By Pat Welter

For one game in September the Green Level High School volleyball team trades in their Gator Green and decks the gym out orange.

“Throughout this whole journey I’ve felt really loved,” Reese Roper said. “I’ve had a lot of people, like my coach she’s been doing so much for me.”

The Orange Out game is the product of Reese, a junior on the volleyball team, and her coach Alston Godbold.

“We wanted to honor Reese in so many different ways,” Alston said. “We just kept thinking of bigger and bigger ideas.”

The orange decorations and uniforms which promote leukemia awareness, are accompanied by a silent auction. As you walk into the gymnasium there’s a QR code on the door to make a donation. Now in its second year the game has raised over $32,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

“It means a lot, especially since I met so many kids who have been diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma,” Reese said.

Playing college volleyball is Reese’s dream. She couldn’t play this season due to a knee injury, which is apparent by the large wrap and brace on her left leg. One of the medicines she was taking for her treatment started affecting her bone health and caused her knee to collapse. It’s been surgically repaired and she’s working her way back.  Just another in a long line of challenges Reese has faced, which all started on the volleyball court her freshman year.

“It just seemed like our hard practices became a lot harder for her,” Alston said, who also coaches Reese on her club volleyball team. “That’s when I was talking to her mom and was like ‘she’s not able to last as long as she’s able to normally, she’s one of the toughest kids and if she’s not able to do this I feel like somethings going on’ and her mom agreed.”

Reese’s mom, Britt Roper, remembers taking Reese to the pediatrician multiple times. The initial diagnosis was mononucleosis, but Britt felt there was something more serious going on.

“After maybe our fourth or fifth stop at the pediatrician I was like there’s something going on and we need to figure it out and they sent us to the hospital for a blood smear,” Reese said.

The family got the call back to come in for more tests while in Charlotte for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Reese’s father, Kurt Roper, is the quarterbacks coach for NC State.

“We got back from that in early January and they brought her back in to test her again,” Kurt said. “That’s when they realized it was leukemia.”

“It was weird,” Reese said. “It was like well do I just go to bed? You just keep on doing what you’d typically do and I went into the hospital the next day.”

Reese had to stop attending school in person and began her treatment which included ten months of intense chemotherapy.

“What I really have learned is I’m no where near as strong as she is,” Kurt said. “What she’s been through and how she’s approached it and her mindset all the way through this thing is really admirable.”

Reese is scheduled to finish her treatment in April of 2025.

“You can still do everything you want to do,” Britt remembers saying to Reese. “This is just a road block, you’re going to have a different path than what you thought you were going to have. Her goal was to play high school volleyball, win a state championship, play college volleyball. This is the time when all of her friends are getting recruited, so that’s been really tough for her.”

Reese has a whole school rallying around her and a Wolfpack.

“One of the things I try to tell the quarterbacks all the time is there’s really only one problem in this world,” Kurt said. “We have a lot of issues in this world, we have things we have to deal with all the time, but the only problem that exists is health. When you get a health problem that shows up you need to stop and figure it out.”

“Whether it’s a football game, we are dealing with a lot of issues all the time,” Kurt continued. “We don’t have problems, we have issues. Seeing my daughter go through that, that was a hard lesson learned.”

Dave Doeren and the NC State staff have allowed Kurt to be there for his family when he needs to be through out this whole process. On Saturday’s, when she doesn’t have a volleyball match, you’ll find Reese and Britt in the stands cheering on NC State.

“I think it’s great, of course I moved around a lot when I was younger, but that just builds character I guess,” Reese laughed. “Being in the college football environment is amazing. Saturday nights it gets so loud and it’s so fun and when you win it feels great.”

“I’m proud of my dad,” Reese finished.

Reese is still working towards the day she gets to take the volleyball court again.

“I just think about how lucky I am to have so much support and the position I am in right now,” Reese said. “That’s why we are doing this game to help raise awareness and funds for those people who aren’t in as good a position as I am.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com