The Road Less Traveled: Hennessey’s Ride to the Top
By Jeremy Johnson, Staff Writer //
As he stands on the mound and looks to the catcher for the sign, Michael Hennessey blocks everything out except him and the catcher. He’s ready to enter the fight with the batter.
His unorthodox wind-up puts hitters at a disadvantage before they see a pitch. When you add his mentality to the mix, you’ve got one great athlete standing in the middle of the diamond.
He comes set and delivers the pitch.
It hits the mitt with authority and strike three is called.
He runs off the mound with a smile on his face and his teammates greet him at the edge of the dugout.
The smile takes the place of the fear that set in during the fall of 2010, Hennessey’s senior year of high school, when everything changed and he wasn’t on the field fighting. Instead, he was off the field, fighting for the chance to play the sport he grew up playing.
“I first noticed something was wrong when my groin area was huge,” he said. “So I went and got it checked out.”
His and his family’s fears were turned into reality when the test came back. Hennessey had testicular cancer.
Testicular cancer usually affects about 8,500 men per year. That averages to every hour of every day some man hears, “You have testicular cancer.”
“I really didn’t know what to think,” he said. “I didn’t think that it would ever happen to me and my mind just went in a million different directions.”
Hennessey knew he was about to encounter a long road to recovery. After his surgery to remove the cancer, his treatment plan was divided up into three weeks. The first week was the roughest. He spent eight hours a day hooked up to an IV getting drugs pumped into his system, while the second and third week just included light chemo in order to give Hennessey’s body a chance to regain some strength.
“It just wipes you out completely,” he said. “It makes you feel terrible but that was how it worked. Once the first three week cycle ended, it started all over again.”
Three complete cycles later and he was done. The treatment stopped and he went back to the doctor. After being diagnosed with cancer in November 2010, April 2011 came around and his 6 month battle with testicular cancer was over. He was cancer free.
But the fight was nowhere close to being over.
After missing over half of his senior year of high school, Hennessey was not able to graduate with his class and didn’t play his senior year of baseball. The colleges that were recruiting him stopped due to his illness and he didn’t know where to turn.
“It (cancer) kind of took me off the map,” he said. “Coaches started talking to me and then I had to completely shut everything down.”
That all changed when he was cleared to play baseball again in June of that year. He played with his showcase team in order to get back into playing shape. Then, later that summer, he got the news he had been waiting for.
Hennessey had received permission to repeat his senior year of high school and play baseball once again.
His senior year was one to remember. On the mound, he finished with a 12-0 record (wins-losses), 0.92 ERA, and 68 strikeouts. He even held his ground at the plate and finished with a .367 batting average, some great numbers for a young man who was fighting the biggest battle of his life a year earlier.
College was still something he wanted to do. The scouts that saw him before he got sick were gone but there was still one option left. Lake-Sumter Community College, located in Leesburg, Florida gave Michael a scholarship. That’s where he spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Because a junior college only allows you to play two years before moving on to the next stop, he knew that he had to make a decision on where he wanted to finish his college career. That’s where High Point University came into picture.
“When I went to see him play, he impressed me with his aggression and focus,” said head coach Craig Cozart. “I think his experiences health wise help make him the person that he is today.”
From academics to athletics, he knew that HPU was the place to be.
Now as he prepares for his first season at HPU, Hennessey’s ready to step into whatever role comes his way. He brings a great approach to pitching and his past experiences help him see the real picture.
“It gives you a better mentality and a better outlook on life,” he said. “Sometimes in sports you think something is bad, I can assure you it’s not. After going through what I went through, you think nothing is bad anymore. I know if I can get through that, then I can get through anything that’s thrown at me.”
He has made the comeback that some people couldn’t have ever imagined.
His mind forever shaped by the words, “Cancer didn’t win, I did.”