A year after making an emotional 3-pointer against his basketball team’s crosstown rivals, Garrett Karp sees “The Shot” as a metaphor for his life.
Between the ages of 17 and 19, Karp underwent a metamorphosis from three-sport jock to cancer patient to inspirational figure.
When a lump in his neck was diagnosed as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Karp and his family embarked on a year-long odyssey through chemotherapy, radiation and a bone-marrow transplant.
A look at his Facebook page tells the story, from pictures of a carefree kid in a red football jersey to a puffy-faced boy in a hospital bed.
One year ago, Karp took a break from the treatments and suited up with his team, the Rocky Mountain High School Lobos, for a game against rival Fort Collins High School. The coach put him in at the end of the fourth quarter, and he sank a basket from the three-point line. The crowd burst into cheers on both sides of the bleachers.
“That shot symbolizes the deeper meaning — that I conquered a disease that could have killed me,” said Karp, now 19 and cancer-free. “I went out and finished the game with a shot that made it in. I don’t know how else to sum it up.”
He graduated from Rocky in May and now volunteers with the school’s football, basketball and track teams while attending Front Range Community College and working at Subway. After ESPN aired a feature on Karp last summer, his Facebook friend list leapfrogged to nearly 3,500. (See the video by .)
The response helped him overcome his shy nature. “If I can give motivation to someone, then it motivates me,” he said, moving his index finger in a circle. “The motivation just goes around.”
It extended to the other team. “I remember that it was a big game, as always,” said Collins player Ben Marum, now a senior. “We never want to lose to Rocky. It was a win-win because we won and Garrett’s shot at the end went in.”
Karp is looking forward to leading his former team onto that same court to face Fort Collins on Friday night. His story has inspired his schoolmates. At graduation, the entire senior class donned blue surgical masks like the one Karp had to wear for 100 days after his bone-marrow transplant.
Back working out
His hair has grown back darker brown than before, and long dark lashes fringe his blue eyes. A 2-inch scar on his neck is the only visible evidence of his ordeal. There’s another one on his left upper chest, where a port was, but it’s no longer sensitive, he says, pounding his pecs.
His workouts include 30 minutes on a bike and 30 on the treadmill, and he has worked his way back up to his pre-cancer weightlifting routine.
“After the first round of chemo, I could do one, maybe two reps and I was beat,” said Karp. He called on the words of his coaches to get through the treatment. “I just took the mentality of sports, like if you practice horribly and you don’t focus, you’re not going to compete at your best in the game.”
Watching the video of his 3-pointer gave him comfort through the three weeks in isolation during his bone-marrow transplant. What was he thinking that night? “I just need to make it down the court and not pass out or fall down,” said Karp, whose treatments caused him to gain weight and made his joints hurt. “Now, I’m actually dunking it and that feels so good.
Today, Rocky Mountain High School kicks off a week of fundraising for Poudre Valley Hospital’s planned cancer center (details at ). “We wanted to center an event around the anniversary of the game — it is sort of like a spirit week,” said assistant principal Tyler Ann Thomas.
Students are collecting “change to create change” in their home rooms, selling bracelets and valentines, sponsoring a pancake breakfast Wednesday, and selling green bandannas to wave as rally towels at the game Friday night. “We are hoping to make it about unity instead of rivalry,” said Thomas. “Instead of Collins having their purple and us having red, we thought we could all have green as a sign of unity against cancer.”
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com
