Boys’ junior varsity basketball coach and 2010 Redwood graduate Andrew O’Dorisio passed away on May 7 after a seven-year battle with cancer.

O’Dorisio was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma—a rare bone cancer that predominantly affects adolescents and accounts for 30 percent of bone cancers in children—during his junior year of high school.

During his time at Redwood, O’Dorisio excelled athletically, lettering in football, basketball, baseball, and cross-country, but his participation was limited his junior and senior years due to his illness. He later attended University of California, Berkeley, and returned to Redwood this past year as a JV basketball assistant coach.

According to Brendan Henderson, one of O’Dorisio’s classmates and football teammates, O’Dorisio first experienced pain in his shoulder during his junior football season. After having an X-ray and MRI, doctors discovered a tumor.

“He was missing a bunch of practices here and there. We all knew his shoulder was hurting a lot, but it didn’t occur to any of us that it was cancer,” Henderson said. “He didn’t tell anybody. He kept it secret because he didn’t want the team to be focused on something else.”

After three weeks, O’Dorisio announced his diagnosis to his teammates before a practice.

“Coach Nelson brought us into the classroom and told us all that Andrew had something to say, and it was going to be quick and he didn’t want to make a big scene about it,” Henderson reminisced. “Andrew got up in front of everybody and almost immediately said, ‘So I got diagnosed with cancer last month,’ and he started to break down a little bit. Somebody in the room chuckled a little bit because it was that unreal; they thought it was a joke at first.”

O’Dorisio began his chemotherapy treatment and had to sit out the remainder of his season until the last game when he played kicker, rather than his previous, more dangerous position of safety.

“He was one of those guys you can’t replace. He was a natural leader. There’s no question he was like the soul of the team,” Henderson said. “I didn’t notice it when I was playing, but looking back on it, he was the force that drove the team.”

O’Dorisio was unable to play baseball and football again at Redwood, but ran cross-country as a senior, and was a member of the 2010 MCAL and NCS Champions basketball team.

“He was competitive to say the least. He was the guy that always brought the energy to practice no matter what,” Henderson said. “When we ran he was always in the front because he wanted to be there, not because he wanted to show off in front of the coaches.”

During O’Dorisio’s battle with cancer, his energy and optimism never faded.

“He’s not the guy who wants to make a scene about it. He never acted like he had cancer.

Knowing Andrew, for him it was just like the next thing, the next problem he had to get by”

O’Dorisio transitioned from player to coach four years after graduating Redwood, debuting as an assistant JV basketball coach last summer.

“At summer league tryouts, Coach Compagno said, ‘This is Coach O’Dorisio and he’s the strongest man I’ve ever met,’ and if we ever wanted to skip practice we had to ask Coach OD first because he had cancer and he didn’t skip practice,” said sophomore basketball player John Van Liere.

O’Dorisio carried his off-court battles to the side lines as a coach.

“He wasn’t really an Xs and Os coach, he was the coach that was always there to be on our backs and push us to get better,” Van Liere said.

According Van Liere, O’Dorisio would make them work harder both physically and mentally when he saw that they were not living up to their full potential.

“He was always there working with us, helping us learn common sense basketball, and he was there pushing us mentally too. He was more of a spiritual leader than a fundamental coach,” he said.

Henderson also saw O’Dorisio’s leadership ability.

“He’s the guy that you want to be, he’s a leader just because of who he is. He’s the one that everyone on the team wants to be,” Henderson said. “He was an incredible person and the best teammate I ever had.”

A funeral service was held for O’Dorisio on May 16 at Tiburon Baptist Church and was well attended by members of the Redwood community, past classmates, and this season’s basketball teams.

“I’m happy he’s not in pain and doesn’t have to struggle anymore. He was an incredible person and the best teammate I ever had,” Henderson said.