Daughter
tips cap to ill father with return to softball
Braga plays senior year for Chaparral
By BRAD FALDUTO TRIBUNE -
Kaitlin Braga figured she wouldn’t play
softball her senior year at Chaparral. She also assumed her father, Dave, would
be healthy.
She was wrong on both counts.
Last July, Dave Braga — a fixture for years on
the area girls club softball circuit — was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The
outlook was not good.
Looking for a way to honor
her ailing father, Kaitlin decided to return to softball, something she gave up
her freshman year at Chaparral.
“I just got
really involved in acting and modeling and other things,” Kaitlin said. “I got
really involved in the theater department at school and I ended playing a lot of
basketball, too, so I just never got back into softball.
“When my dad got sick this summer, we spent a
lot of time at the hospital. I thought about it the first couple times I was at
the hospital and all of the softball players visited. I kind of decided I would
play this year so he can see me and my sister play one last year together. I
figured it would be the best way to end my high school career, to do it for
him.”
That sister is Tessa, a sophomore second
baseman for the Firebirds.
“I haven’t played
with her since I was a little kid,” said Tessa, who boasts a .312 batting
average. “It’s cool that she’s doing it for my dad. She just dropped everything.
I know he loves it, the fact she came out.”
While it sounds like the sisters are getting
ready to say goodbye to Dave, he insists that isn’t the case. He said he plans
to be around for a long time.
“The prognosis is
not good, but I’m way ahead of the prognosis,”
Dave said. “I’ll beat it.”
Dave Braga can refer
to his own history. In 1996, Braga suffered a brain seizure during his eldest
daughter Devyn’s junior year at Chaparral. He almost died, spending days in a
coma. Braga not only recovered, but he returned in time to watch Devyn and the
Firebirds close out an undefeated season.
The
fight to get better has taken longer this time. Ten days after the cancer was
found, Dave had his pancreas removed. Radiation therapy followed. Currently,
Dave is undergoing chemotherapy.
Pancreatic
cancer is a killer. It has the No. 1 fatality rate of all cancers. The average
life expectancy after diagnosis is six months, so Dave already is beating the
odds.
Dave’s enthusiasm about beating cancer is
the same type of energy he brought to girls youth softball. When Devyn was
young, Dave helped organize and coach an area club team. Devyn went on to play
at Arizona State before an injury cut her career short.
Next, Dave coached Kaitlin and then Tessa.
Dave was surprised when Kaitlin decided to hang
up her spikes, about as surprised as when he learned she was returning to the
diamond for her senior season.
“She didn’t
discuss it with me,” said Dave, 58. “I thought it was great. I thought it would
be really neat to have the two of them playing.”
Although it hasn’t been easy for Dave to go to
games because of his treatments, he hasn’t missed one. That includes a trip to a
tournament in Bullhead City.
“When he’s here,
it’s actually a lot easier to be doing this because I can remember why I’m out
here,” said Kaitlin, who starts either in the outfield or at first base and is
hitting .268. “It wouldn’t be softball without him being here. I’m really glad I
made this choice to do this for him. This is completely my decision. He never
said anything about it. I felt I could give back to him. It was really the least
I could do.” FAMILY MATTERS: In an effort to honor her
father, Dave, Kaitlin Braga, left, returned to the Chaparral softball team as a
senior, joining sister Tessa, right, who is a sophomore second baseman for the
Firebirds. LISA OLSON, TRIBUNE
