BY DANI TIETZ
dani@sjodaily.com
There’s something about being part of a team.
It gives an athlete something to work for and towards. It is a place to belong and to grow. Sometimes teams are a support system for a moment and other times that support system lasts a lifetime.
Ogden’s Cory Abernathy has had the privilege of being part of a team his entire life.
“He is a talented player and worked very hard to become a skilled athlete,” his sister, Carrie Clements, said.
“I remember him spending hours dribbling on our rock driveway and shooting hoops well into the night, most times by himself because we got bored, but he did not.”
Carrie, the eldest of three siblings, remembers catching for Cory as he practiced pitching. That is until one pitch missed her mitt, left a bruise and their dad said, “no more.’ It wasn’t safe.”
A 1999 Armstrong-Potomac graduate, Cory took his skillset onto the baseball field.
Filling in on the mound from time-to-time, Cory shined as a shortstop with quick hands and feet.
He compiled a composite .380 batting average over three years as a varsity starter, averaged 15 steals a season and won the Armstrong-Potomac team’s defensive player award his junior and senior years.
The Trojans won regional titles in 1998 and 1999.
Cory also found success on the basketball court.
Starting his junior and senior year, Cory averaged 115 steals per season, handed out 200 assists and shot over 80-percent from the free-throw line in those two years, earning him a spot on the Vermilion All-County team. During the 1998-1999 season, he led the Trojans in three-pointers.
Armstrong-Potomac’s current Superintendent — and the school’s former basketball coach — Bill Mulvaney remembers Cory’s impact on the program.
“Cory probably had the best season for a point guard that I ever coached in 1997-1998 when he helped lead our team to the super-sectional in basketball,” Mulvaney said. “He had 130 steals and 210 assists that year as a junior.
“(He) was a tremendous defensive player, ran the point guard position and directed our offense and defense on the floor.”
When Cory graduated, he was fourth on the IHSA leaders list for the number of steals in a season with 130; today that record is listed in a tie for No. 13 all-time.
“He has always been very competitive, and driven in every aspect of life, not just sports,” Carrie said. “Everything he has done, he’s put his best into it and works until he succeeds.”
But his legacy is more than just what he could accomplish on the court or the field.
“Cory was just one of those kids who his teammates loved, his coaches loved and his teachers loved,” Mulvaney said. “He was always smiling – always made other people laugh – can’t say enough about his quick wit and his humor.”
Mulvaney said he will never forget the bus ride home after Armstrong-Potomac had won the Gibson City Tournament in 1999 because Cory had the whole bus roaring.
Back-up point guard Aaron Hird was sitting in the front of the bus, near the coaches. Mulvaney describes Hird as respectful, even into adulthood.
Cory decided to play with Hird, though, knowing that he was polite.
“Cory started telling me and the whole bus about how I needed to discipline Aaron because he was cussing out the other team and how he was cussing at the referees and then how he was cussing at Cory when Cory told him to stop – he is just getting louder — the whole bus is laughing – I am crying, I am laughing so hard.
“I have never heard Aaron Hird cuss in my life and I have known him for 22 years.
“Aaron is trying to defend himself telling me and everyone that it wasn’t true – it was just so funny and I will never forget it.”
About a decade after graduating from Armstrong-Potomac, Cory stayed close, moving to Ogden with his wife, Stephanie.
Carrie, who said that Cory has done an outstanding job in everything he’s done in his life, also outdid himself when marrying Stephanie.
“She is absolutely the best person I could have ever wanted my brother to be married to,” Carrie said.
“She is kind, so smart, loving, a great mom, wife and sister. I’ll never forget the day Cory called me to go with him to pick out her ring! I was thrilled for them!”
The couple have a third-grade daughter, Sydney, who attends Prairieview-Ogden, and a nearly 3-month-old son, Wesley.
“Watching my brother first become a husband was amazing,” Carrie said.
