Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994 TAG: 9404290037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Liz Florence got her first lacrosse stick when she was a carefree 3-year-old and has been refining her game ever since.
Now, as a junior attack for Roanoke College, Florence combines natural ability with aggressiveness, and her game shows few weaknesses.
She leads the team in goals (22) and assists (18) despite drawing the best defenders from opposing teams.
Florence is a natural athlete, bright and beautiful. She's not shy about flashing her perfect smile, but it sometimes masks a complex maze of inner anxiety.
On the outside, Florence is a typical student-athlete. She worries about looming final exams, Roanoke's opening game against Randolph-Macon today in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament and whether the seventh-ranked Maroons will earn a bid to the national tournament.
On the inside, her troubles reach a level few at the age of 21 have to face.
In June, after the books and the lacrosse stick have been put away, Florence will have her third surgery in the past 10 months for a recurrence of breast cancer.
"It's either my ninth or tenth surgery [total]. I've lost count," said Florence, a native of Princeton, N.J.
Doctors discovered a malignant cyst when she was 5. The diagnosis was secretory carcinoma, and when she was 10, Florence underwent a mastectomy, the surgical removal of a breast.
"I just remember being told that I was having surgery because I had cancer," she said. "When you're a child of that age, the first thing you think about is death. You don't really know what cancer is. Honestly, I always thought that my parents were hiding it from me, that I was doomed."
Florence had another surgery a few years later to insert an expander, a device that kept the skin elastic until when she was old enough to have a permanent implant, which was 1991, her freshman year at Roanoke.
Things were going great then for Florence, a sociology major with plans to attend interior design school. She had an outstanding freshman season with 28 goals and seven assists and was the second-leading scorer on the Maroons' team that reached the national semifinals.
As a sophomore last year, Florence led the team in scoring with 35 goals. She was a member of the All-ODAC and All-South Region first teams.
In August, her joy ride took a detour when doctors discovered what Florence thought was scar tissue actually was another malignant cyst.
"It's not your garden-variety cancer," Florence said. ". . . They don't have a lot of background on it and its behavior is very unusual. The cells react slowly and they grow slowly."
Florence, who has no history of cancer in her family, said she visited nearly every doctor in every department of her Philadelphia hospital before they delivered the bad news.
"They decided I needed six months of chemotherapy and four to five weeks of radiation," Florence said. "I was completely devastated."
She decided to travel to Boston to get a second opinion. Doctors there disagreed with the treatment procedure, explaining there was only a 35 percent chance the cancer would be completely removed.
Florence took the semester off from school to rest and prepare for surgery in November, when doctors discovered the cancer was contained to her right pectoral muscle. Her surgery in June will involve removing part of the chest muscle and replacing it with muscle from her back.
"It'll definitely make me weaker on that side, but hopefully they'll remove it all," she said.
Doctors also will perform some cosmetic reconstruction on Florence's implant, which is specially designed to endure the rigors of sports such as lacrosse.
Florence said her medical experiences had changed her outlook on life. She's working harder in the classroom and on the field.
"She's feeling more pressure this year," said Tracy Coyne, Roanoke's lacrosse coach. ". . . A lot of that is coming from I think she wonders what next year holds for her. She wants to make sure she gets the most out of the season that she can."
Florence always is so positive and enthusiastic, sometimes it's hard to remember that she's not completely healthy, Coyne said.
"Liz is beautiful and everyone looks at her and forgets that she's not 100 percent," she said. "She never misses practice, she never steps out of anything. . . . She's able to play at such a high level and we forget that she has anything wrong with her."
Florence recently was honored by the college with the Michael Murphy Award, which is given to student-athletes who have demonstrated extraordinary perseverance in accomplishing academic and athletic goals.
"I think that made us all step back for a second and realize what she's really going through," Coyne said. "She's just had so much more to deal with than the normal student.
"It's hard enough sometimes when you're in college and you're playing a sport and just managing everything, let alone dealing with the fact that this is her second time with cancer and all of the things that are attached to that."
Florence said winning the award was an emotional and rewarding experience.
"It makes me feel good that people realize that I've been through a lot and have developed strength of character," she said.
Coyne said it's that strength that has driven Florence to raise her lacrosse game to a superior level.
"I have a lot of confidence in Liz. In the last minutes of the game, I want Liz to have the ball," Coyne said.
Florence is used to the pressure. She played soccer in high school and was a four-year varsity player on the ice hockey team. Lacrosse always has been her favorite sport and a way to vent frustration, she said.
Florence realizes she still has a long road ahead. The surgery will be followed by months of rehabilitation. But Florence wants to complete her lacrosse career at Roanoke and intends to use next season as motivation during her recovery.
"I'm just going to have to realize that every day is not going to be a good day," she said. "Some will be harder than others. But when I'm ready, I'll be out there."
by CNB