MLS player Cam Weaver scores goals for stricken teammate

Steve Jenkins was back in the hospital, continuing his noble fight against his insistent cancer. Still trying to find the right defense against it.

Still battling like the resilient athlete he is. Still finding ways to make a difference, while the doctors looked for ways to make him better.

He still is fighting the pain and the often overwhelming frustration that comes from suffering a long, life-threatening illness.

But there still is magic in Steve Jenkins' fight. Magic in his life. Don't take my word for it. Ask the Houston Dynamo's Cam Weaver.

On the eve of Houston's Major League Soccer match Saturday at Dallas, Weaver, a former member of Seattle University's 2004 team that won an NCAA Division II championship, got a call from Jenkins.

They had been soccer teammates in high school and at Seattle U. Jenkins played, despite being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, and his courage often pushed his teammates past their own limits of exhaustion.

Last Friday, Jenkins was in his room at Harborview Medical Center with his former coach and close friend, Pete Fewing, talking about Weaver's recent trade from San Jose, and planning to record his game, which was being televised the next night.

They called Weaver.

"It was a quiet conversation," Fewing said. "A lot of one- and two-word answers."

Jenkins, tired from the day's fight, challenged Weaver to score a goal.

"I'm going to score a goal tomorrow night and I'm going to point to the camera and tell you the goal is for you and tell you to keep fighting," Weaver told him.

Cam Weaver called his shot. And then he delivered on his promise. And then he scored again. And he pointed to the nearest camera to let Jenkins know the goals were for him.

"Just that little conversation I had with Stevie gave me confidence," Weaver said. "Really I went into that game with confidence, thinking I was going to score some goals."

It was positively Ruthian — the soccer equivalent of Babe Ruth calling his own shot.

"Stevie inspires a lot of people by his constant efforts to get better," Fewing said.

People feel helpless when a friend is seriously ill. The best we can do, most of the time, is to remind them we're there for them. That's what Weaver did for Jenkins.

"It's the best thing he could have done for me," Jenkins said from his hospital room Tuesday afternoon.

In his second game with Houston, Weaver led the Dynamo to a 3-1 win over Dallas. Earlier this week, he was named MLS Player of the Week. He should give an assist to Jenkins.

"I just wanted to show Stevie that we're all behind him and we're all fighting with him," Weaver said.

"He's been a role model to the people who know him. To have to go through so much, it's such a tough situation. It's impossible to think of something like that happening to you and, for him to stay positive, it's inspiring."

When Weaver was a reserve in San Jose earlier this season, he got a call and a pep talk from Fewing.

Fewing reminded Weaver of practices at Seattle U. and Kentwood High School, and how Jenkins often stayed on the field, even as his disease sucked air from his lungs.

"I talk with Pete a lot," Weaver said, "and sometimes he will remind me of Stevie's story and it will just be a kind of motivator to pick me up a little bit. When you see what he's trying to push through, it makes you appreciate what you have and makes you think, when you're going through some tough situations, to not get too down."

At 6 feet 4, Weaver, who just turned 26, is a menace inside of 12 yards. He's a big, aggressive target who lurks in the box, waiting to pounce.

Weaver had 18 goals in 26 games with the USL Sounders in 2006 and scored 21 goals in 51 games for the Norwegian team, Haugesund, from 2007 through '09.

He got his chance with Houston, which is tied with Chivas USA for first place in the West, because of a hamstring injury to Brian Ching, a member of the U.S. national team. In two games with the Dynamo, Weaver has two goals and an assist.

"They're a part of this," Weaver said, "both Stevie and Pete."

I asked Jenkins what he would say to Weaver the next time they spoke.

"I'll tell him to do it again," Jenkins said.

From a hospital bed in Seattle, Jenkins sent a message to a former teammate. Magic happened in Dallas on Saturday night — a Ruthian moment inspired by the fight against cancer Steve Jenkins continues to wage.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com