Donna Zach and Jim Cook sit together wearing their 'Team Cookerino' t-shirts, a website they designed to share Zach's story and his fight with DSRCT. Submitted photo/teamcookerino.com

By Jeff D'Andrea

Cook tournament first of many

Memorial tournament to honour Zach Cook, who didn’t let cancer take away his love for ball

Jun 30, 2019 | 8:43 AM

In February of 2016, Zach Cook was in the hospital recovering from a major surgery to remove a cancerous tumour the size of a bowling ball.

The large incision that went from his sternum all the way down to his groin barely started to heal, but Cook was already thinking about taking to the field with his beloved slo-pitch teams: the Nitros and the amazingly-named co-ed team, the Swamp Donkeys.

“’No I’m serious, I’m going to be playing ball when the P.A. slo-pitch league starts in May,’” Zach said, as recalled by his father Jim Cook.

Nothing was going to keep Zach off the field that season, and he was able to defy the odds and play the sport he loved.

Even though Zach passed away to cancer the following year, that determination and passion for his beloved slo-pitch will live on. His parents Donna and Jim Cook created the Zach Cook Memorial Charity Slo-Pitch Tournament on July 13 at Lakeland Ford Park, the first of what they hope will be many annual tournaments in years to come. The finals for the tournament will be played on Diamond 7, which has been renamed to Zach Cook Field.

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Not only does the tournament capture the love for Cook’s favourite pastime, but it also will financially support a cause that was close to his heart—to raise money and awareness for cancer, especially for rare cancers.

Zach was diagnosed with a desmoplastic small round cell tumour (DSRCT), an incredibly rare cancer without a dedicated treatment plan or a cure. Cook was the first Saskatchewan resident to be diagnosed with DSRCT and just one of about 500 globally. It primarily affects boys and young men.

All proceeds from the tournament will be donated to Childhood Cancer Canada. Donna said the charitable foundation works on research of cancers like DSRCT, as well as providing financial help and scholarships.

“It ticks off all the boxes,” Donna said. “If he were here, he’d say ‘that’s exactly what I wanted mom and dad. Keep it going.’”

Seeing as so few people were diagnosed with DSRCT, Zach found himself with a new community of friends. He became one of the loudest voices of the online community, and would often find himself talking with others going through the same things he was, as well as some of their mothers.

Whenever they talk about how Zach dealt with receiving a rare diagnosis without a treatment or a cure in sight, both Donna and Jim say that he never complained and always stayed positive and tried to help others.

In fact, Donna said he was “hilarious and loved to laugh and make people laugh.”

“He just had an inner strength. He was born with it. All of our kids are leaders, smart and with great personalities.”

Jim had another explanation, that Zach’s strength came right from Donna.

“It comes from you,” Jim said as he turned to Donna. “Zach was like his mom, he’s like her in so many ways. He’d rather help somebody and give up his day for them… You never give up on anything and neither did he.”

Zach’s favourite place to show that strength and his “class clown” like demeanour was on the ball fields, of course.

Even after having undergone chemotherapy treatments and surgery, Zach still refused to let a runner replace him at home plate—a very common practice in slo-pitch. It would drain most of his energy running to first base, but nobody could convince Zach otherwise.

He reluctantly accepted having a teammate run for him after he safely reached first.

But the rest of the league knew what Zach was going through, and even members of other teams volunteered to run for Zach. By the second or third game, Zach’s opponents were gladly taking his place to let him rest, and ran just as hard as he did—for the other team.

“That’s the kind of the people that play out there,” Jim said.

There’s no better way to honour that spirit that Zach showed, or the support he received from the ball community than a memorial tournament, with proceeds going to a good cause.

“Rare or not, people are going to know what DRSCT is for years and years,” Jim said.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW