BSC's Cuprinski an Inspiration on Soccer Field

January 20, 2010

By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- He appeared in 73 games for the Bridgewater State College soccer team from 2006-09, just missing the program's career record.

Tim Cuprinski of Brockton, a four-year starter for the Bears, was a player who could always be counted on for his reliability and solid defensive play as an outside or center back.

The 2006 Brockton High School graduate fell only two games shy of tying the BSC record of 75 games played, set by Takashi Suzuki in 2007, and he sat out only one game in four years.

Cuprinski displayed all of that durability throughout his career despite having to deal with a chronic disease that he was diagnosed with just four weeks after being born.

The BSC senior has cystic fibrosis, an illness that clogs the lungs, could cause life-threatening infections and blocks the pancreas, and the median predicted age of survival is 37.4 years, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

"It's always been a part of my life, but it's been something that I've been able to get through,'' said the 21-year-old Cuprinski, a Dean's List student at BSC. "When I was younger, I was in the hospital a lot, getting IVs and stuff, trying to make me better.

"Since I got into sports, it's actually one of the best things I could have done for my lungs. Without a lot of activity, the lungs get really clogged. It can be really life threatening. It allows me to go out and make sure I'm staying healthy and active and clearing the lungs of all the bad stuff.

"If I hadn't been as active, you could say in some ways, sports almost kind of helped save my life. If I wasn't active in sports, I could be in a hospital right about now.''

Sports have been a big part of Cuprinski's life since the age of six while growing up in Brockton. He competed in soccer and baseball and ran indoor track at Brockton High while also playing in a recreation basketball league.

Once he got to BSC in the fall of 2006, Cuprinski was ready to open a new chapter in his athletic career, playing for Brendan Adams, who had been his coach at the club level.

Adams didn't know fully about Cuprinski's health issue until his sophomore season, and he admired the way the player tackled the situation. Teammates were in the dark about Cuprinski's illness throughout his career.

"Timmy very rarely missed practice or a game,'' said Adams. "You'd have to force him. He took a lot of pride playing in the amount of games that he did. His position was a position I never had to worry about. .

"Soccer was always a good outlet for him. He didn't want to be treated differently. You'd see him limping with a leg injury or something, but you knew he was dealing with something bigger.''

Said Cuprinski: "I was no different than anybody else. I take lots of pills every day and use inhalers before practices and games to kind of get me ready. But once I'm there, I'm no different than anybody else.

"Other than my immediate family, my girlfriend, most people don't know. It's not something I talk about a lot because I didn't want any sympathy that nobody else gets. I just kind of wanted to do my own thing.''

Cuprinski made the All-Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference second team this past season after helping BSC win the regular-season title. He also received honorable mention on the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Scholar All-East Region team for having a 3.88 grade-point average.

"Timmy is so driven,'' said his mother, Kathi Cuprinski. "He is my hero. I pushed him and pushed him, and to watch him play competitively at the college level with no one on the field knowing what he was going through, he just wouldn't let anything stop him.

"My husband (Paul) and I are just so proud. He became an important part of the team at Bridgewater because of his skill.''

Cuprinski said he has not been hospitalized because of CF in a dozen years. He goes to Children's Hospital in Boston for checkups several times a year, and his athletic accomplishments serve as an inspiration for others with the disease.

"The people at the hospital always tell me they tell other kids and parents about somebody like me who is successful with this because it's kind of one of those unknown diseases,'' said Cuprinski. "When you think of life-threatening diseases, (CF) doesn't come into your head.

"They see I played college soccer with it and I was pretty successful at it. Maybe some of those parents who just found out their kid has it can take a little bit of a sigh of relief. I kind of take a lot of pride in that. That's the type of stuff I like, rather than drawing attention to myself.

"I really think it helps them get over some of the shock and the ‘what do we do now' type feeling. It's like, ‘OK, if he can do it, then certainly we can do it.'

"I think when I was younger, there weren't a whole lot of success stories (with CF). In the last 20 years, there's been a lot of developments and a lot of progress and I just think all these positive stories can only help.

"This isn't something that's a death sentence any more. You can be successful and you can do what you want whether you have it.''

Cuprinski's mother said that parents of CF patients have called her and her son, looking for insight on how to cope with the disease.

"What it does,'' she said, "is give parents a little bit of hope to say that we can tackle this.''

Cuprinski, who graduates in May, would like to be an English teacher at the high school level and stay involved with soccer, perhaps coaching or scouting. He is also ready to get involved in other sports at the recreation level to keep active now that the BSC career is over.

Cuprinski is feeling good and is looking forward to the future. There are some 30,000 Americans with the disease, according to the CF Foundation, and he median survival age has jumped from 18 when Cuprinski was born in 1988 to more than 37 years now.

"I'm in good shape,'' said Cuprinski. "From a scientific point, there have been a lot of breakthroughs (with CF) and hopefully soon, there'll be a cure for it. But if there isn't, I'm probably just as healthy as any other kid out there, if not more so.

"I played soccer for four years, I'm active. It's a good long-term prognosis. There were plenty of (tough) days playing soccer. I'd feel sick, whatever. But I knew I could fight through it. I'd been through worse, so I knew I could push my way through it and I always did.''