By John Brice
Special Contributor
Ron Rosas had been a standout-athlete and integral cog in the journey of one of Notre Dame’s all-time underdog journeys.
A member of the fabled 1992 Notre Dame men’s tennis team that uncorked an unprecedented run through the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships, from No. 10 seed to the championship match, Rosas had locked in with teammates David DiLucia and Chuck Coleman, both former NCAA All-America selections, as well as Andy Zurcher, Will Forsyth, Mark Schmidt, Chris Wojtalik, the rest of his teammates and fabled coach Bobby Bayliss on the Cinderella journey.
It had been a benchmark in all of Notre Dame athletics, but the tennis-specific success had captured the nation’s attention in the sport – in which no “Northern” team had ever advanced to the title-match with a shot at the national crown.
The journey burnished Notre Dame’s tennis foundation and reputation, but more importantly it forged a lifetime-bond for members of that squad.
So when Rosas in late-December was initially hospitalized in Texas with pneumonia, teammates were concerned but not particularly alarmed.
Rosas, after all, had flourished in life after starring on the tennis courts; married to his wife and best friend, Victoria, and father of four, Rosas had carved an impressive business and philanthropic path in Dallas.
But in the tens of millions of annual diagnosed cases of pneumonia, an alarming number, as the Mayo Clinic notes, result in sepsis – blood poisoning – within those afflicted.
Per the National Institute of Health, “the most common cause of sepsis is community-acquired pneumonia.”
A day after being admitted to that Dallas hospital, Rosas was in the fight of his life.
“It’s crazy, an illness that Ron got pneumonia and within 24 hours, he had to be rushed to the emergency room because it just escalated so fast,” said current Notre Dame men’s tennis head coach and former Irish All-American, Ryan Sachire. “He didn’t feel great but he was doing all right. Then he’s in the E.R. and a couple days after the sepsis developed, it was a significant battle just to save his life.”
Amidst what is for most an unfathomable tragedy, the Notre Dame family – tennis and beyond – has through iron-willed force banded tight as racket strings to aide in has evolved into a lifetime battle for Rosas.
The sepsis developed so acutely, ravaged Rosas’s body so severely, that doctors in Columbus, Ohio, were forced to amputate all four of Rosas’s limbs.
As the Irish prepared for a match this spring against the host Ohio State Buckeyes, Sachire journeyed ahead of his team in order to visit his fellow Monogram Club member.
“Ronnie landed in Columbus three days before we played at Ohio State (on February 25), and I visited him in the hospital,” Sachire said. “I walk into the room, and to see his hands and feet completely black, it just hits you like a ton of bricks. And the morning I saw him, he had one leg amputated and doctors were preparing to move on and do the other limbs.”
Word of the arduous journey that Rosas now confronts began to spread through first the Irish tennis community. That 1992 runner-up squad, after all, has remained so closely knit that when the team was honored in 2012 back on the idyllic Notre Dame campus, there was 100-percent attendance.
Via a GoFundMe endeavor established to aide Rosas, Notre Dame is again illustrating the familial bonds that it seeks to enmesh in all of its students – not just its student-athletes. Within 48 hours of the fund’s establishment, Sachire notes, the Irish community had rallied to donate more than $100,000 to help Rosas and his family.
“It’s pretty horrific, the whole thing but it led me to want to help as much as I could,” Sachire said.
Coleman, Zurcher and others swiftly worked together to launch the Team Rosas GoFundMe May 1. After Rosas was hospitalized for nine weeks at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Specialty Amputee Program, he has been returned to Texas at the Baylor Medical Center for inpatient rehabilitative services that will stretch several more months.
Yet, Rosas has confronted his obstacles with an approach that already has inspired others.
“His teammates have gone to visit, anybody and everybody who sees him, is blown away by his attitude,” Sachire said. “He has remained super-supportive. And he already wants to pay it forward, so to speak; he’s asked how can I impact the world and the future so maybe people who are in this same situation can better battle this.”
The Notre Dame journey, oft-billed “four-for-40” as in a four-year commitment for the next four decades of life, has seen Rosas’s situation tangibly embody the school’s more prevalent “four-for-forever” mantra.
“This is one-thousand percent a reflection of the Notre Dame family,” Sachire said. “So many people are feeling touched by this situation, and so many people, not just the Notre Dame tennis family, have reached out to help.
“He’s one of us, and he’d do same for any one of us. It is a special bond. I am sure other schools have something like this, but it is a special bond, a special place at Notre Dame.”
The Rosas family in the coming months will face many more elements of transition. In addition to the physical rehabilitation for Rosas, the family also must overhaul their home to facilitate Ronnie’s needs for his return. Daily transportation is going to be vastly different.
“Behind the scenes before this GoFundMe, we had been engaging the Monogram Club, engaging former teammates,” Sachire said. “As time has gone on, it’s become apparent that Ronnie’s ability to work moving forward may be limited.
“And now there’s an understanding on his end, the family’s end, these are people in the Notre Dame family who want to help because Ronnie is such a great guy, he’s one of our Notre Dame tennis family members and one of campus family members of sorts.”
To donate to the Rosas Family, please visit the GoFundMe site here
For more information or to follow Ron Rosas’s journey, please learn more here at the family’s Caring Bridge site here.