Nothing was going to keep Joe Skinner from walking onto the field for senior night two weeks ago.
Not the recent bouts with fever and fatigue, nor the grueling chemotherapy sessions at nearby Arnold Palmer Hospital.
Skinner mustered enough strength to stand alongside his Bishop Moore baseball teammates that night, in a brief moment of normalcy, before shuffling off with his parents to seek rest for a weary body.
While his Hornets round out the final weeks of the regular season before focusing on the start of district play April 18, Skinner will embark on a separate journey of his own that same week.
Skinner was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia on Dec. 8, just two weeks after signing a baseball scholarship with UCF. The 17-year old senior enters the second phase of an experimental procedure called CAR T-Cell Therapy that will keep him in Dallas for more than a month.
Doctors will monitor his progress after inserting millions of his own genetically altered immune cells through a tube in his neck, in hopes those cells recognize and fight off the tumorous cells that currently occupy 80 percent of his bone marrow.
“I never thought it would be me,” Skinner said. “You hear stories all the time about people who have gone through this, but you never think it’ll happen to you. It was shocking at first, but one of the first things I thought was, ‘Let’s do it. Whatever this is, let’s solve it. If it’s leukemia, let’s beat this.’ “
Skinner was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) three days after making his official visit to UCF, concluding a lethargic week of illness that hampered his day-to-day activities. B-cell ALL, which typically carries an 80 percent recovery rate for newly diagnosed patients, was only part of the problem.
Early chemotherapy treatments failed to put Skinner into remission and it was discovered that hypodiploid clone, cells that have lost many of their chromosomes, were the culprit. It’s a rare occurrence as less than two percent of children among the 4,000 ALL cases nationwide on a yearly basis are similarly diagnosed.
With that came news that odds for a full recovery from this type of leukemia slips to just 40-50 percent.
“At first, even when we just thought it was the normal leukemia, I went home and I cried,” said Scott Skinner, who was working abroad in Afghanistan when his son was admitted into the hospital. “I just thought ‘how can this happen?’, then the diagnosis got progressively worse.”
Scott said the family, including mom Judy and older sister Molly, don’t spend a lot of time pouring over the numbers. Not when Joe continues to show such courage and the abundance of positive support flooding their lives lifts their spirits.
“He’s had setbacks off and on and he deals with them and moves forward,” Judy said. “He’s had so much support from Bishop Moore, from the students, the baseball team. Every time he seems to get low he gets a little pick-me-up from the people around him. They help him keep focused. It’s been amazing to us, all the people that have come out in support.”
Bishop Moore teammate Mikey Giordano has been on the frontline for Skinner, rallying support from the baseball community with the #SkinnerStrong campaign on social media. Bishop Moore football players sported the hashtag in the state championship game while Skinner watched on Giordano’s laptop while bedridden at the hospital.
The sale of wrist bands, T-shirts and contributions to a GoFundMe.com page has generated nearly $9,000 since late December as baseball teams from around the state have joined the cause. The money raised has been funneled to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, per Joe’s request, in order to grant a wish to a young cancer patient such as those he’s met during recent hospital stays.
It’s his way of paying it forward after others have gone to great lengths to connect him with the likes of Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano and Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, both cancer survivors and members of his favorite teams.
“There were times I’m sitting there in the middle of the night, thinking about a kid that’s probably 5 or 9 years old going through all of this stuff in the next room,” said Skinner, who is eligible for a wish of his own from the foundation before turning 18 on May 13. “Their spirits are unbelievable. It’s a lot for me to go through as a 17-year-old kid, but I couldn’t imagine going through it at such a young age.”
Skinner’s diagnosis came the same week he was scheduled to work out for scouts from the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners and discuss the third baseman’s MLB Draft potential.
But as intriguing as those talks would’ve been, his heart has always been set on playing at UCF, the program he verbally committed to as a freshman before playing in his first high school game.
“When you see kids play so much, you see more than just their baseball ability. You see their competitiveness, you see their positivity and how they interact with teammates,” UCF coach Terry Rooney said. “Joe Skinner is one of the best baseball players in the country, and he loves UCF. He has been so committed to our baseball program, and since the moment he’s committed, he’s been a great ambassador for us.”
Rooney said the Knights plan to honor Skinner’s scholarship. That type of loyalty has inspired Joe during the early stages in his road to recovery.
He still speaks of returning to the diamond and one day making an impact in much the same way he did a year ago as an Orlando Sentinel all-area player for a Bishop Moore team that made a run to the region finals.
“He’d get a base hit, steal second, steal third, and then a ground ball to second base would put us up 1-0,” Bishop Moore coach Tony Mehlich said. “That’s almost how every game went last year. We as a team joked that it was Joe Skinner Baseball. it was common for our games to start out that way.”
Skinner took his last at-bat as a Hornet in the bottom of the seventh inning against visiting Jacksonville Trinity Christian in February, in the first home game of the season.
He had tirelessly worked to gain back much of the 40 pounds that chemo stripped from his 6-1, 210-pound frame for one more chance to compete with his teammates.
But there was nothing routine about the fleeting moment.
All smiles while stepping into the batter’s box, the grin remained as he jogged back to the dugout, to a standing ovation, and into the arms of his coach after grounding out to the left side of the infield.
“I’ve mostly accepted everything so far. It’s the best thing to do, to accept it and just keep fighting because it’ll figure itself out,” Skinner said. “There’s no point in being down on myself, because however it ends up, it’s going to be what was meant to be. I’m just kind of sitting back and letting it play out and trying to enjoy the ride while I can.”
