JTHS remembers longtime volleyball volunteer lost to cancer

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Scorers table where an empty seat represents where former score keeper Peg Bryan would sit at Joliet Central High School in Joliet, Illinois, Monday, February, 14, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: March 16, 2012 8:10AM

Coping with grief for a lost child, and fighting cancer in her own life for 14 years, Peg Bryan changed lives with her volunteer service at Joliet Township High School District.

For two decades after a tragic crash took her athlete stepdaughter, Bryan served as a scorekeeper at varsity volleyball matches — while showing steely endurance through illness. She filled these years to overflowing with generosity and thoughtfulness toward her Steelmen teams. She also raised money for cancer research by leading Volley for the Cure.

Peg was a Steelman, as true as they come.

She died Jan. 16 at home with her family by her side. She was 62.

Bryan’s stepdaughter Connie Bryan played badminton and volleyball as an underclassman at Joliet Central High School in the late 1980s. Connie was killed in a crash in summer 1988.

Peg Bryan began scorekeeping in 1989 and remained in that role right up to the end of the 2011 volleyball season at Joliet Central High School. She missed few matches, even after she was diagnosed with cancer in 1996.

Last fall, during her final season, Bryan often needed an oxygen tank at the scoring table.

Near the season’s end, she moved around the courtside in a wheelchair pushed by her sister, Marilyn Beavers.

“As much as we could tell she was hurting, I don’t think she really let on to others. She never gave up hope,” said Al Mart, volleyball coach at Joliet West High School, who worked with Bryan when the West and Central sports programs were unified.

“She wanted to be a part of it. She wanted to be at every event,” Mart said.

After her final match, Bryan slept for two days because of the fatigue brought on by her illness, said Suzzie Bambule, volleyball coach at Joliet Central.

Bambule remembers Bryan’s thoughtfulness and attention to detail. At the end of each year, Bryan listed each senior’s accomplishments in a detailed text presentation, which accompanied the student’s senior picture. Bryan gave each senior a gift that included the biography and photograph.

“She was very meticulous about everything she did. Her scorebook was perfect,” Bambule said.

A true Steelman

Bryan, who was born Margaret Briddick, graduated from Joliet Central High School in 1967. She attended Joliet Junior College, Eastern Illinois University, Governors State University and Illinois State University.

She taught physical education and coached track at Minooka Junior High School. She kept score for basketball and volleyball there. She served as a substitute teacher at Eisenhower Academy in Joliet.

She married Sam Bryan in 1974, and helped raise his daughters, Connie and Patty Bryan. She kept score at Washington Junior High School in Joliet, where Connie played volleyball. She was closely involved with that team, making gifts and giving out awards.

Connie went on to play volleyball at Joliet Central. The young athlete was killed in a crash on Ridge Road in Kendall County in 1988, before her junior year, when she could have participated in varsity volleyball.

Bryan grieved the loss of her stepdaughter. In the fall of 1989, she began the volunteer scorekeeping role that would last the rest of her life.

Bryan worked primarily with the varsity and sophomore volleyball teams — the Steelmen at Joliet Central, then the unified West-Central team, then Central again in recent years. She occasionally also worked at Joliet West, scoring Tiger games. She worked at freshman tournaments, too.

Bryan traveled with teams, and she served during postseason play in regional and sectional tournaments. She also took responsibility for coordinating all the volleyball sports awards.

Each year, Bryan bought all of the volleyball players candy apples from Dan’s Homemade Candies. She was so generuos with the apples that Steve Locke, athletic director at Central, had to tell her that his children were so little that they didn’t have teeth to eat the treats. Bryan told him to cut the apples up small.

Bryan always distributed volleyball pencils and gold-colored volleyball pins to players. She gave out little things that reminded coaches and players that they were part of something special.

She was always sending thank-you cards, Mart said.

“I think it was those kids who kept her alive, all those years fighting cancer,” Sam Bryan said.

Volley for the Cure

For the past three years, Peg Bryan was chairwoman of Volley for the Cure at Joliet Central and Joliet West.

The event, affiliated with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is a fundraiser for breast cancer research.

All the proceeds from a selected volleyball game — including a raffle, T-shirt sales and ribbon sales — benefit cancer research. Bryan created gift bags to raffle off.

She began as chairwoman in 2009, when the Central and West programs were unified. In 2010, she chaired two events — one for each campus. After that year, the district decided to alternate between campuses every year. Central hosted the program in 2011, and West will host the program in 2012.

Bryan coordinated with Bambule at Central and Mart at West to run successful fundraising efforts. Under Bryan’s leadership, Volley for the Cure raised more than $10,000 in the past three years.

Melanie Palmer, a guidance counselor at West, will chair the 2012 Volley for the Cure event. She said it is an honor to take on Bryan’s former role.

“I coached for eight years at the lower levels. Obviously she was an inspiration in my coaching career,” Palmer said of Bryan. “She was a very positive influence on thousands of girls in our program.”

Kim Vertin played volleyball for Joliet Central, graduated in 2010, and now plays volleyball for Lewis University. She remembers working with Bryan to prepare for Volley for the Cure.

“The night before, we decorated the whole gym. It was pink everywhere. She brought in her granddaughter Taylor. She was just so happy. The day itself was extremely happy. I just can’t put it into words,” Vertin said.

“The Volley for the Cure brought everyone together,” Palmer said.

Before the event, Bryan would tell students the story of her battle with cancer.

“It was always so inspirational,” said Taylor Carlson, a Joliet Central volleyball player. “It would move everyone in the room. It just made the event that much more special.”