TWO WARRIORS OF THE HARDWOOD REBOUND FROM SURGERY TO PLAY AGAIN
They removed the man’s cancerous bladder and rejigged his insides from the liver on down so he could function somewhat normally.
For good measure, they hit his cells hard with chemotherapy.
Not having witnessed these medical procedures for ourselves, it was miracle enough to watch Geoff Gruson move freely around the Jewish Community Centre basketball court recently, using his skill, experience and vision to dish to the open man.
During what he refers to as the “chemo fog ” and about two years of recovering from major surgery, Gruson imagined himself returning to play.
“I played basketball all my life,” Gruson says. “And I just thought that if I could get back into shape, I would like to do that.
“If you get a second chance, you may as well use it, right?”
It’s the weekend warrior imperative: soldier on with recreational connections as soon as physically possible. In Gruson’s case, it was slightly before it was possible.
On this particular evening, Gruson, 67, of Team Grey, is lined up against Jeff Pleet, 62, of Team Black. Jeff versus Geoff. They are the two oldest men on the court, and both bear surgical scars — Pleet rebounding, in the nonbasketball sense of the word, from heart bypass surgery.
Gruson’s radical cystectomy procedure for Stage 4 bladder cancer was completed in June 2012, and he willed himself back on the court a year later, when he promptly developed a hernia. He tried to play through that, took a hit to the groin and had surgery to fix the hernia in the fall of 2013.
“‘Never give up’ might be rephrased ‘never smarten up,’ ” Gruson jokes.
Renowned for his fitness regimen, Gruson was fully active again by June 2014 and was back playing basketball that fall, although it probably wasn’t until 2015 that his mind and body were in sync again.
Gruson was fully back in the swing of things by the time Pleet had his double bypass heart surgery at the Ottawa Heart Institute in April 2017. He says the doctors only discovered the blockage while investigating a rotator cuff injury, which was fortuitous.
“Whatever I had, they call it the widow maker,” Pleet says. “The blockage was in the area where guys get it and just drop dead.”
About three months after the surgery, Pleet stepped to a freethrow line and was alarmed to discover he couldn’t reach the basket with a shot. In time, he worked his way back to hitting the rim. And finally the shots began to drop as he found his range again.
He’d already conducted another experiment, carting his golf clubs up and down his street to see if he could handle the load. When he didn’t keel over, he struck out for a golf course and played nine holes.
By the fall, he was back shooting three-pointers — his specialty — in league play.
Gruson has been symptom-free for three years, which means he doesn’t need another cancer checkup for a year. Ever watchful for signs his body might turn on itself again, he carries on a frenetic schedule.
He continues to work parttime for Interpol, the international police organization. He also acts and directs, and is president of Ottawa Little Theatre. (He is directing Dead Accounts, which opens at the OLT on Feb. 14.)
Gruson doesn’t allow time to mope about his health, although his motto that one should not fear failure, but only fear trying, has had its moments. In the midst of cancer treatments, he gave a lecture at a police conference in San Diego, Calif., one time and was so groggy he walked out and couldn’t remember what hotel he was staying at.
A member of the University of Ottawa Gee- Gees basketball team that reached the national tournament in back-to-back years in the early 1970s, Gruson was a consultant for Sport Canada in the early 1980s, when Abbie Hoffman, then directorgeneral of Sport Canada, asked him to run Basketball Canada for a few years when it was in financial difficulty.
Pleet, meanwhile, had to rebuild his career after selling off the two Kiddie Kobbler franchises he owned, one in Bayshore Mall, the other in Carlingwood Mall. Today, he’s selling cars.
“It’s tough to go from owner to employee but it’s OK,” he says.
At the end of the work day, they go to play, against players half their age. Jon Braun, who runs these recreation leagues for the JCC, encourages a mix of young and old, and is proud of these two elders of the court.
Not that wins and losses matter much before the “playoffs,” but Black hangs on to beat Grey 77-68 this night. Pleet scores 19, nearly all from his beloved three-point line. Another night of camaraderie, friendly chirping, exercise and hoops played by a mixed bag of talent.
Pleet’s parents live across the street from the JCC and sometimes his 89-year-old father, Morton, walks over, pushing his walker, to see his son’s game.
You’re never too old to play. Nor does it get old watching your children play.