Published Sept. 12, 2008
The Charlotte Weekly
By C. Jemal Horton
Eleven years ago, Suzie Pignetti said goodbye to a close friend named Marcy.
This hadn't just been any friend to Pignetti; Marcy had been part-time protector, part-time confidence boost and part-time secret keeper. Almost any time Pignetti left her home, especially when she coached her high school volleyball team, she had Marcy with her.
Still, when Pignetti ended her relationship with Marcy in December 1997, it was a relief--and perhaps the most empowering moment of her life.
For about six moths, which seemed so much longer, "Marcy" had been Pignetti's wig--something she'd begun wearing while undergoing chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.
"A lot of women who lose their hair during chemotherapy name their wigs," Pignetti explained as she sat in her Charlotte Latin School office recently.
"It's just something we do. It's one of those things you don't really understand until you've been through it."
That's the thing about Pignetti--and the hundreds of others who will join her at Charlotte Latin Saturday, Sept. 13, for the seventh annual Serve for the Cure Volleyball Tournament, which raises money for the Charlotte Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
They don't want other women and girls to have to worry about naming their wigs or being drained for chemotherapy or, worse, planning their funerals.
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women. One woman dies of breast cancer every 13 minutes in the United States.
"So the chances of someone you know being affected are very high," said David Carson, who co-chairs Serve for the Cure with Pignetti.
"But a lot of people work hard to make this event a success each year. And it's an honor to work alongside someone like Suzie, who puts her heart and soul into it."
A legacy of defeating odds
Even if you're not a Charlotte Latin volleyball loyalist, there's a good chance you've at least heard Pignetti's name. If there ever were a Mount Rushmore for the sport in this city, Pignetti's likeness would be one of the first sculpted.
Her coaching stops have included Charlotte Country Day and Butler, and she's claimed a mind-blowing 10 state championships along the way. Now in her eighth season at Charlotte Latin, Pignetti is attempting to take the Hawks to their fifth consecutive N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association state crown.
She clearly wants another title. It's evident in the way she still arises in the morning with volleyball on her mind. And in the way she strategically presses players' emotional buttons to make them play beyond levels their skill sets typically would allow. And in the fact that she simply continues to coach when her team isn't loaded with talent the way it once was and she clearly has nothing left to prove.
But Pignetti never has backed down from a good fight.
That knockout blow she delivered breast cancer 11 years ago only serves as another form of proof.
'I have some bad news'
At the time, Pignetti was coming out of semi-retirement. She has enjoyed 19 seasons of dominance at Charlotte Country Day, where she led the Bucs to six titles before stepping down in 1993 without any firm plans. For a while, she worked what she called "odd jobs here and there" and played a lot of tennis. Then, in December 1996, she got a call from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools about a job at a school that was opening the next year: Butler High School. Emboldened, Pignetti accepted the job in February 1997.
A month later, following an annual checkup, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Pignetti immediately thought her return to volleyball was over. She called CMS athletic director Vicki Hamilton to tell her she needed to start a new coaching search.
"I have some bad news for you..." Pignetti told Hamilton.
Pignetti laughs when she recalls Hamilton's response.
"I remember her saying, 'Pignetti, you're not going to get off that easy! You're going to get through this, and you're going to be right there Aug. 1!" Pignetti said. "I thought, 'OK, yeah, I can do that!"
But breast cancer packed an emotional and physical wallop.
Pignetti immediately had two surgeries. The first procedure was to see if the cancer was in her lymph nodes; it was. During the second surgery, she had a total mastectomy. It all occurred within three weeks.
That May, she began chemotherapy. Her last treatment was July 11, and she started at Butler Aug. 1 - somehow, just as she and Hamilton planned.
"With no hair!" Pignetti exclaimed.
Pignetti made a decision not to tell any of her players about her condition. She didn't want them to feel sorry for her, she didn't want them to worry about her. She wanted their minds on school and volleyball - nothing else. So she pulled on Marcy each day and went about the business of building volleyball winners.
In many ways, having young girls who needed her made her fight breast cancer even harder.
"It made me get up in morning," she said. "We had to be at school at 6:30. I'd come dragging home at night, still under the influence of chemo. It was hot. I was wearing the wig, and sweat would come pouring down my face. But none of my players knew. I pulled it off.
"It was very awakening. Just going through chemo, I had lost a lot of weight. I was pulled down a bit. But I think knowing I was going back into coaching gave me something to work for. I really think it helped me to concentrate on some goals and a purpose. I didn't dwell on my illness or being tired all the time. I just pushed on."
By that December, Pignetti's health began to improve and her hair began to grow a little. That's when she took the quantum leap.
"When we went home for Christmas break, I said, 'I'm throwing Marcy away. I'm not wearing her back to school,'" Pignetti recalled. "I actually had two wigs, Mindy and Marcy, but I was done with them.
