Bowling Green State University Athletics
Colin and Ryan MacRitchie Having the Time of their Lives
November 11, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 10, 2006
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - Colin and Ryan MacRitchie are having the time of their lives.
The Bowling Green teenagers are currently guests of the Bowling Green men's basketball team with locker room access, practice privileges and seats on the bench for the Falcons' scrimmage against Capital Wednesday. They were even in the team photo taken before the season.
Their experience culminates with BG's season-opener against Denison Saturday. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. in Anderson Arena. The identical twins will take part in the team meal Saturday and then get to try their hand at coaching.
Now 17-years-old, the MacRitchies were born with severe heart defects. They are getting the royal treatment as part of Make-A-Wish.
Dan Dakich, BG's head coach, saw a special on ESPN over the summer involving Make-A-Wish. He and J.D. Campbell, BG's assistant athletics director/communications, thought it would be a good project for the men's program. They contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northwest Ohio and that organization made the connection with the MacRitchie family.
As in many small towns, everyone is connected. The MacRitchie family, the Dakich children and the Campbell children are or have been students at St. Aloysius. Ryan MacRitchie was Laura Dakich's church partner when the younger Dakich was in kindergarten.
"They (Ryan and Colin) came in and I was asking them questions about their story and it's a heck of a story," Dakich said. "It kind of fascinated J.D. and I and we said we had to do this."
The twins also related their story to members of the team.
"It was one of the few times when I've had somebody talk to the team that the players were sitting (on the edge of their seats)," Dakich said. "They (the team) were mesmerized.
"They weren't trying to get anybody to feel sorry for them, there was none of that," he added.
"It was cool. They wanted to know what was going on, they asked a lot of questions," Ryan said about the locker room visit.
It has not been an easy road for the twins, who are both currently wearing pacemakers. When they were born, they weighed only five pounds.
"We found out when they were just a week old that they thought something may be wrong with their hearts," said Amy MacRitchie, the boys' mother. "They were sent to Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. They were 12 days old. They did all the tests and we were told then, they would need open-heart surgery.
"In essence, they were missing the top wall between the upper chambers of their heart and the bottom wall between the bottom chambers of their heart had a big hole in it."
Amy MacRitchie said they both struggled as babies and both underwent surgery before they were a year old. Colin and Ryan again needed surgery when they were 3-years-old.
The boys were born in Michigan, but the family moved to Bowling Green when the twins were in the second grade. Amy MacRitchie is a Bowling Green High School graduate.
When the twins reached puberty, additional problems arose because of the changes in their bodies.
"Their hearts couldn't sustain their activity level as they grew and more blood was circulating," Amy said. "Going up the stairs at school, they were having a hard time doing.
"Ryan started to get light-headed and fainting. We went to a cardiologist and they said it was time for a pacemaker."
Ryan got his first pacemaker at age 14. Colin developed the same difficulties a year later and needed a pacemaker at age 15.
It turned out Ryan had problems with the original pacemaker, which was a single chamber device. He needed a dual-chamber pacemaker. Doctors were able to insert the needed pacemaker for him. Ryan was also hampered by a perforated lung, but has recovered from that problem.
Colin, meanwhile, still has a bypass in his heart.
"They couldn't do his in a conventional way," Amy said about Colin. "They would normally do an open heart in his chest. They knew he was going to need another big surgery there, so they did a thoracotomy incision.
"Colin has had a really tough time."
While some additional surgeries may be needed since the batteries for the pacemakers will have to be replaced, the boys are enjoying fairly normal lives and their senior years of high school.
"They are doing so much better," Amy said. "Those pacemakers, they are exactly what they needed ... They have just changed their lives ... They are just new kids."
Colin attends Bowling Green High School and has a 3.84 grade-point-average, while taking honors classes. He hopes to attend Miami of Ohio and study meteorology.
Ryan goes to Penta Career Center and has a 3.75 grade-point-average. He is interested in graphics and will probably start at Owens Community College and then transfer to a four-year college.
"As soon as they got to the high school where the classes were bigger, they both did so much better," Amy said.
And while the pacemakers have made a major difference in the twins' lives, the medical problems for the MacRitchie were not over.
"After those two pacemaker surgeries, I found out in June (2004) that I had cancer," Amy, who is a single parent, said. "Stress had something to do with it ... My immunities were low ... It was a real shock."
While Amy was undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, Jim and Julie Weinandy, who have six children of their own, took Colin, Ryan and younger brother Keenan into their home for four months.
The three MacRitchie boys would see their mother after school and weekends, but the rest of the time was spent with the Weinandys.
"I'm all better now. I just finished another round of treatment last month," Amy said. "We're all healthy again. It's such a great feeling."
Because of their condition, the boys were not able to participate in sports, but both are avid fans.
"They know so much about sports. I just feel so bad because they have never been able to play anything," Amy said.
Now, they're getting first-hand basketball experience.
"It's fun. I'm glad we have this opportunity," Ryan said. "You're right down there and you feel right you're in the game. Everyone is yelling back and forth."
"It was pretty intense some times (in the huddle during timeouts), but it was a good experience," Colin added about sitting on the bench for the exhibition game with Capital.
Saturday will be the real thing against Denison in the season opener.
The twins will be dressed in coats and ties, the Michigan and Michigan State gear will be left at home, and Ryan has shaved his goatee.
Both are hoping the Falcons can get a big lead against Denison.
"We'll call plays and do what we need to win," Colin said. "But we have to make sure it's put away because if we lose he'll (Dakich) get in trouble."
Both agreed that coaching could be in their future, saying if would be fun, and you "wouldn't have to sit in a cubicle," Colin added.
After Saturday, it will be planning the next Make-A-Wish experience.
Colin would like to go somewhere in the South where it's warm and he can relax. Ryan was thinking about Alaska, but he would like a trip around the world.
"They just have overcome so much adversity, but they are never down," Amy said. "They have a very positive outlook. They just never let their condition hold them back.
"In fact, we don't even tell people about it, because they look so healthy. They look great."
