Gazette Senior Female Athlete of the Year: Mother's cancer battle inspired Wadsworth's Lauren Decker

Lauren Decker likes to meet a challenge head-on. So does her mom Lynn. The 5-foot-9 Decker, a slam dunk choice as Gazette Senior Female Athlete of the Year after leading the Wadsworth volleyball team to the Division II state semifinals as a junior and the Grizzlies basketball team to a D-I state semifinal berth as a senior, was a three-time Gazette MVP in the former sport, which she will continue to play while majoring in nursing at Robert Morris University, and a one-time MVP and three-time All-Gazette pick in the latter. The 18-year-old's tremendous on-court success, however, did not come without its share of challenges. She battled a hip injury that caused her to miss half her sophomore basketball season, and a much more concerning issue struck the family when she was in seventh grade. Having turned 40 in September 2020, Lynn Decker, the district nurse for Wadsworth City Schools, underwent her first mammogram the following month. Doctors didn't like what they saw, so she returned for diagnostic testing, then underwent a biopsy. Her diagnosis — an aggressive Grade 3, malignant tumor — was made on Dec. 22, 2020, resulting in a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Four rounds of chemotherapy began in early March 2021 and concluded in late May of that year. "It was hard to tell them," Lynn said of her daughter and son Eric, a 2024 Wadsworth graduate, "but I was very truthful and up front. I kept them involved in the whole care plan. I always felt keeping secrets and not sharing the good, the bad and the ugly would be bad down the road, so (husband) Chris and I kept them involved throughout. "Lauren got very quiet and didn't want to talk. I had to make myself available to her, but she crawled into her own world and stayed busy with her athletics. That helped her a lot, the mentality of life not being handed to you or easy. It helped form her into who she is today." Today, Decker is widely recognized as one of the best athletes in Wadsworth history. When her mom was initially diagnosed, though, she was a middle school student already adjusting to a lot of changes in her life, plus the COVID-19 pandemic. "The word 'cancer' was very scary, especially to me in middle school," she said. "Middle school already sucked, so it was really scary, but in my mind I knew she was going to make it and get past it. That was my mindset. I'm not very good at expressing my emotions, so I kept everything in and didn't really talk to anybody. Right when she told me I started crying, but I was mostly just monotone. "My mom shared her whole cancer journey on social media to tell people they're not alone, so that's how everyone found out. I didn't tell anyone but my closest friends." SPORTS IMMERSION Most babies begin walking between the ages of 9 and 18 months. She wasn't spiking a volleyball or blocking a shot at the rim, but Decker was on her feet and moving when she was 8 months old. Dad Chris, a standout 6-1 volleyball player at Brunswick, and mom Lynn, a 5-8½ basketball and softball player at Canal Fulton Northwest, took notice. "Her coordination from infancy on, we realized it was a little different from other kids," Lynn said. Now fully grown, the 5-9 Decker also has a 72-inch wingspan. The average wingspan matches a person's height, while NBA players usually have one that is 3 or 4 inches greater than their height. Decker's is 3 inches more. Add a great work ethic and incredibly competitive nature and Decker's athletic success isn't shocking, but all those traits combined are why she's reached the levels she has. "Lauren has so many positive attributes, but probably the most impressive is her work ethic," Grizzlies volleyball coach Allyson Wines said. "For years, I have watched her balance multiple sports and the high demands of two high school programs without ever dropping the ball. She leads by example through discipline and structure, but she builds up those around her so no one ever feels out of place." Over Decker's final three volleyball seasons, the Grizzlies posted a 68-10 record that included that D-II state semifinal berth her junior year and a regional final appearance her senior season. Along the way, Decker, Rowan Kelly and Lilly McComas helped Wadsworth win four straight Suburban League National Conference titles. Decker finished her career second in Medina County history with 1,477 kills — trailing only the 1,569 amassed by Grizzlies and University of Georgia standout Kacie Evans — while appearing in all 104 matches her team played. In her final match, she set a county regional record with 31 kills against eventual state champion Avon. A year earlier, she established a county record for kills at the state tournament with 24 against Cincinnati St. Ursula. In basketball, her secondary sport, Decker scored 1,099 points despite missing half her sophomore season. A small forward, she led the Grizzlies in scoring (15.1), steals (4.1), field goal percentage (.492) and 3-point percentage (.367) as a senior, ranked second in rebounds (6.0) and assists (2.7) and shot .683 at the line while attempting twice as many free throws (116) as her nearest teammate. That helped Wadsworth reach the D-I state semifinals and win the highly competitive SL National Conference as Decker was named first-team All-Ohio, SL National Conference Player of the Year and Northeast Inland District D-I Player of the Year. "Let's put it this