Siegel freshman overcomes cancer, now excels on mat
Zac Duncalf sat on a cafeteria chair.
His Siegel High wrestling teammates stood around him, waiting to start practice.
Rolled up wrestling mats standing on end hid him from the practice mats he’d get on later that day in the Stars’ make-shift practice room.
It was the last practice for the Stars’ freshman 145-pound wrestler before today’s TSSAA Class AAA State Duals at the Williamson County Ag Expo Center in Franklin.
Duncalf appeared as the perfect picture of a healthy 15-year-old.
However, it’s been a long road to get back to this point.
Six years ago, Duncalf was diagnosed with cancer, forcing him to give up wrestling and football, which he played when his family lived in Iowa.
“When I first got diagnosed, it was pretty bad,” Duncalf admitted. “I was pretty sick for about 31/2 months.
“I was feeling really sick, and was really tired. I wasn’t really myself. I wasn’t like a 9-year-old boy that wants to go outside and play. I just wanted to stay inside and sleep. That’s when my parents said, ‘OK, we have to get you checked out.’ ”
Duncalf was diagnosed with T-cell ALL leukemia and lymphoma. He had a mass on the right side of his body that wrapped around to his spine that was crushing his heart, forcing surgery to drain fluid.
Duncalf was treated with chemotherapy for 31/2 years. He’s been off treatment for the past two years and is currently cancer-free.
His strength has returned. He’s toned his body to the point where he can now play sports.
“This is a sport where you have to be able to handle adversity,” Siegel wrestling coach Lee Ramsey said. “The type of adversity that Zac has gone through, you can see it in the type of wrestler he is. You can see it in the type of man he is, and the type of man he’s growing into.
“He enjoys life. But at the same time, underneath that, he has an understanding of how important the things we do are, and how important it is to enjoy it.”
Siegel is in the midst of a series of program firsts for the Murfreesboro school. The Stars recently won their first District 10-AAA championship and first Region 5-AAA championship to reach their first state duals. The Stars wrestle Tennessee High at 5:30 p.m. in the first round of the duals. The winner faces the McGavock-Bradley Central winner at 7:30 p.m. The loser faces the McGavock-Bradley Central loser at 9 a.m. Saturday in the double elimination tourney.
Duncalf, who also played freshman football for Siegel, is 20-15 for the Stars this season in his first year of high school wrestling.
Growing up in Urbandale, Iowa, wrestling was always important to Duncalf, who started wrestling when he was 6.
“Wrestling has always been very important to me,” Duncalf said. “It was really hard to hear that I had got it. It was hard to accept it and know I couldn’t play sports, especially because my other friends could play sports.”
Duncalf said when he was finally cleared of the cancer, he immediately asked if he could begin wrestling again. The doctors cleared him as soon as the port in his chest healed.
And he soon got back in the athletic arena.
“I don’t take my sports for granted,” Duncalf said. “They mean a lot to me. It was really hard to not play for three years.
“When I got cleared, I was so excited to get back in them.”
Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.
TSSAA STATE DUALS
• Siegel wrestles Tennessee High at 5:30 p.m. in the Class AAA state duals at the Tennessee Ag Expo Center in Franklin. The winner faces the McGavock-Bradley Central winner at 7:30 p.m. The Siegel-Tennessee loser faces the McGavock-Bradley loser at 9 a.m. Saturday.