NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Next March, the Yale baseball team is scheduled to play a series of games in California over Spring Break. Those games will provide a much-appreciated chance for nearby families, friends and relatives of the Yale players to see the team play -- and they will also bring the Bulldogs near a place in Ladera Ranch, Calif., that holds a special meaning for one of their own.
 
Reese Imhoff Field is part of a four-field complex that is home to the Ladera Ranch Little League. A plaque there recognizes Reese's toughness and determination; his friendliness and passion for hobbies such as photography; and his athletic achievements. Reese played Little League baseball there, earning multiple all-star selections. His playing career ended in 2015, but the field serves as one indication of the impact he has to this day. 
 
Originally "Cox #4 Baseball Field", the field was renamed in Reese's memory in May of 2019. It is a tangible sign of his ability to inspire, but also a poignant reminder of a life cut tragically short. In February of 2016, at the age of 12, Reese was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer). He would spend the next three years battling the disease, enduring 19 chemotherapies and powering through multiple surgical procedures -- seven of which were considered major -- before passing away Mar. 10, 2019. He was just 15. The Imhoffs refer to Reese's passing as "Reese moved to heaven".
 
One of the players who also played on that field was Reese's older brother. Max Imhoff is now a first-year catcher at Yale, one of nine Bulldogs from California looking forward to playing games in their home state next spring. For Max it will also be a chance to reflect further on his brother's impact.
 
"He was everyone's best friend -- the 'cool kids' but also the kids who were in need of help, who needed a friend," said Max. "Teachers to this day, even second-grade teachers, talk to their kids about character and they use Reese as an example ... He was really beyond his years in his heart and his maturity."
 
Max and his parents, Christy and Paul, saw Reese go through challenges that no-one, let alone a 12 year old, should have to go through. In an effort to fight the disease surgeons had to take out Reese's knee to half his right femur bone and replace it with a prosthetic. They took out 40 percent of his left pelvis.  Reese had to learn to walk again not once... but twice.  When doctors told him something would be difficult or virtually impossible, he would take his athletic spirit and use that as his motivation to exceed their expectations.  Doctors to this day talk about Reese's tenacity and perseverance. He endured 19 chemotherapies -- nearly five times as many as is typical for a child fighting this disease. 
 
It was all part of a conscious choice made by a boy with wisdom beyond his years, knowing the effect his battle could have on others.  
 
"We always gave him a choice [about undergoing treatment]," said Christy. "And without hesitation he said 'I'm doing it.' He said 'Mom, I want to live, but I also want to help other kids.'"
 
An athlete to his core, Reese once asked his mother about some statistics related to osteosarcoma while she was taking him to the hospital. She gave him the numbers that indicated how rare it was (by one estimate, only 3.1 out of a million people in the United States will get the disease). Reese quickly analyzed what that meant, from a unique perspective.  
 
"Since I got it, I bet I'll never know anyone who gets this," he told his mom. She agreed.
 
"Then I guess I'm taking one for the team," he said.
 
That approach was part of what earned Reese the nickname "Beast", and part of what inspired those who knew him. Max saw his brother lose the ability to play certain sports because of his surgeries -- but Reese never felt sorry for himself; instead he would direct his passion into new endeavors ranging from archery and photography to fishing and woodworking.
 
"Reese went above and beyond to fight and try to survive," Max said. "He never complained. Whenever he lost something to do physically, we would take on new hobbies… In his battle, when he was surviving he kept living. That is something that only a special soul can do, and that is where the term came from: 'Reese is a beast'. He will take on any challenge, any obstacle."
 
While watching his brother persevere, Max also learned to carve out his own path. And the sport that he grew up playing on that Little League field in Ladera Ranch wound up opening doors for him that he never could have imagined. The summer before his junior year of high school, after playing a game at a baseball camp, he got a text from his travel ball coach -- a Yale baseball coach had seen him at the camp and was interested in recruiting him. 
 
That was all Max needed to hear. He dedicated himself even further to honoring Reese's memory while also earning the chance to study and play at Yale. During Reese's battle and beyond, he told his parents that he would work on being the best version of himself so that he "wouldn't give them anything to worry about."
 
"Unfortunately a lot of kids going through this type of horrible grief and loss go in a negative direction," said Christy. "Max did the opposite.  He took AP courses, studied like crazy, and worked incredibly hard on and off the field, using Reese as his inspiration every step of the way."
 
Max earned the Junipero Serra High School baseball team's Character Award, given by the coaches to the player who represents integrity and leadership on and off the field. He also received the school's Faculty Award, given to one male and one female from each class in recognition of their academic achievements, leadership and character.
 
For Max, the work that went into those accomplishments could be traced back to the example his brother set.
 
"Watching him go through what he went through inspired me to work hard for him," said Max. 
 
And if there was any doubt about where Max was meant to go to college, that was removed shortly after he committed to the recruiting process at Yale. From California, Paul decided to do a little research into the campus -- especially one particular part of it. Knowing that lacrosse was Reese's favorite sport, Paul got on his cell phone and searched on-line to get a view of Yale's lacrosse facility. When he saw its name, without saying a word, he showed his phone to Christy and Max. 
 
Reese Stadium. 
 
It is a name familiar to all Yale lacrosse fans; when the Imhoffs saw it for the first time it clearly hit home in a different way.
 
And the name of the stadium was not all they saw. The image of Reese Stadium on-line happened to have been taken in the middle of a lacrosse game, and it showed the scoreboard. It was the third quarter, and the time on the clock was 13:33.
 
13 was Reese Imhoff's uniform number in baseball.
 
33 was his number in lacrosse.
 
"We just lost it," said Christy. 
 
The number 33 also holds great significance for the Imhoffs because of their Christian faith; that is the age Jesus was when he died. 
 
"I knew that Yale is a place where God and Reese wanted me to be," said Max.
 
Yale's Reese Stadium -- a little less than 3,000 miles east of Reese Imhoff Field -- was named in 2011 and honors the brothers Jason Reese '87 and Jon Reese '90, who starred in lacrosse and whose gifts helped fund the stadium's renovation. Now Max Imhoff plays baseball just across the street, at Yale's Bush Field -- where one of his teammates is sophomore left-hander Bryant Reese, Jason's son (and a fellow Californian). 
 
While balancing academics and athletics, Max also embraces the role of raising awareness of osteosarcoma to help others in Reese's memory. He and his parents have teamed with Paul's employer, Hyundai, to be part of that company's Hope on Wheels foundation to fight childhood cancer. In another poignant twist to Reese's story, Paul got his job offer from Hyundai on the same day in 2016 that the Imhoffs found out that Reese had cancer. 
 
The Hyundai Hope on Wheels foundation has raised $185 million over 23 years, but prior to Paul's involvement none of it had gone to osteosarcoma. With Reese's story as the inspiration, Hyundai Hope on Wheels has now given $4.5 million to help fight the disease -- more money than had previously been raised in the history of the disease.

"Because this disease is so genetically complex, if we are able to solve this disease, that could possibly solve so many other cancers," said Christy.

As part of their ongoing efforts to raise awareness, the Imhoffs recently went to another special place -- Monarch Beach, where Reese used to fly his drone and take photos. There they posed for a photo shoot with world renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz for Hyundai's "Journey of Hope". Next month they will be part of a ceremony to launch that campaign, an international effort that will raise even more funds.
 
It is all a part of honoring Reese the way he would appreciate it most -- by helping others.
 
"That funding didn't come in time to save Reese," said Max. "But it will definitely save other kids."


 
To learn more about the Imhoff family and Hyundai Hope on Wheels:
https://youtu.be/5xAXnkOvepg