way," Grizzlies basketball coach Andrew Booth said. "If the roles were flipped and she was a basketball-first kid and volleyball second, she would be playing (basketball) at some level of Division I (in college). That's how talented she is." Instead, Decker will continue her volleyball career at Robert Morris, the only school to recruit her that said it would also make sure she was able to pursue a nursing degree. "She's a once-in-a-lifetime athlete and an even better human being," Wines said. "I will always be cheering her on as she goes into her next adventure, and I'm confident she will continue to be successful as her path leads her into adulthood. To say I am grateful to have had the opportunity to coach her would be an understatement. Coaching Lauren has been an absolute honor. "Thank you for the memories, the laughter, the challenges and the growth. You have left a lasting impact in Wadsworth." BEST FRIENDS It might sound trite or seem like an oversimplification, but like her daughter on the volleyball and basketball court, Lynn Decker viewed breast cancer as an opponent she was going to attack head-on. "No matter the situation or struggle, she stayed strong for all of us," Decker said. "She tried to make everything as normal as possible. She didn't want anything in our lives to go a different way." That's why Lynn didn't hesitate to have a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, which was followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, with each round four weeks apart. As that progressed she lost her hair, but partly at her daughter's suggestion never wore a wig. "I didn't want the loss of my hair to be a thing," she said. "That's not what I was fighting for. I didn't want my vanity to matter in a situation where I was fighting for my life." Lynn continued to work at Wadsworth during the chemo process, which wasn't always easy, especially because she also had to wear a mask due to the pandemic. "It was exhausting," she said. "My body was tired. Having to wear a mask, I was really short of breath." Booth, whose office at Wadsworth isn't far from Lynn's, knew her long before he met her daughter and was thoroughly impressed by her mindset. "When she found out she had breast cancer, her athletic side came out," he said. "Just seeing her every day, her attitude to me was, 'I'm going to attack this head-on and I'm going to beat it.' She was never bashful about that. I saw a competitor in her at that time. I remember thinking, 'This lady is pretty tough.' "She just said, 'This is what it is. This is what I've been dealt. I'm not running from it, I'm not hiding anything and I'm going to attack it.' She wasn't looking for any sympathy." When Lynn's chemo treatments concluded in May 2021, the news wasn't good, it was great. She was cancer free. "It was such a big relief," Decker said. "I was overwhelmed with joy. Our whole family was. That was one of the roughest parts of her life and our lives, but she was a fighter. She did everything she could to be 100% cancer free. She couldn't have taken it any better or been any stronger." For three years, Lynn continued to see an oncologist every three months. That period is now up to every six months. Since she has been cancer free for a bit more than five years, doctors are confident she will remain that way. Lynn's hope in sharing her story is that it will lead to a few women — or even one woman — deciding to get a mammogram, but seeing how brave she was and how much she loves her job as a nurse already has had a huge impact on one person. "I got really interested in the stories she would tell and I saw how much she cared for her patients," Decker said. "She's the main reason I decided to go into nursing." Decker is equally grateful to her dad Chris, who taught her the game of volleyball, and brother Eric, who graduated from Wadsworth but played basketball for Reimer Road Baptist Christian. "Two weeks before (middle school) tryouts, my dad and I would pepper in the back yard," she said. "He knows the game, so he's been like a coach for me. (Eric) is the nicest brother anyone could have. He never yells at me, even if I'm being a younger sister. He'll literally do anything for me. "My parents are super supportive. They always wanted to make me better as a person and as an athlete, but it was always positive. They weren't those overbearing, pressure parents. They just always wanted me to do my best and have fun." As she moves into the college chapter of her life, Decker is also extremely appreciative of everything Wines and Booth have done for her. "I'm really close with both of them," she said. "Coach Wines is really easy to get along with and she knows what she's talking about. She always made it fun and hyped me up. Coach Booth is literally a second dad. Our relationship is very special to me. He's just a great human." Decker is a pretty darn good one, too, and that is what really warms her mom's heart. "I don't know if I have the words to describe how proud I am of her," Lynn said. "Her success wasn't always as easy as people made it out to be. She was dealing with things outside of sports and there was pressure, but she put her head down and worked in multiple sports, sometimes to the point of pure exhaustion. "She definitely grew up quicker than some people. I felt her pressure, her worries, but I also feel like I got my best friend a little sooner because she had to take on some bigger things." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.