He felt he didn't have a chance to become the man he wanted to be. He died still being a boy in many ways. We're hoping this will give people a chance to remember him and his smile and his youthfulness. We thought he'd be there. But the disease progressed so incredibly fast."

Despite the illness and the use of a cane, Scott continued to shoot at a lacrosse net set up in the backyard of the family home as long as he was able.

"He was always a happy-go-lucky kid," Ruocco said of Scott, who had a team-high 33 goals as a senior at Dover. "He was liked by all his teammates. Lacrosse was his sport. He had one of the hardest shots on the team. He was just a good kid."

Scott Chamberlain helped with the initial planning stages of the tournament. The event was scheduled for early spring with the hope that Scott would be able to attend. Although his dad lived with the disease for about a year and a half, Scott wasn't as fortunate, lasting just seven months. Carol Chamberlain said patients typically live from two to five years.

"I lived through my mother having cancer, and with other diseases there's a timeline, you know what to expect," she said. "With ALS, you never know what tomorrow might bring. You might lose the use of an arm or a leg, you might lose your ability to speak, you might have difficulty breathing. That's what makes preparing and mentally dealing with what comes next so difficult. There's no time frame or plan of attack. It's all so random and that's what makes the disease so difficult to battle."

"The way Scott handled it was very uplifting and inspiring," said Sanders. "He never got down about it. He never complained. He took it in stride and understood. He lived every day to the fullest."


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