A soccer match will be held at 5 p.m. Aug. 12 at Shoreline Community College to raise funds for a local soccer coach who is battling leukemia.
The match, which will pit the SCC men’s soccer team against a squad of local semi-pro and former Trinity Lutheran College players, will raise awareness for bone marrow donations in honor of Sergio Martinez, a former Dolphins player and coach.
Martinez played for George Dremousis at Trinity College, becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer. He then worked under Dremousis as an assistant at Mountlake Terrace High School and SCC.
“He is a great young man and very well respected in the soccer/Hispanic community,” Dremousis wrote in an email. “(He) was playing semi-pro and working as a full-time accountant and helping me out at the college two years ago when he got diagnosed with late-stage acute lymphocytic leukemia. He was hospitalized for the better part of a year and went into remission for the past nine months.
“After a routine spinal fluid check last month, they found the cancer had returned and had entered his central nervous system. He is scheduled for a transplant at the University of Washington on Aug. 24, with it being his only option of surviving.”
Representatives from the Be The Match Foundation, an organization that works to match donors to patients for transplants, will be at the match to hand out information.
Admission to the match is free, food will be provided and a raffle will be held.
“Sergio has taken all of this on like the champion athlete he is,” Dremousis wrote. “I’ve been by his side through most of it and never once heard him complain or whimper. He’s been on the brink of death several times over the past two years, but still coaches and even tries to play when his health allows it. He’s the most optimistic guy I know, and his story is one of inspiration and courage.”
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