"When I went back (to school in January), my hair was short and curly, and the players said, 'Oh, Coach, you've gotten a new hairdo!' They thought I had just gotten it cut."
A tournament is born
Pignetti spent four seasons at Butler and led them to the playoffs in 2000. The next year, however, she moved on to Charlotte Latin. While at Butler, she was involved with the Komen Race for the Cure and raised lots of money.
The success of that event inspired her to found Serve for the Cure. In addition to raising money to help the fight against breast cancer, Pignetti believed it would be a good avenue for pubic and private schools in the county to compete against one another.
The tournament has increased its number of participants, fan attendance and profits each year. The first year, 2002, there were four teams involved. Now, there are 20. Last year, the event raised more than $31,000, taking the seven-year total in excess of $84,000.
Carolina Junior Volleyball is the main sponsor of the tournament, and co-chair Carson said overall sponsorships are at an all-time high this year.
Carson said he's taken aback by how much people have embraced the event.
"The two things that strike me are, No. 1, it's a wonderful opportunity for high school girls to get involved in a terrific charity," said Carson, whose daughter, Blair, plays for Charlotte Latin. "So from the community service aspect, the girls really have seemed to embrace it. And as a parent, generally, you embrace what your children embrace. So we've clearly seen that.
"The other thing that struck me is the fact that we're dealing with a very serious and very emotional topic here that has touched so many people and so many families. A lot of the time, when people hear that we're doing this to raise money for breast cancer, people say, 'I'd like to help.'"
Players may raise money by getting people to pledge a certain amount of money for each point their teams score during their four tournament matches. Athletes also sell raffle tickets, which accounted for more than $10,000 last year.
This year's teams include Ardrey Kell, Butler, Charlotte Christian, Charlotte Country Day, Charlotte Latin varsity and junior varsity, Hickory Grove Baptist, Mallard Creek, North Mecklenburg, Providence varsity and JV, South Mecklenburg, Weddington varsity and JV, Concord Cannon, Concord High, Concord Robinson, Kings Mountain and Roxboro Person varsity and JV.
A great deal of bonding takes place during the event. Between games, players can be seen in sleeping bags, often-times getting to know players from other teams. Last year, for the first time, a board titled "In Honor Of, In Memory Of" was placed in the lobby of Latin's Student Activity Center.
"We provided a market, and people signed the board: 'In honor of my mother' or 'In memory of my aunt,'" Pignetti said. "People would go and stand and look at that. The awareness was obvious and in full view of what people were thinking, because they were writing it on the board.
"We've had participants whose mothers or aunts have been going through it at the same time. Sometimes it's good to share that."
Fight to stay on top
Pignetti is reluctant to share her story during the tournament. She doesn't want to seem self-important. She knows there are so many others who have experienced the same tough journey.
"But if I'm asked, I do share my story," she said. "If it can help somebody, that's great, because I know it's tough for people to have hope sometimes."
She's asked if there ever was a time when she wasn't so optimistic about her chances of beating breast cancer.
"Well, you know, it's been 11 years, and the memories fade somewhat," she gives. "But I had no grandchildren at the time (of my diagnosis). And there was a time I thought, 'I hope I live to see my grandchildren. I want to see my son get married.' You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, you don't know if the chemotherapy is going to get everything.
"A lot of people will come up and try to comfort you, but they don't really know what's going to happen. There's a lot of things going on in your mind. You try to think, 'Well, I can't worry about what I can't control.' Then something takes over in you that makes you strong and makes you feel like you want to do everything you can to fight it and get through."
Pignetti knows she is one of the fortunate ones. Eleven years later, her prognosis is good. She used to visit the doctor every six months; now, she gets annual checkups. But she's religious about them. The fear of the disease returning to her body never goes away, she said.
Or worse.
"We did have a scare in my family," she said. "My daughter has been called back on occasion; she's on a six-month watch. That's always on my mind. I worry because I have a daughter and two granddaughters.
"Lots of families have to deal with that. What I went through with the chemotherapy was hard, but I always was thankful that there was treatment. And in the last 11 years, since I had my treatments, there are more advancements."
This weekend, she'll remind scores of people about the importance of early diagnosis so more patients can benefit from those advancements. She'll relay her own story when necessary, and she'll lend a listening ear about others' journeys.
And when it's time for Latin to play games, she will coach with a fervor that hasn't subsided since she first took the Charlotte high school sidelines in 1975.
"Some people who are diagnosed think they've been given a death sentence, and that's not the case," she said. "Volleyball is just a game, really--you win or lose volleyball games. But the real things are the trials and tribulations that you go through, the things you have to overcome, things you have to fight for.
"(The Serve for the Cure) kind of pulls that all together."
Somewhere, her old, rejected pal, Marcy, just might be proud.
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