East Jackson High School basketball player Jared Swiontek concentrates on a free throw during a game Thursday night at Hanover-Horton High School.
By Jeff Steers
JTV Sports
A man on Mackinac Island made it a point to get off his bicycle to shake the hand and have a word with the East Jackson High School student Jared Swiontek.
The stranger thought Swiontek had cancer due to the high school student’s bald head.
While the man misdiagnosed the situation, his words of encouragement would have been more profound had he known the rest of the story.
Swiontek was diagnosed with Alopecia universalis in junior high school. AU is a condition characterized by the complete loss of hair on the scalp and body. It is an advanced form of alopecia areata, a condition that causes round patches of hair loss.
The senior also battled pneumonia, mononucleosis, a punctured lung, and a broken pelvis the last six years.
Some would just give up and say “why me?”
“I guess I have tough skin,” Jared Swiontek said after a loss in boys varsity basketball at Hanover-Horton High School on Thursday. “I try to stay positive in my outlook at life.”
Swiontek was hoping others would not notice his hair falling out, but there came a point to where it was impossible to hide.
“There came a point last April where he only had a couple of hair left,” mother Kari said. “There were options and various treatments, but we opted for no treatment because of the side effects.”
After coming to a conclusion to just let the auto immune disease have its way, Kari said some amazing things happened.
“I was amazed at the strength and courage Jared had,” Kari said. “There was a lot of encouragement from his friends and fellow athletes.
“Jared has always been able to joke around about it.”
But the loss of hair has been followed by a number of injuries and conditions that would knock most student-athletes on the ground. Jared suffered a punctured lung from playing football as a freshman, he had pneumonia and mononucleosis as a sophomore, and fractured his pelvis last spring just after running a state-qualifying time of 11.2 seconds in the 100 meter dash.
“I have never heard him say why me,” EJHS basketball Coach Rodney Lowden said. “It has been hard to watch him this year because I know his pelvis and knees are hurting.
“Jared is always leading by example and is a team guy.”
Swiontek has made it happen on the field and in the classroom. He is expected to graduate as one of the Trojans’ valedictorian at the end of the school year. He started taking early college classes as a sophomore and will have 30 credit hours upon graduation from high school.
He is expected to start Central Michigan University this fall as a sophomore.
“My mom yells at me a lot if I don’t get my work done,” Jared Swiontek said.
Swiontek was one of 12 male finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Scholarship award in Class C.
The senior is the second-leading scorer on the boys’ basketball team behind fellow senior Austin Jackson.
He set a school record with 152 yards in receptions as a junior.
And he is one of the fastest 100 meter dash runners in the area – when healthy.
“Nothing seems to get to me,” Jared Swiontek said. “You spend a lot of time and work to perfecting your abilities.
“I know something good is going to happen.”