Geoff Mott
Sports Scene
SAGINAW TWP. – Family, faith, and football.
Nouvel Catholic Central’s football program has preached that in its system since it opened its doors 29 years ago.
At the end of last season, about the time of the season-ending loss to Beecher in the state final, the program served witness to what happens when all three elements intertwine.
Celia Sullivan, the mother of Ryan, a senior running back with the Panthers, learned that she had an auto-immune liver condition shortly after Ryan was born 18 years ago. She had been on a donor waiting list for four years as family member after family member was ruled out as a match.
As her health deteriorated last fall, fellow football mom Sue Joynt took notice. Her son C.J. and had played with Ryan since they were both coached by her husband Sean Joynt at St. Stephen’s. She decided to get tested as a possible donor, and one month later, 60 percent of her liver was saving Celia’s life.
“You know we talk all the time, and we use football as this metaphor for life, and this was something that couldn’t be more realistic,” said Nouvel head coach Mike Boyd after Saturday’s 41-0 win over Chatham-Kent Secondary. “There’s this bigger picture where we talk about family, and this is someone in our extended football family who stepped forward, right there among us, and made a sacrifice. It made you ask yourself, ‘Would you do that?’”
Sean Joynt had concerns as his wife took a leap of faith.
“We talked about it as a family, and we knew this was the right thing to do,” said Sean, who has been married to Sue for 23 years. The couple’s oldest son, Brad, graduated from Nouvel in 2011 while daughter Alex is a junior at the school. “The whole family was involved. But that’s our faith. And give all the credit to Sue. She taught us all about giving.”
Sean Joynt unknowingly steered the story into place four years ago. When he found out Ryan was planning to play soccer instead of football, he called his former player and asked him to reconsider. It set up a series of events that, as it turned out, ended with Sue being a perfect match in this story of faith, family, and football.
Both families have three children. Celia and husband Matt Sullivan’s oldest child, Briana, graduated from Nouvel in 2008 while Megan Sullivan graduated with Brad Joynt in 2011. Both women are 48 years old, while the husbands are both 53 years old. And both women are the same height and weight.
“If Ryan had played soccer, who knows if this would have even happened,” Sue Joynt said. “We had tailgated together in the summer [of 2012] and I got to know her week to week in the stands. I just noticed her color was getting yellow and she was getting worse. I asked her brother ‘What’s the deal? What’s wrong?’ When I heard she needed a liver transplant, I had to get tested.
“I went to Henry Ford Hospital and had a blood test. I found out I was compatible.”
The average wait for a donor is four years, and Celia was at the top of the list last fall. A week before Sue found out she was a successful match, Celia was preparing for surgery after getting a call on a cadaver liver. But it ended up being too big.
“At the start of the four years I was so active that I’d forget about [the liver],” Celia said. “I had active kids, and I was working full time [as a nurse at Covenant]. But I was feeling like crap, and my doctor pushed me to get the surgery done.”
Within a month, Celia and Sue were set for surgery. While there was a possibility that the moms could miss a possible state championship game, the love and support from the Nouvel community helped ease the anxiety of the month-long wait.
“There was a prayer service with more than 300 people there,” Celia said. “It was very emotional time. [Mike Boyd] had me address the team [after the loss to Beecher], and I’m crying and my son is crying. It was a very emotional time, but everyone rallied for us.
“The teachers and staff and community at Nouvel were great and so supportive.”
The women met briefly on a Monday morning last November at Henry Ford. Sue went first and was in surgery for four hours while Celia’s surgery lasted six hours. The families anxiously waited together at the hospital.
“We talk about football and the team being a family, and it sounds so cliché,” Ryan Sullivan said. “But this was real. This was one of my football brothers whose family was helping mine.
“It was hard sitting in that waiting room not knowing how your mother is doing. But we had all those cards and prayers. It really helped.”
Within a month after surgery, the livers of both women had grown back to 99 percent of their regular size. Doctors told Celia she wouldn’t be out of the woods with her health until she lived a year with her new liver. She lives with some weight restrictions and has to take other precautions.
Matt and Celia Sullivan and Sean and Sue Joynt plan to celebrate the one-year anniversary together.
“It kind of hit me when Ryan made homecoming court this year, and that’s something I would have missed,” Celia said. “I would have missed my oldest daughter getting married and Megan playing soccer at Spring Arbor.”
Matt and Celia Sullivan celebrated their 25th year wedding anniversary in April and took their first vacation in four years this past summer.
“I’m still overwhelmed from the community, and how I sat there with those cards and knew we weren’t alone,” Matt Sullivan said. “As men, we act tough. But Celia was so tough with her pain that you wouldn’t have known she was sick.
“There was a higher power with us. You could feel it in the hospital that day. It’s just unbelievable.”