Youth Fitness Class Proves to Be Life Changing

While Police Activities Leagues across the nation have been working for years to improve the lives of children and teens, the Roseville Police Activities League (RPAL) has truly gone a step further by helping one local child gain enough strength to walk again.

Eight-year-old Matthew Greeley was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, in January 2010. The cancer, which was located in his right femur, resulted in a year of chemotherapy, a femur replacement and 29 weeks in a cast. After a long recovery, Matthew joined RPAL’s CrossFit classes at the end of June – at that time he was still relying on his walker 75 percent of his walking-hours. After just over a month in these classes, he no longer uses that walker.

“Our physical therapist is just blown away,” said Matthew’s mother, Charise Carmody. “He couldn’t do a normal stride before CrossFit – he would sort of step then drag his other leg. Now he’s almost walking normal. It’s just been such a rapid improvement.”

Matthew was also diagnosed with congestive heart failure at his last chemotherapy session – a condition that continuous exercise along with medication can help.

Matthew usually attends both the Monday and Wednesday RPAL CrossFit sessions, which are offered from 3:30-4:30 p.m. for ages 7 to 12 and from 4:30–5:30 p.m. for ages 12 to 17 at the Roseville Police Department. The CrossFit classes started on June 20.

CrossFit Kids, a strength building and conditioning program that teaches basic movements and fitness, was incorporated into RPAL’s program offerings through the efforts of Officers Cori Preheim and Rick Randolph.

“We are making it fun and giving them the building blocks toward fitness,” Preheim said. “You make the work outs a game or a relay or an obstacle course so they forget they are doing work.”

Since the class started, it has become increasingly popular to children of all demographics, Preheim said.

Officer Mary Green, one of the six RPAL CrossFit coaches, said CrossFit is particularly special because of how easily its exercises can be adapted to meet every child’s needs.

“We let them decide what feels good to them while keeping them involved and having a good time,” she said. “It’s all about having a breadth of physical activity and not having any kid feel like they aren’t a part of it.”

RPAL classes also help to build a relationship between children and local law enforcement – reminding youth that police officers are people too and are an important part of the community.

“Matthew waves and smiles every time he sees a law enforcement car,” Carmody said. “He get’s excited to go to class and hang out with police.”

Along with strength training, Carmody said CrossFit has helped Matthew to socialize and build relationships for when he returns to school. With the cancer and recovery process, Matthew was sort of shut off from the world for his own health.

That period of isolation certainly didn’t destroy Matthew’s spirits however. As his mother said, he was always the strong one – willing to embrace whatever came next and always smiling.

Matthew said he likes CrossFit because he sleeps better at night and he gets to play fun games.

“My favorite is sheep tag – there are farmers and there are sheep and the farmers have to tag the sheep before the sheep get to their base,” Matthew explained. “I like to be a sheep. I usually always win.”

Matthew is open about what happened to him and will tell anyone that he had cancer – however, if someone asks him what is wrong with him, he will tell them to mind their own business – he had cancer, nothing is “wrong” anymore, Carmody explained.

To make sure things stay this way, Matthew is scheduled to attend check-ups where he will be scanned for cancer cells every three months for the next five years. While Ewing’s sarcoma has a high rate of reoccurrence, so far Matthew has not shown any signs of reoccurring cancer cells.

“Ewing’s is so aggressive he should have died or at the very least have been more physically ill than he was,” Carmody said. “Now he has almost no pain. He calls himself invincible.”