Athlete tackles diabetes on, off field

Allen Harris

Matt Mazzara is anything but your typical high school student. Not only is he a varsity athlete on the football, baseball and basketball teams at State College Area High School, but he also is the only State College quarterback to start in a state championship game.

He does all this while managing Type 1 diabetes.

Mazzara was diagnosed with diabetes at age 7 and began participating in athletics in first grade. He has always faced the challenge of controlling his blood sugar while on the field. In fact, until this past year he was injecting himself six to eight times a day with insulin. However, he recently switched to an insulin pump that continuously feeds insulin into his body,

He began wearing the pump the weekend of the first football game against Hollidaysburg. After the first-string quarterback was injured, Mazzara found himself in the starting quarterback role, and, in the second game of the season, he ran for more than 200 yards against Cumberland Valley.

While the pump has its advantages, there also are some drawbacks. During the first away game, against Central Dauphin, the insulin pump was ripped off while Mazzara was being tackled. At halftime his father and the training staff had to replace the pump and help normalize his blood glucose levels.

“The biggest challenge is finding a way to make sure the pump doesn’t get knocked loose during a game,” Mazzara said. “For basketball, I like to have it on my back, but every time I replace it I have to position it in a new spot.”

This poses a new set of challenges as the State High senior prepares for college. Mazzara is able to put the pump on his stomach by himself, but putting it on his back requires some help. When he arrives at college, he will need to explain his diabetes to his new teammates and find friends who are willing to lend a hand.

While Mazzara is still deciding where he wants to attend school, he knows he wants to continue with athletics at the collegiate level. He is considering a few Football Championship Subdivision schools, where he would like to continue his football career, as well as some Division II schools where he could play both basketball and football. Mazzara plans to study sports medicine in college and said he can see himself pursuing a career in coaching.

“My ultimate goal is to try out for a professional sports team and see where that goes,” he said. “If that doesn’t work out, I see myself going into sports medicine.”

Mazzara has taken control of his diabetes and refuses to let it slow him down on the field or in life.

Allen Harris is a senior at Penn State majoring in kinesiology and is a student research assistant at the Penn State Institute for Diabetes and Obesity. He also is captain of the Penn State men’s gymnastics team.

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@

Jobs Cars Homes Apartments Place an ad