Tennis players, friends rally behind Ron Morrisette

Ron Morrisette is playing the best tennis of his life.

“That’s the beauty of tennis,” he said. “You can actually play better tennis even as you lose a step in life physically.”

The lost step was his diagnosis of a rare form of lymphoma in April. The lymphoma he has represents 7% of all non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Since then, he has had treatments every three weeks — six treatments in total. Every Wednesday in between his treatments he goes in for blood work to get a count of his white blood cells.

But, he hasn’t given up tennis.

Morrisette, 63, grew up in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. During breaks from school and at summer camp, he was taught how to play tennis, and he never stopped.

The Sarasota resident has been playing tennis on Longboat Key since the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort days. Eventually, he moved to play at the Longboat Key Tennis Center, and has been there since.

“For me, to go out there is like going to the Caribbean,” he said. “Going over the bridge, and it’s like an escape home to the Caribbean without the hassle. I don’t need an ID, and I like the people I play with.”

And the people he plays with appreciate him as well. 

When Larry Panza, who organizes the group Morrisette plays with, heard about Morrisette’s diagnosis and the financial and living arrangement stress he was under, Panza decided to collect money on his behalf.

“He’s first of all our strongest tennis player, and he’s very knowledgeable, very intelligent and keeps us all abreast of what’s going on in the tennis world,” Panza said. “He’s a knowledgeable guy. He will talk about anything. He’s just very well informed, and he’s a decent human being.”

Panza said he was pleasantly surprised at the generosity of his fellow players.

“Obviously, he really set off a spark, and that illness is so prevalent that I’m sure some of the fellows have personal history [with it], so everyone was really more generous,” he said

Morrisette said that $1,000 collection and a GoFundMe page set up by a friend, Terri Schirmer, has kept him afloat. He is now able to stay in his apartment on a month-to-month basis. Six months ago, he considered getting a job to help pay his bills.

Terri Schirmer is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She has helped Morrisette stay focused and positive, something she set out to do from the beginning.

“I told him your attitude is a good percentage of it,” she said. “You’ve got to get a warrior attitude, and you’ve got to say, ‘I’m going to beat this. I’m going to kick ass, basically.’”

When Morrisette went in for his triweekly treatment on Sept. 12, he learned he had completed his chemotherapy treatment. 

On Oct. 25, he will undergo a PET scan, which will allow doctors to get a read on the swelling in his lymphatic system and see how his body has reacted to the chemo. Morrisette hopes the scan will show him to be in remission.

“You know that old Chinese saying that a trip of a thousand [miles] begins with one step? I hadn’t dared look at the end,” he said. “I was looking at just the immediate step ahead of me.”

His upbringing and life since has humbled him, he said. But, nothing has humbled him quite as much as his journey with lymphoma.

“What I’ve got in here, I wouldn’t trade for the world,” he said. “My perspective, my knowledge, and I’m old enough to know really how little I do know, but I know enough to be able to connect the dots on a lot of stuff. I love my perspective on the world, and what I’ve been through recently has really been good for me.”

And he’s keeping his positive attitude and sticking to his routine. He still keeps his tradition of visiting the downtown Sarasota Farmers Market every Saturday, works out at the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex twice a week, plays tennis a few times a week and spends time with his Rottweiler, Seely.

“I’m still alive, and I may get through this,” he said. “I think I have a pretty good shot.”