After battling cancer, Reba Canning returns to softball field

Reba Canning would maintain that stoic countenance she had become known for on the softball field. But this time, behind that austere glare, she was bursting with emotion and fighting tears.

Canning, last Sunday, was in the midst of accomplishing something she once thought impossible. She was doing what some insisted she shouldn't. Her coach, several times during that game, wondered aloud if she could do it.

"I was praying in my mind," the 24-year-old said. "'God, please just let me get through this.'"

Pitch after pitch was delivered, as the Wappingers Falls native exerted herself in ways she hadn't since being a star athlete at Roy C. Ketcham High School. She faltered at times in her return to the softball circle, and there were rough innings that prompted coach Scott Syska's attempts to pull her from the game. But each time, Canning resisted.

It was no different than when Canning was a teenager playing for his travel softball team, Syska said. Then, too, she would often refuse to be relieved.

For Canning, it seems, "No" has never been an acceptable answer. Not from her coach or relatives, and certainly not from her cancer diagnosis at age 16.

Her illness, then two subsequent hip replacement surgeries, were believed to have been a final blow to a truncated athletic career. But she refused once more last week.

In her triumphant return to softball, after a six-year hiatus, Canning stunned all who know her story. She gritted her way through a complete game, leading the Dutchess Debs to a championship in an 18-and-over softball tournament in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

"I was astonished," said Jackie Macak, a former Arlington High School rival who was Canning's catcher in this game. "I remember what she went through. I saw the pictures of her in the hospital and it was scary. To go through that at such a young age and fight so hard, then to be able to come back like she did. Wow."

Canning, at one point, thought she never would play again and even loved ones suggested she shouldn't try. So this, she said beaming, "meant everything to me. If I never compete again, I can be proud. I'll always have this."

Canning was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in October 2007, during her junior year of high school. She became emaciated, losing 35 pounds in two weeks, and had complications in the hospital that led to a spinal leak, in addition to the anguish the disease brought. Because of the missed school days, she had to repeat the 11th grade. But she faced those challenges with aplomb, and even some levity. When Reba lost her hair, due to the chemotherapy, she and her sister, Abby Canning, would sometimes tease their little brother, Peter, by having him wear Reba's wigs.

Canning would return to the softball team for brief stints in 2009 and 2010, while still undergoing chemotherapy. Her teammates would playfully rub her then-bald head for luck.

Though the treatment proved successful, five stages of chemo over a two-year span and the accompanying steroids came at a cost. A side effect of the medication was damage to the capillaries in her hips, which caused the joints to degenerate. It got so bad, Reba Canning said, it became a struggle to bend down and she would have to use her arms to raise her legs into a car. Her doctor and family friend, Carl Barbera, reasoned that she had survived cancer, so artificial hips and a lost athletic career were a relatively small price to pay for life.

Reba agreed. She has been in remission for more than eight years, and she went on to earn her bachelor's degree in mathematics education from SUNY New Paltz and now is pursuing a master's degree. She began teaching last year at Newburgh Preparatory Charter School and, last August, married her longtime boyfriend Frank Zaharko.

In addition, Reba recently was hired by Roy C. Ketcham High School. This fall, she'll begin teaching math in her old stamping grounds, and Peter Canning is entering the 11th grade there.

"I remember when she was laying in the hospital bed," Zaharko said. "To see her now, and the success she's having, it's an inspiration."

Things have gone well of late for Reba, but still she yearned to take the field again. Over the years, as she watched several of her friends go on to play ball in college, the "what if..." scenarios hovered.

"I always wondered, if I hadn't gotten sick, could I have played in college too?" she said. "Would I have been good enough? I wanted to answer that question and prove something to myself."

