Dansville athlete shows determination in return to field

DANSVILLE, N.Y. (WHEC) – Zaidan VanDurme-Blackmon wasn’t your average athlete at Dansville High.

“He’s like the Superman. He does everything,” said his football coach, Chad Pieri.

“We were playing pretty well and a lot of it was because of Zaidan,” said Dansville boy’s basketball coach, Dave Moodie.

Zaidan was a three-sport athlete, playing multiple positions in football, point guard in baseball, and pitcher in baseball. But after a game in a holiday hoops tournament, Zaidan got sick. And he went downhill fast.

“Drastic change. A kid who’s an 18-year-old kid in the best shape of his life, MVP of a basketball game, playing 32 minutes of a game, then all of sudden now is fighting for his life,” said Moodie.

What started as sniffles and a headache turned into a major sinus infection, which led to sepsis. Zaidan spent almost three weeks in the hospital.

It was a scary time for his loved ones.

It felt like “everything all at once – like someone came up and punched me in the stomach. Kind of a blur for the next few days,” said Zaidan’s father, Jeremy Blackmon.

Thankfully, doctors were able to treat Zaidan and when he returned to school, the district held a celebration, parading him around the school system.

“I appreciate the entire community coming together for me – it’s really nice,” said Zaidan.

“I can’t put it into words. Between his being able to push through things and his strength, his heart, it’s awesome,” said Blackmon.

Zaidan went through physical therapy to regain his strength, and he eventually returned to the diamond to finish out his senior season on the mound. But even being back on the sidelines had a strong impact. And through the process, his teammates showed their love.

“I wanted apple juice really bad and there’s a video of it probably, and my team got this apple juice box and they wrote notes on the apple juice boxes to support me,” said Zaidan.

“What we learned from Zaidan’s incident was there’s more to playing sports than just the game,” said Moodie. “The mindset is be thankful for things, because in his situation was very scary for people, for all of us, and you reflect on that and you be thankful for the things you have in front of you and you don’t take things for granted.”

Zaidan’s off to play football at Alfred University in the fall. He plans on studying health sciences, where his story can continue to impact others. 

“The feeling of getting back in sports is great so I want to share that with other people and have them experience it, getting better and stuff like that,” he said.

“He’s small but he’s mighty and he’s got the heart of a champion,” said Moodie.

“He’s dedicated to what he puts his mind to and obviously he’s super joyful,” said Pieri.

Clearly, nothing’s stopping Zaidan.