Facebook connects families for greater cause
The triathlon story about a high school teacher competing in honor of his cancer-stricken friend begins in the South Korean city of Daegu, about 80 miles from the seacoast and a leading center for fashion and high-tech industry.
This is where Dan Myers attended his senior year of high school, his father having been transferred there by the Army from Barstow, Calif., which in most circles might be thought of as trading up.
Michael Moyles was in the eighth grade at the time, and his father was principal of the K-12 school for children of military personnel. His sister was in high school and became friends with Myers. A connection between families was born.
On Sunday, Myers competed in the Lake Las Vegas Sprint Triathlon, where he swam 850 yards, biked 16.1 miles and ran 3.1 to finish in just less than two hours, a broken chain on his bike costing him nearly 15 minutes. He did this as a way to help raise money for Team Michael Moyles, for the friend he knew decades ago, the one who has battled and beaten three brain tumors.
The one he became reacquainted with through Facebook 22 years later.
It is another example of social media unsuspectingly connecting others for a greater cause. Myers was searching for friends and came across Moyles' sister, Kristin, who he had kept in contact with upon returning from Korea and attending Eastern Washington University while she was then living in nearby Spokane, Wash. He found her and so much more.
"I was randomly looking for information on a class reunion," Myers said. "I asked how her family was, and she forwarded me a link to her brother's website. It touched me.
"We lost my mom to pancreatic cancer four years ago. I never felt the need to get really involved, but after reading Mike's story and to know what he was doing I'm a teacher and a coach. I have no problem fundraising and asking people for money. I do it all the time."
Myers, 43, is head of the physical education department and is the varsity boys soccer coach at Canyon Springs High School, where he has worked since the school opened eight years ago. His is a daily existence of imparting knowledge and teaching life lessons, of challenging young minds to think beyond the obvious and develop the mental toughness to resist the urge of surrender.
To embrace the hope that we all have a little of Michael Moyles in us.
Moyles, 38, is an officer in the Air Force who was injured playing rec league basketball in 1999, which led to a CT scan, which led to an MRI examination, which led to more tests and scans and hospitals, which led to the diagnosis, which led to two brain surgeries and two reconstructive surgeries, to 22 rounds of chemotherapy and 42 rounds of radiation, to months and months of IV infusions, to an infected bone in his skull and the removal of his forehead.
In 1999, doctors gave him six to eight years to live.
All the while, Moyles ran.
Even in the worst of times, it has calmed him. More than anything else, it helped him manage the symptoms. He continues to run marathons and half-marathons, hoping his remission sticks this time and yet realizing, according to his writings, it is "usually a temporary thing." His wife runs. His young daughter runs. His sister and brother-in-law run.
So, too, do many friends, all with the hope of raising money for cancer awareness through the LiveStrong Foundation and using his story as the greatest of teaching moments.
Yep, even for a teacher.
"The simple fact I try to get across to my students and players is to never stop fighting, to never give up, to never accept something as a lost cause," Myers said. "To know Michael's story, to realize the battle he has fought and how he keeps running those marathons and enjoying every day, it's a very inspiring thing. Keep pushing yourself. Keep going, no matter the obstacle. It is what I tell kids all the time."
The team stretches across states and dates to those days in South Korea, people who have found strength in the fight of another, who show up at races across the country, many by themselves, promoting a slogan of, "Many Runners, One Cause."
I suppose there is a lesson here: You never know who or what you might discover, or how profoundly your life might change, when searching for friends on Facebook.
Visit www.teammichaelmoyles.com to learn more.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