A confluence of circumstances provided her the opportunity. Abby Canning is a star pitcher for the Dutchess Debs. The team, formed three years ago, is an extension of the youth travel club run by Syska that the Cannings played for as kids. The adult league is comprised mostly of former high school softball standouts who wanted to continue playing at a high level. The Debs compete against similar teams in weekend tournaments in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

The Debs feature players such as Carly Bilchak, a former Highland High School star, Jessica Syska, Scott's daughter and Reba's former Ketcham teammate, and Emily McDonough of Marlboro, who was named the Journal's softball Player of the Year in 2012. Most of the players went on to have successful college careers.

However, many of them now have jobs and families, so there are sometimes scheduling conflicts. Abby Canning, 22, is a nurse at Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center in Poughkeepsie. She was inspired to enter the medical field — and aspires to become a pediatric oncologist — after witnessing her sister's ordeal. But she was unable to get time off from work last weekend to travel to Pennsylvania.

But, the previous week, she had pitched in Connecticut and Reba and her husband made the trip to watch her. That weekend, being around elite softball players, sparked the competitive embers in Reba Canning.

"I got the itch," she said.

And coach Syska half-jokingly suggested she "come out of retirement."

Reba took him up on that offer... sort of. She threw practice sessions with her old coach and pitched to Macak the following week. Reba had kept in shape, frequenting the gym, so she wasn't totally rusty. Her performances in practice were inconsistent, but still quite impressive for someone who had barely played in nine years, the coach said.

Later that week, when Abby informed the team she couldn't make it, Reba volunteered to be her substitute. Her dad, John Canning, and her husband fretted and begged her not to play.

"We were worried," Zaharko said. "She's not fragile, but what if something went wrong or she injured her hip?"

Reba insisted. That itch, really, was one she had wanted to scratch for the better part of a decade.

"I told her to go for it," Abby Canning said. "She was a little nervous, but she really wanted to. How many more opportunities would there be like this?"

Reba donned her sister's No. 5 jersey, ironically, a number Abby had worn since high school in honor of her sister. Reba took the field on Saturday against the Northwest Explosion of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the concession being that she wouldn't bat or run the bases. But, oh, did she pitch. In her first appearance since high school, she allowed a run in 4 ⅓ innings. With her pinpoint control, Reba flashed the changeup and curveball combination that once allowed her to dominate.

There was stiffness and soreness afterward, which was to be expected, Reba said. But still she took the circle again on Sunday in the tournament final against The Nook, another loaded Pennsylvania team that previously had given the Debs fits.

During a national exhibition tournament when she was 14, Scott Syska recalled, Reba was mired in a slump and he attempted to pinch-hit for her in a game. She snarled and promised she wouldn't fail. Canning, in her next at-bat, drilled a home run.

"She'd never let me down before in the clutch as a kid, so I was gonna trust her again," Syska said of his decision to allow her to pitch Sunday. "We would put our faith in her and live with the outcome."

Reba again delivered under pressure. In her glory moment, the one she will forever cherish, she allowed seven hits, no walks and struck out a batter in a complete game as the Debs captured the tournament title with a 9-2 win.

The celebration was subdued and Reba simply smiled as she accepted congratulations, Macak said. Her expression, though, belied the feeling of immense pride.

"From thinking I would never play again, to having that happen, it's unbelievable," said Reba, who held back tears during the final innings and eventually recorded the final out on a pop-up. "I was so grateful."

The Debs have another tournament in Connecticut next weekend, but Reba hasn't decided yet if she will play. Who could blame her if she doesn't? But who would be shocked if she does?

Abby Canning said Reba, though quiet, has always been headstrong and determined.

"She always worked hard and always pushed the limit," Abby said. "I remember her and Scott used to argue when he would try to take her out of games. She'd say, 'I can do this. Just gimme one more chance.'"

Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4826, Twitter: @StephenHaynes4 

Canning dazzled in her return to the field

Canning allowed seven hits, no walks, two runs and struck out a batter in a seven-inning complete game. She earned the win as her Dutchess Debs defeated The Nook of Pennsylvania, 9-2, on Sunday in the final of the Allentown Patriettes 18-and-over softball tournament. The 24-year-old's softball career had seemingly ended in high school after her battle with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and two hip replacement surgeries.