by Katie Vasquez
You can’t miss Terence Hughes on the field, with his red metallic helmet.
Every Tuesday and Thursday he’s at practice at the Red Hook soccer fields, playing lacrosse for Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, a sport and team that he loves.
“I’ve just felt really a part of this team because, you know, the coaches, all my teammates,” Hughes said.
For Huges, being on this field is a feat he’s grateful for, because one year ago he didn’t think he’d ever be here again.
“I was worried that I wasn’t ever going to play lacrosse again,” Hughes said.
The 14-year-old was born with a heart murmur but was told by his doctor that he wouldn’t need surgery until he became an adult.
That all changed in November of last year when Terence returned from gym class with crippling chest pain.
“Right as I was about to cross over, like, I get the door, I fell and almost hit the wall,” Hughes said. “And that’s when I started, like, just, you know, feeling and it was all hitting me right there. Like, I felt it all through my body and everything, and the pain was just unbearable.”
He had open heart surgery in February which took him off the lacrosse field for nine months. He cheered his team on from the sidelines.
“It was tough because he’s watching kids play the game he wants to play, and he kind of feels like the waterboy, right? it’s not the role that he wants to play,” said Nick Dilonardo, the head lacrosse coach at Bishop Loughlin.
But his teammates cheered him on during his recovery.
“A lot of the team went to the hospital he was staying at and we brought him books and stuff and we checked up on him, made sure he was good and let him know we were there with him,” said Josiah Celius, Hughes’ lacrosse teammate.
Now he’s back playing the sport he loves, and not taking any moment, on or off the field, for granted.
“A lot of people when they’re really committed to something, they lose sight of that and you know, put that off for later as if it doesn’t matter,” Hughes said. “But, you know, we can’t be out here, we can’t be here in this beautiful world without our health.”
And while he doesn’t know what this season holds, Huges will give it his all, for the game and the team that he loves.