Bear Sports
Making the Right Call
UNC Football Safety Mike Van Portfliet Donates Bone Marrow so a Stranger May Live
| by Jordan Freemyer '77
While many college students were partying on beaches in exotic locales from Florida to Mexico over Spring Break last year, Mike Van Portfliet, a sophomore safety on the University of Northern Colorado football team, was saving a life.
As a way to honor former teammate Sam Safken, who died of cancer on Sept. 19, 2006, the Bears football team took part in a drive in 2006 that swabbed students for DNA samples in order to become potential bone marrow donors. A year after being swabbed, Van Portfliet was contacted by Bonfils Blood Center.
“(The call said) I was a potential match for an older male, so I went to North Colorado Medical Center and had my blood tested, and it turned out I wasn’t the perfect match,” Van Portfliet said.
But just a few weeks later, Van Portfleit was contacted again and told he was a potential match, this time for a 25-year-old female, whose name has been kept private. This time he was a match. “People wait on the donor list for 10 to 20 years and it’s funny how he was called twice,” Ann Van Portfliet, Mike’s mother, said.
After agreeing to donate, Mike went to Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver over Spring Break for the procedure, which was not invasive, to extract his stem cells, which were then given to his recipient where they would develop into new bone marrow for her. “When you normally hear about (donating) bone marrow, you hear about drilling in the hip and sucking the bone marrow out, but (this was) a new way of doing it,” Mike said.
Mike was given 10 injections of a drug that increased his count and sped up his production of white blood cells and stem cells.
Five days later, he had blood extracted in the same fashion as a blood donation, but his blood was sent through a centrifuge that extracted the stem cells from his blood, the rest of which was pumped back into him.
“It was five hours of just lying there,” Mike said about having an IV in each arm. The volume of marrow extracted from Van Porfliet exceeded the amount needed for his recipient. “Since he’s so athletic and fit, (the doctors) were excited to see what kind of volume they could get from him,” Ann Van Porfliet said.
Bears head coach Scott Downing lauded Mike for his generosity and character. “Mike Van Portfliet is the epitome of an unselfish person,” Downing said. Downing also said that the decision to donate his bone marrow was just one example of his character.
“You’d be really happy to have Mike Van Portfliet as a son,” Downing said. “Also, girls, if you’re looking for a date, he’s a pretty good catch.”
The candidate could not be identified to Van Porfliet and his family until a year had passed, Mike did say he has received updates on her condition. “I got a one month update, and she’s doing well, my stem cells are dividing in her,” Mike Van Portfliet said. “I’ll get a six month update soon, and then a year update.”
International
UNC Teams go global
The University of Northern Colorado prides itself on celebrating diversity, especially when attracting new students to the school. In recent years, the international flavor of the college has grown—perhaps nowhere more apparent than in Athletics. Today, at least eight foreign student-athletes call UNC home. They are: junior guard Lizzie Cooper, from Queensland, Australia; sophomore golfer Alberto Dell’Anna, from Platja d’Aro, Spain; sophomore outfielder Courtney Maihi, from Hamilton, New Zealand; junior infielder Jessica McNabb, from Saskatchewan, Canada; senior guard Robert Palacios, from Caracas, Venezuela; senior tennis player Manuela Santos, from Itajaí, Brazil; freshman tennis player Jennifer Whateley, from Farnham, Surrey, UK; and junior tennis player Luiza Xavier, from Florianópolis, Brazil.
wrestlingUNC to Host Wrestling Regional
The Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion will welcome the NCAA Western Wrestling Conference 2009 Regional on March 7. Along with UNC’s outstanding wrestling squad, other top wrestlers in the nation will be competing on the UNC campus. Participation in the WWC Regionals is by invitation only and wrestlers must place in their individual weight class in order to advance to the NCAA WWC Championships in St. Louis. “To host a conference regional, on the way to the National Championship, is a special honor for our student-athletes, the school and the Greeley community,” said UNC Wrestling Head Coach and Foundation Development Director Jack Maughan.
technology
UNCBears.com Gets Facelift
A new-and-improved UNCBears.com launched this past fall, bringing with it just one more indication of where the Bears’ athletic program is headed as it continues to make a name for itself at the NCAA Division I level.
Heather Kennedy, Northern Colorado’s director of media relations, did most of the legwork of the transition and was more than pleased when the new site went live in early October. The site’s previous design had become outdated when compared to other athletic department sites, and it lacked the visual attractiveness that Kennedy hopes Bears fans will enjoy and Northern Colorado coaches are able to use to their advantage in the recruiting process.
“It was definitely time for a change,” Kennedy said. “We really feel that a lot of good things are happening in this department, and we needed a better platform from which to broadcast those events. I’m really proud of this new site, and the response we’ve received from student-athletes and those in community make me think they are, too.”
Improved features on the new site are plenty, but highlights include an improved userfriendly interface, an increased utilization of photography and other design elements, and a video portal, featuring highlight packages from Northern Colorado athletic events. The site also has the capability to maintain a “fresh” look with the addition of rotating team photos as well as rotating “top stories.”
In all, Kennedy and her team drastically changed the face of Northern Colorado’s athletic department.
“Ever since we began this transition to NCAA Division I, we’ve maintained a goal of bringing all areas of our department to the front of the class,” Northern Colorado Director of Athletics Jay Hinrichs said. “This new site is just part of that process. Many things are going through renovations in this department: from our teams, to our buildings, and now to our website. UNCBears.com has become a destination site for our fans, as well as a tool that will clearly help our coaches attract top talent.”