HSC News had the opportunity to sit with Seamus Donnelly at his Manheim Township home last week to get an update on his health, his activities, and his thoughts on HSC s upcoming Fall season. When I approached the backdoor of his house, where many of our HSC families have been dropping off home cooked meals these past 8 weeks, a note taped to the door unexpectedly greeted me. Went for a brief walk, be back in a short bit. Please make yourself at home. Soon enough, he did round the corner of the house, but it was at a measured, and slower pace than someone might remember. Coach Pete Schellenberger, who was in on one of his many visits, was right behind him as they finished up their brief walk through the neighborhood. Initially, I was surprised to see how healthy Seamus looked, probably because visits while he was in the hospital left a long lasting impression of a guy with a broken back, cracked ribs, and serrated neck, just to name a few of his maladies. I did notice that when he greeted me, and as he spoke over the next 30 minutes or so, that it was with a softer tone. It was almost as if speaking too loudly might make him wince in pain. All things considered, and comparing these brief glimpses to the lasting images I had from Lancaster General, Seamus looked and sounded surprisingly good. After quickly flipping through his mail, and asking Coach Pete to fetch a pillow to help support a tired back, he settled in with us for a brief Q&A. So Seamus, You re up and about without your cane, and you seemed to have ditched the walker. How s you re recovering coming? To tell you the truth, I m taking it day by day. I m 7 or 8 weeks into this, and I m pleased that the walker is finally catching dust in the corner. I m certainly more mobile now than I was 4 weeks ago, and I expect that 4 weeks from now I ll be even healthier. I see the Doc again on August 9 th, and I m hoping for the best. I don t want to paint too rosy of picture for you, so I ll admit that right now I m in a lot of pain, I still follow the Doctor s orders on medication and still need quite a bit of rest. But overall, I m hoping that the Doctor will agree that I m healing well. I do know that I m not out of the woods just yet. There s still the possibility that major surgery is in my future. It all depends on this next visit. He s asked me to rest and stay off of it as much as possible. But he has asked me to walk everyday, so I ve been working up how far I can go around the neighborhood. Afterwards, I m usually exhausted, and I have to retreat into the house for some rest. I find myself sleeping a lot still, as I m getting accustomed to the medications and the amount of effort it takes to get about the house. But the walks are definitely a part of the day I look forward to. It s kind of funny in a way. I ve become a regular here walking through the neighborhood. People I haven t even met stop to say hello and ask how I m coming along He gets a grin on his face and takes a deep breath as he tries to explain this to me.
The other day a couple were driving by, and slowed down to say, Saw you on the TV, heard about you, you re looking much better!, and then drove off. It made me smile because it s good to know that someone thinks I m making progress. I don t always feel it, and it goes to show you about the community that we live in around here. The people are amazing. The support from the club has been simply outstanding. People stop by, many of them I didn t know, or barely knew, and they re bringing me food, taking care of me, trying to make sure that I m comfortable. What s so impressive is that it s been nearly 8 weeks! So the people in this club and the folks in this community have shown their tremendous character. I m very lucky to be surrounded with quality people. And to top it off, did you know that I m still getting cards? I ask about the cards, and Pete shuffles into the dining room to retrieve one of Seamus favorites. It s an enormous card that s about 5 by 3. It has get well wishes and encouraging notes all over it from the U8 kids.
This is pretty nice. Is this typical? No, nothing s typical. You don t get one of these everyday, do you? Yes, I love it. I m going to keep this one forever. There are some great cards in there (the dining room), and they keep coming. And it feels great to know that I m on their minds. So yes, it s special. I d say this is one of my favorites, but ya know Grosso, Grosso gets honorable mention. He s sent over a few classics. That one, he just cracks me up. Okay, so now to the question that s on everybody s mind: When are you coming back? Well, it s like I mentioned earlier; I have a Doctor visit that will validate what type of progress I ve made. I can t say that I know when I ll definitively return. I believe it s fair to say that you won t see me in the next few weeks; he was pretty clear about that. But I am still very involved in all aspects of the club, even if you don t see me out on the pitch. I m working closely with Rossi, Lee Kasun, and Chris Wilson, and I ve been actively involved in the School of Excellence. I guess you can say that my activities in the Administrative part of the club have increased of late. So in your opinion, what are the biggest things happening in the fall? Well first and foremost, our move to the quad on the Hempfield campus in Landisville is a big deal. As many people already know, we ve constructed 2 state of the art synthetic pitches that the club can use every weekend, and every weekday after 6pm. The Quad will be fully lit for evening games, and they ll be a great benefit to us during late Fall and early Spring. Everyone remembers what it s been like when the sun starts setting at 6:15 or so. It becomes real difficult to manage our practice times, get quality work outs in, and carry on with our regimen. Now we have this Quad of fields that we can use all year round, especially during inclimate weather, without having to worry about flooding the pitches, mowing, poor footing, or dry patches across the training grounds. So this is going to be a great experience for the club and the players. There s much to be excited about. The kids will be surprised when they first set foot on the synthetic surface. The field doesn t feel like a hard carpet, it actually has the feel of grass that can slow the speed of the ball, rather than the fast track carpet that we ve played on at the stadium. We even have the potential to split these 2 full sized fields into 4 smaller practice areas, and maybe have the potential to run smallsided games someday, depending upon the layout; we ll have to see. The club had been saving up for the past several years to invest in facilities, and we ended up with a solid partnership between The Hempfield School District, HSC, and Lancaster County Career and Technology Center, who have developed the land and subgrading. While we ve invested the money, we ve also picked up the associated debt, so we ll be looking to find ways to offset that in the coming months. But all in all, this is going to be fantastic that we have premier facilities
at our disposal. I understand it ll be ready the week of August 6 th, and we may be able to run our Team camps or conduct Friendlies on the pitch. So keep an eye out on the announcements on the website. This is going to be great.
The other big thing happening this Fall is the launch of the HSC academy. The Academy, those players U12 and below, are getting specialized attention and training now, and will benefit from Rossi s expertise. We have an outstanding program now that lays out what areas of development need to be focused on, when, and how. Rossi s laid it all out, and will be spending time with the parent volunteers to help us build an excellent base of skills that can be used to help the kids enjoy the game. With this program in place, the young players will have at their disposal a full host of skills and moves that will significantly add to the joy of the game. The game is so much more fun when you can make the ball do what you want, and put just the right touch on it to deliver an excellent assist or to finish it in the net. It also lightens the load on our Academy volunteer coaches. Rossi will lay out for them what to work on, how to teach the skill, and how to keep the fun in the game while, keeping the pressure away. We re going to raise confident young players who love the game, and Rossi s a key piece, a definite asset, to the club and the development of our players. His knowledge and the efforts of our volunteers are going to make HSC the place to learn and play this wonderful game. Okay, so let s close out with a bit of a heavy question for you. What do you miss most? Well, I really do miss the kids. We have a fun bunch that I ve had the pleasure to be around. You always feed off that energy, excitement, and enthusiasm that the kids bring, so that s the big thing. I do miss being on the pitch and watching our players develop. I m expecting big things and loads of progress by the time I get back! In the meantime, I m getting full reports back here at Administration Central, so everybody, please keep up the great work, thank you for your kindness, and keep working hard. I ll be back before you know it.