A WISH COME TRUE

By BJ PICKARD
05/05/2011 

The Pittsburgh Power will have a secret weapon on their sideline as they host the defending ArenaBowl Champions at the Consol Energy Center this Saturday.

The ink is still drying on his newly signed contract, but thanks to the efforts of the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Greater Pennsylvania and Southern West Virginia and the Arena Football League’s Pittsburgh Power, 10-year-old Michael “Mick” Walsh’s wish to become a member of the Power is now a reality.

As part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s World Wish Day, Mick officially joined the squad last Wednesday and will serve as the team’s captain Saturday night when the Power square off with the Spokane Shock.

“It’s been really fun to play and do stuff with the team,” Mick said.

Mick’s mother, Ann, said their family attended the Power’s very first game the night before Make-A-Wish was scheduled to visit.

“It was tremendous,” Ann Walsh said. “It was a great experience. What a great introduction to Arena Football! It couldn’t get more exciting and it was very family friendly. We had so much fun at the game that Michael decided that’s what he wanted to do.”

Mick suffers from something called Chiari I Malformation. The condition causes a structural defect in the cerebellum, the part of the brain controlling balance, which puts pressure on the brain and can produce dizziness, headaches, and vision problems, among other symptoms.

“The skull isn’t quite big enough to hold all of the brain and a little bit of it gets pushed down into the spinal column, which interferes with the flow of the spinal fluid,” Ann described. “They have to go in and remove bones to create more room for the brain so the fluid can flow.”

Mick had the surgery six months ago, but as a result, he will never play contact sports again.

“Football is his favorite sport,” Mick’s mother said. “He carried a football into the hospital with him. That was his comfort item, preoperatively. Until they wheeled him into the O.R., he had a football in his hands.”

Though he can’t play the sport anymore, Mick still wants to remain involved. Upon learning of Mick’s condition, the Power wasted little time in making his wish come true.

“We looked at what other football teams had done, like the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders,” Michael Gorham, Chief Operating Officer of the Power, said. “We did a little research on what the [Pittsburgh] Penguins had done for their Make-A-Wish, so we kind of took the best ideas from everyone and started crafting our own.”

After arriving at the UPMC Sports Performance Complex on April 27 in a black limousine and greeting the Pittsburgh paparazzi, Mick joined Head Coach Chris Siegfried, as well as co-owner and General Manager Matt Shaner, for a press conference to officially sign his contract.

Coach Siegfried talked about the signing and celebrated Mick’s presence in the locker room and “potential for the future.” “We are very pleased to make him a part of the Pittsburgh Power,” Siegfried said.

After meeting with the press, Mick was issued his practice gear and had his photo shoot for the program, before getting taped up and hitting the field. When he made his way onto the turf for the first time, his arrival was met with cheers and applause from his new teammates.

“To actually let him go out there and run the routes and make him feel like he’s a part of everything instead of just sitting there watching is incredible,” Ann Walsh said.

Mick said his favorite part of practice was route running, where he emulated his favorite player, Power receiver Mike Washington, while hauling in passes from quarterback Anthony Morelli.

Due to various medical advances and an increase in diagnostic imaging, Chiari Malformation diagnoses have become more common in recent years. However, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), in the past, it was estimated that Chiari Malformations occurred in roughly one in every 1,000 births.

Three of Jim and Ann Walsh’s four children were born with the condition.

Mick’s six-year-old brother, John, had the surgery last summer and his four-year-old sister, Molly, went through the procedure less than a month ago.

Ann Walsh confessed she hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep as of late. But hopefully Mick’s wish-come-true on Mother’s Day weekend will offer mom and the rest of the family a little bit of enjoyment in what has been a difficult couple of years.

“The Power has been absolutely phenomenal to him,” Ann Walsh said. “What a great group of guys.”

Her son will run through the tunnel with that group of guys Saturday night as a full-fledged member of the Pittsburgh Power.

“Any chance you get to team up with Make-A-Wish is a blessing,” Gorham said.

In a word, it’s been a blessing for the Power. But when asked to describe the experience, Mick Walsh had only one word of his own to offer: “Awesome.”

It's a touching story when a professional sports team is able to make a child's wish come true, giving them one of their most cherished moments they'll always remember. The Pittsburgh Power must have taken a page from their NFL counterparts the steelers, with the class they've shown this young man and his family. I sure hope more stories such as these are shared so people around the world may enjoy reading them.