Be Irelyn's Fan For A Night: Brick Soccer Club Makes Girl's Dream Reality

All Irelyn wants to do is play soccer.

The 5-year-old Brick girl has battled illnesses her entire life, traceable to a genetic disorder called familial Mediterranean fever, which causes recurrent episodes of fever without always displaying an outward problem.

“She could be walking around with a 107 fever and look normal,” her mom, Shannon, said. “The inside of her body attacks itself.”
And like most 5-year-olds, Irelyn doesn’t understand that because of her illness -- which has severely compromised her immune system -- she can’t do the things other kids do.

“She goes to kindergarten, but she’s not allowed to go to gym,” Shannon said. “She’s not allowed to go out on the playground.”
And most of all, she’s not allowed to play soccer.

“She tells me all the time, all she wants to do is be like her sisters,” all of whom play soccer, Shannon said.

Tonight at 5:30 at the Drum Point Sports Complex on Brick Boulevard, Irelyn will get her chance.

“She thinks she’s going for soccer practice,” Shannon said. But the reality is Irelyn will be playing a game on the field with other children -- just like her sisters, Amber, 11, Trinitie, 8, and Skylar, 7.

The soccer game was the idea of family friend Robert Lee, Shannon said, who hastily arranged the game in less than two weeks.
“Rob was at my house outside playing soccer with the girls, and we let her play around out front with them,” Shannon said. “She said, ‘Why can’t I just play on a team,’ and Rob went to town with it.” In two weeks’ time, he arranged for teams and a field and got Irelyn a soccer uniform, complete with cleats, shin guards and a jersey.

Players from the Twin County Soccer Club will take the field to give Irelyn her first soccer game experience, and family and friends have been spreading the word, trying to make sure Irelyn has as many fans in the stands as possible.

“I’ve been wanting her to be normal and enjoy those things, but unfortunately it’s just not possible,” Shannon said.

Irelyn first began suffering from the fevers when she was 18 months old, Shannon said, but she rarely showed significant symptoms. An ear infection went undiagnosed for four months because Irelyn appeared to be fine.

The illness most often occurs in individuals of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent, and the first episodes typically begin in childhood, according to the American College of Rheumatology. Irelyn has been diagnosed with a number of different disorders since she first became ill at 18 months, Shannon said, before the doctors finally pinned it down as FMF a year ago.

“You feel like she’s this lab rat,” Shannon said. “You start wondering if she’s going to be OK.”

Next week Irelyn is scheduled to go into the hospital for treatment of the immune system deficiencies, where she will receive platelet transfusions as the doctors try to rebuild her levels of immunogloblulin.

“We avoid many things because it just too risky,” Shannon said. One of her older daughters came home with a cough and Irelyn wound up with coxsackie virus, she said.

“Things go from perfect and normal to critical and scary really, really quick,” Shannon said.

But for tonight, for a little while, Irelyn will get to be normal. She will get to play soccer on a team with other children. She will get to be like her sisters.

“It’s going to be weird seeing her in a normal setting, not sitting on the sidelines with us saying, ‘When can I play?’ “ Shannon said. “I’m going to cry my eyes out.”

And she can’t wait to do it.

If you want to come be one of Irelyn’s fans, the Drum Point Sports Complex is located near Drum Point Elementary School. There is an entrance on the northbound side of Brick Boulevard, just before you reach the Pizza Hut (on the left). The complex also is accessible from the entrance to Drum Point Elementary School; stay to the right and follow the road all the way to the back of the complex. Irelyn’s game will be held on one of the soccer fields at the back of the complex, Rob Lee said.