WAKEFIELD — Max Plansky, like the rest of his family, is passionate about basketball. He is in Pittsburgh today as a member of the Northeastern Huskies, who are preparing to play a first round game against Notre Dame tomorrow afternoon in the NCAA tournament known as March Madness.
Max’ beaming smile will be seen from the Husky bench as the Danvers 16-year-old, a son of one-time Warrior hoop captain Mike Plansky, cheers on his teammates. Max has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair but every member of the Northeastern team knows how important he is to the them and how important they are to him.
Max’s grandmother Madeline, an Old Nahant Road resident, said this morning that her son Mike and grandson Max flew to Pittsburgh with the team and Max, who hasn’t been on a plane since he was 3 or 4, did just fine. And you’d expect that, since Max is at the games and even his team’s practices. He wouldn’t miss this for the world; it is, after all, the Huskies first March Madness appearance since 1991.
His association with Northeastern, Madeline said, “has changed his life.” The Huskies have given him his own locker in the team locker room at Matthews Arena, and his own number (25). They have visited their teammate at Beverly’s Children’s Center for Communication and appreciate the tremendous obstacles Max faces each day.
It’s the inclusion, the awesome feeling of being part of something, that has brought about the positive change in Max, his grandmother said.
As explained in today’s Boston Globe, Mike Plansky’s career as a college hoop coach took a turn toward educational administration and took Max “away from the basketball players he loved being around.”
Mike Plansky told the Globe Max, as it turned out, needed to be around the players.
“Before we joined Northeastern and after I got out of coaching, he was sick on a yearly basis,” Mike said. “Three weeks at Children’s, one week in ICU — going to make it, not going to make it — and we couldn’t really tell why.
“His demeanor had changed. He didn’t like to go to school. We were like, ‘What’s going on here?’ As he was getting older, I realized, ‘He doesn’t have a group.’
“I went into every (individual education plan) meeting with one goal: Can we have social opportunities with able-bodied people? We never reached the goal until Northeastern came along. Then we knew what had been missing.”
Reaching out to his brother Mark Plansky, who was also a Warrior basketball star and a member of the Villanova national championship team in 1985, Mike learned more about an organization Mark was involved in called Team IMPACT, which connects children with life-threatening illnesses with college athletes. It also helped that Mike Plansky, a member of Wakefield High’s Class of 1987, had known Northeastern coach Bill Coen through the college basketball coaching fraternity for years.
Coen told the Globe: “I’m so proud of the way our team has accepted (Max), embraced him, made him feel welcome and special. In return, these guys get so much more. He’s an inspiration to these guys.”
Seeing the positive changes in Max brought on by being with the Northeastern team gave Mike Plansky the idea for You’re With Us, a group that connects people with disabilities with able-bodied groups.
Madeline Plansky, whose late husband Bernie was a legendary Wakefield High girls’ basketball coach, said this morning that Brandeis University has expressed a particular interest in You’re With Us. “And it’s not just in sports. Other kids might be into the arts or music or theater,” she said, “It is about inclusion.”
Madeline said of her grandson Max, “He’s an amazing young man. He has improved by leaps and bounds. I am a very happy, thrilled and proud Nana.”
As for Max Plansky, he is one proud Northeastern Husky.