MLL Ohio Machine

Ohio Machine Announce 2018 Super Sheen Katy Grimm

Published on June 23, 2018 under Major League Lacrosse (MLL)
Ohio Machine News Release


COLUMBUS, Ohio - 72 hours. For many, that's the perfect weekend. For Katy Grimm, it was a matter of life and death.

Katy says that it took 15-20 specialists just to diagnose her, and that it was her dermatologist who figured it out. On December 21, 2017, Katy was diagnosed with Natural Killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma and was placed in an ICU the following day, where she remained for the next 21 days.

"I was in a lot of pain," Grimm says. "I didn't want to live like that anymore. Especially after I had fought it for so long. But after that, I had to come home and get strong enough for the bone marrow transplant."

But it was in April, after months of treatment, that Katy was told news she couldn't even imagine hearing. She was told that she was 72 hours from passing away. Katy underwent a bone marrow transplant on May 9, and remained in a hospital for another 17 days.

"After the transplant, the doctors want you to get to day 100," she said. "After day 100, they will do another cancer scan and then they can deem you cancer-free or in remission. Now I'm trying to get stronger and so now there's a lot of physical therapy and a lot of blood work. They watch you really, really closely. But hopefully I can get [my life] back to normal. I'm ready."

Normal life is everything for Katy. Prior to being diagnosed, Katy had been a physical education teacher at Gahanna Middle School West for 16 years. Coincidentally, the Machine played a major part on her planning her curriculum, and it came in the form of former Machine attackman Logan Schuss.

"I actually had Logan as my student teacher in my class," she said. "One day he asked 'do you guys teach lacrosse?' and I explained that we didn't have equipment and that I didn't know anything about lacrosse. But I told him 'if you can teach me the basics of middle school lacrosse, we'll look into doing it."

Schuss did, and the pair spent their lunch periods together as Katy learned the game of lacrosse. It was at that point that she decided that she would teach lacrosse as part of her physical education class. But she didn't have the equipment necessary to fully teach the sport, and approached the US Lacrosse Ohio Chapter. Upon being awarded a grant, Katy was able to get a set of lacrosse sticks.

Katy hopes to return to teaching in January and is working hard to hit day 100. Katy wants to continue growing lacrosse at Gahanna Middle School West, and hopes to get more sticks and goals to accommodate the large population of students. The Ohio Machine are proud to support Katy's fight through the Ohio Machine Lacrosse Foundation, and are also committed to her mission of growing the game of lacrosse at Gahanna Middle School West.

A silent auction will be held at the Machine game on Saturday, June 23, with proceeds going directly to Katy Grimm. Items available for bidding include autographed cleats, autographed lacrosse balls, an Ohio Machine jersey and gloves.

All fans have the opportunity to give back, and for every ticket purchased to our remaining home games using the code Grimm18, $5 will go directly to Katy Grimm.

In addition, you can click here to donate to the Ohio Machine Lacrosse Foundation. or text F3459 to 614-230-0347.

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Major League Lacrosse Stories from June 23, 2018


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