As 15-year-old Seth Cate explains it, the best day in his life so far was the day the Maryville College football team huddled him in a play that had him not only in possession of the ball, but barreling down the field and scoring a touchdown.
“It was a couple of years ago, and it was the best feeling ever,” said Seth from his home in suburban Knoxville, Tennessee. And the teenager was able to have that exhilarating experience thanks to Maryville College’s participation in the Coach to Cure MD, a game-day charity partnership between the American Football Coaches Association and Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy to bring awareness to the rare and aggressive form of muscular dystrophy.
Tammy Cate, a graduate of Maryville, says the disease is primarily found in boys at around six years of age, striking them progressively in the prime of their ability to participate in athletics of all forms, “which is why having college football programs across the country draw awareness to the disease, through the patches they will wear at the game is so powerful.”
A genetic mutation preventing the body from producing dystrophin, a protein that muscles need to work properly, causes the disease — eventually causing children to lose the ability to walk and making them struggle to breathe.
Seth can no longer rush down the field in the way he did a few years ago. He is at his family’s kitchen table in a wheelchair, but he insists with a broad smile he can walk.
“When Seth started with Coach to Cure, he could run the field. Now, he will run in his chair. The entire school, fans, and the program has seen the whole progression at that stadium. He can walk some,” Cate explains.
What is amazing, Cate says, is that the family can share with people who wouldn’t normally know anything about Duchenne, and wouldn’t care about Duchenne, get to come in contact with them, “and in turn become like family for us.”
The national focal point is this weekend, when you will see over 8,000 coaches at college football games across the country wearing a Coach to Cure MD patch on the sidelines. They will also draw attention to the cause through interviews with local media.
The Cate family has to wait until the following weekend because Maryville’s game on Saturday is an away game. While you will see plenty of patches on coaches in the big Division I programs with national coverage, don’t let Maryville’s small size fool you — they will do this up big on Oct. 2.
Seth said he and his family will be at the picnic pavilion, and the players will come over and eat lunch with them. “And I get to do the coin toss,” he said excitedly.
Cate explains there will be other Duchenne families at the game who will wear team jerseys and be treated as honored guests.
“It is a real feeling of family and community and something we missed so terribly last year,” Chris Cate said of most college programs going dark to fans last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a big, big deal at Maryville,” said Seth Cate.
Last year for everyone really stunk because college football had no people in the stands; it was especially awful for these Duchenne boys such as Seth who are immunocompromised and had to lock down like they were on tornado duty, missing an annual event in their young lives that gives them purpose.
“And gives us something to look forward to,” explained Chris Cate of an event that his family and hundreds of other Duchenne families have done many times.
Duchenne families I have interviewed over the years have consistently said what they love about this event is that it is a big rallying point for the whole community. People look forward to it all year because it’s a time when the whole country notices that you’re going through hell every day, and they know it’s going to make them feel special.
Cate explains they always let them walk with the team: “Then, they let us meet the captain, and they play some football with us. It’s been amazing. Amazing. And then, of course, they make announcements throughout the game and raise money for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy.”
Seth Cate said what he looks forward to this year is to meet with the team and the coaches, “then participate in the Walk of the Scots, do the coin toss, and then play catch with the team.”
What does football mean to Seth? Well, like many 15-year-olds, he says, “Everything.”
Brad Todd, who co-wrote The Great Revolt with Salena Zito, is a volunteer founder of Coach for the Cure.
