Opposite side, same team in fight vs. breast cancer
A Sayville receiver gains yardage against Bay Shore in the Bay Shore football multi-team scrimmage. (Aug. 29, 2012) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It hit Debbie Giattino as she approached the football field at Bay Shore High School late Wednesday afternoon. It already was a glorious day, with bright blue skies and comfortable upper-70s temperatures, and she was there to watch a scrimmage between her two favorite teams.
"When I came across Sunrise Highway and saw all the pink, it was overwhelming," said Debbie, a four-year survivor of breast cancer. On this picture-perfect day, a little reality appeared on the otherwise cloudless horizon. For the first and only time, her husband, Jim Giattino, would be coaching against her son, Jim Jr., who plays for Sayville, in the fourth annual Breast Cancer Awareness scrimmage, which was spawned soon after she was diagnosed in 2009.
"I do a lot of crying," Debbie said. "There's an emotional reason to have this day."
It hit Jim Sr. when he strode across the turf field to embrace his son right before the opening scrimmage. "To be honest, I got a little emotional," the father said. "I hadn't seen him all day until that moment. It was going through my mind what we've all been through."
Giattino said he conceived the scrimmage, a 12-team affair this year, while his wife was receiving cancer treatments. "As a husband, I felt powerless. I wanted to do something," he said. "This was something I could do -- something to fight for her, to fight with her and make it about her."
Wednesday's Bay Shore-Sayville scrimmage was about all the Giattinos. Debbie sported a white football jersey with a No. 4, the number worn by Brett Favre, whose wife is a breast cancer survivor. Kyle Giattino, 12, wore pink athletic socks and a pink wrist band and admitted, "I'm leaning towards rooting for my dad." Little sister Courtney, 9, wore a pink outfit and rooted equally for her father and brother.
Debbie said that "of course" she was rooting for her son. "I've been following Jim around at Bay Shore for years," she said of the seven-year varsity coach. "Now it's Little Jimmy's turn."
Jim Jr. said that when his father hugged him before the scrimmage, it hit him, too. "I took it all in,'' he said, "the gravity of the moment."
All the Giattino kids are aware of their mother's struggle to overcome a dreaded disease. "They relive it every time we go back to the doctor," Debbie said. "That's why they understand this is all for a great cause."
Many unite each year for the cause. The number of teams has increased. A $5 donation was requested for spectators and, Debbie said, all proceeds go directly to the Judi Shesh Memorial Foundation in support of breast cancer awareness. The officials all volunteer their services for free, a fact that Debbie noted with pride and a lump in her throat. "A lot of these guys are friends of my dad,'' she said. "He was a referee and he died of cancer. They all want to help."
Once the football action began, Debbie paced the sideline, angling for a better view of her son, a wide receiver/safety. She saw him make two interceptions, one a leaping catch on an overthrown pass and the other when he alertly jumped an out route. It was part of a dominant Sayville performance that also featured four touchdowns in four offensive possessions. Each time "Little Jimmy" made a play, his mom flashed a smile as wide as the goalposts.
"This whole day was fun," Jim Jr. said. "It was great to play against my dad. He's helped me my whole career . In the kitchen all week, we kidded back and forth. No trash-talking. It was all good-natured."
That's why Jim Sr., through gritted teeth as his Marauders struggled in the day's first scrimmage, said with a touch of pride, "When I saw that ball go up, I knew Jimmy would make the [first] pick. When he did it again, I said, 'Son of a gun!' " Giattino said, confiding that his actual language was a bit stronger. "But I know he's a good player, and not just because he's my son. It was a plus-plus-plus day all around."
The family has developed a think-positive, meet-life-head-on credo. "We have a saying at our house," Giattino Sr. said. " 'Chin up, fists up.' "
