Skip to content

Young Port Coquitlam goalie doesn’t let cancer derail his dreams

A cancer diagnosis didn’t end Marko Marconato’s hockey dreams. It just altered them a bit.
Marko Marconato
MARIO BARTEL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS Marko Marconato has had to make some adjustments to the way he plays, but he's glad to be back in the goal crease five years after he was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right arm. Marconato's years-long battle to overcome the disease and get back on the ice was recognized Friday with a Comback Award at the first PoCo Sport Awards.

A cancer diagnosis didn’t end Marko Marconato’s hockey dreams. It just altered them a bit.

Friday the Port Coquitlam teen was honoured with a Comeback Award at the first PoCo Sport Awards for his dogged determination to get back on skates and resume his place in the goal crease after he nearly lost his right arm to osteogenetic sarcoma, the same type of bone cancer that cost Terry Fox his leg.

Marconato was the goalie for his PoCo Pirates Pee Wee rep team when the cancer was diagnosed in January, 2012. Suddenly, instead of pulling on his big leg pads, he was putting on a hospital gown at BC Children’s. Instead of making saves, he was hoping doctors could save his arm.

Marconato endured months of intensive chemotherapy and more than 15 surgeries to excise the cancer from his arm and then reconstruct it using a bone from his leg. Afterward came months of gruelling physiotherapy to learn how to walk again and use his rebuilt arm. In all, he spent two years in BC Children’s and Eagle Ridge hospitals, away from school, away from the sport he’d played since he was two years-old and loved intensely.

“It took me out of playing hockey, and that made me mad,” says Marconato, who’s now 17.

But instead of dwelling on the games and practices he was missing, Marconato used his anger to get better.

“I just wanted to get back on the ice,” he says. “It’s all I wanted to do.”

Marconato watched hockey on TV. He decorated his room with hockey memorabilia, like signed jerseys from Milan Lucic and Roberto Luongo. 

Before he got sick, Marconato allowed himself to occasionally dream he could be like them some day, flashing his glove hand to the cheers of thousands, signing his jerseys for young fans. Now he’d have to learn how to skate all over again.

He did that at Planet Ice, lacing on regular skates for public “stick-and-puck” sessions at the rink. It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t hard, says Marconato. 

“I had to learn to skate, regain my balance; but after the first couple of times it became easier,” says Marconato. “It brought me back to when I was little. I was happy.”

To reacquaint himself with competitive hockey and further his rehab, Marconato joined the Tri-City Ball Hockey League. He resumed his place in net, but all the operations meant he had to make some adjustments to his game to compensate for the lingering weakness of his rebuilt arm.

Still, after almost three years away from hockey, Marconato felt like he was back where he belonged.

“I like being the last line of defence,” he says. “I like the pressure.”

Encouraged by his progress, Marconato signed up for house league ice hockey that fall.

When he skated onto the ice for the first time at the PoCo Rec Centre with his Midget teammates, “It was amazing, it was exciting, it was a happy moment,” says Marconato.

“It really was an emotional experience,” says his mom, Paula.

Most of his teammates were at least two years older; but that didn’t matter, says Marconato. “They were so welcoming.”

Marconato’s physical limitations brought by the cancer and surgeries meant his childhood hockey dreams had to be dialled back; but that didn’t matter either says Paula. “Every save was a celebration.”

Still, Marconato’s dream to be an inspiration to young hockey fans has been fulfilled. Shortly after he was presented with his award at the Terry Fox Theatre by Terry’s sister, Judith, a young Atom hockey player went up to Marko and shook his hand.

“That meant everything,” says Marconato.