Two weeks before the regular season started, Plymouth Whitemarsh running back Luke Winterbottom was hopeful to be full-go for the first game of the year. The senior knew it was a long shot with him being halfway through his four rounds of chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but it was his goal.
Fast forward to the opener against Upper Merion Friday night and there he was – on the field and handling a big workload while helping the Colonials pick up a 21-19 win at Upper Merion Area High School.
Winterbottom, who said he felt great after the game, carried the ball 15 times for 108 yards – 7.2 yards per attempt – and a touchdown. His longest run of the night was a 21-yard carry in the second quarter. He followed that up with 11 yards on the next play and eventually capped the drive with a one-yard score, giving the Colonials a 14-0 lead with 2:27 left before halftime.
“It’s incredible really that he’s playing right now,” PW coach Dan Chang said. “He’s currently still getting treatment. He’s just off major treatment, radiation, all that stuff and he was running hard tonight in hot and humid conditions. That’s Luke Winterbottom. You know what you’re going to get with him. He’s tough, does his job and doesn’t complain.”
Winterbottom was not showing any signs of slowing down in the final minutes of the hot and humid opener. He had four carries for 27 yards in the fourth quarter. When PW got the ball back with a two-point lead and four-and-a-half minutes remaining, the reigning first team All-Suburban One League American Conference running back started the drive with an eight-yard run. He took the pitch in PW’s veer triple-option attack, got near the first down marker and stayed in bounds to keep the clock moving. It was his last carry of the night, but he was on the field for the entire seven-play series that ran out the clock to secure the win.
Winterbottom was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma last November and declared cancer-free in March. He got on the court with the boys basketball team in the spring, but the cancer came back at the end of June. He was cleared to return to the field in a limited fashion when the heat acclimatization period started on Aug. 7 before getting full clearance on Aug. 18 – one week before the season-opener.
“I’ve just been amping it up in practice, going 100 percent, being able to put it all on the field,” Winterbottom said.
Winterbottom’s most recent treatment was less than two weeks before the opener and his next treatment is later this week.
The Colonials travel to Methacton Thursday, Aug. 31, at 7 p.m.