“I’m so proud of him: I have been able to watch him grow from a little boy and become a responsible man. When he became a father, it was absolutely incredible.
“I always told him, you’ll never love anyone like you do when you have a kid, and it showed on him! He’s a wonderful provider, caring, nurturing, sets expectations, and so loving, it brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.”
Carrie lives across the street from Cory.
As her best friend, Carrie relies on Cory for advice and support. Carrie said that while their children’s ages are far apart, they are still raising them together.
“We spend a lot of time together doing all kinds of activities, from the normal holidays, neighborhood get-togethers, just stopping by to visit each other, and family vacations,” she said.
Cory, his family and his sister’s family are getting ready to head off to Florida for a trip to Disney and Universal Studios next week.
In that, Cory will miss the fundraiser staff at Prairieview-Ogden, Armstrong-Potomac and St. Joseph-Ogden have put together for him on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
Cory has Glioblastoma, a very rare form of brain cancer.
The day his son was born, July 22, 2019, was the first day Cory had chemo and radiation treatments.
Prairieview-Ogden’s girls’ basketball coach David Lannert said while he coached with Cory during the 2018 season, he saw the competitiveness Cory possesses.
“This goes along with his personality, he is a fighter and, like I said, he doesn’t like to lose, so we know that he will keep fighting through this disease,” Lannert said.
Lannert wanted to make sure that the towns who know Cory best had the right opportunities to fight alongside him.
He got in touch with Jim and Jen Wagner of Wagner Signs and Graphics to see if they could design a shirt with “Never Give Up” on one sleeve and Cory’s initials on the other. The Wagners agreed to donate 10-percent of all sales back to the Abernathy family.
Lannert then began to raise funds through Facebook. He wanted to raise $2,500 for the family. As of Wednesday, the total was $6,800.
“It spread like wildfire and people are so generous in their giving, and keep in mind these aren’t just people who know Cory, there are some that don’t know him at all that are generous in giving to a good cause,” Lannert said.
Bringing together Cory’s love for the Prairieview-Ogden and Armstrong-Potomac communities, Lannert also organized the Oct. 15 (6 p.m. start time) game to honor Cory and to present his family with a check.
PV-O’s Superintendent Vic White met with Mulvaney, who said, “we have a lot of Armstrong/Potomac parents coming and his old teammates (high school friends).”
“It’s just the way small towns react to specific situations,” Lannert said. “It doesn’t matter if you battle each other in sports, live in a different town or don’t know the parties involved, small towns come together at critical times and the response and support is unbelievable.”
White then reached out to St. Joseph-Ogden High School’s Brian Brooks, who offered the high school gymnasium for the game within the hour.
“A huge thanks to Brian, Justin (Franzen, athletic director at SJ-O) and SJO for allowing us to play there on such short notice,” Lannert said.
White said there’s something special about the way small communities work.
“I strongly feel small school districts/communities come together to support causes a lot easier than bigger districts/communities because we know just about everyone in our communities,” he said.
White added that the response to support Cory is a reflection of what he’s given to the community for years.
“What impressed me about Cory was his positive attitude and his knowledge of basketball,” he said. “The players loved him and they would run through a wall for him.”
Lannert said the team is there for him.
“We are here with him through this fight, we will support and help in any way possible,” he said.
“Anything we can do to help the family is a blessing, this is the least we can do and I am very grateful for the outpouring of support that people have shown to help out Cory and his family.”
At this time, Cory “is doing well, considering the circumstances,” according to Carrie.
During next week’s trip, the family will focus on spending time together while Cory’s twin sister, Lori and her family will be at St. Joseph-Ogden High School for the game. Lori’s husband, Jake Cross, is the assistant coach for Armstrong, and her daughter, Ellie, plays on the team.
Carrie said that Cory’s team is vast.
“His wife, myself, my husband (Gabe who is the mayor of Ogden and childhood friend of Cory), my kids, his in-laws (Ken and Maureen Brockway of Rantoul), his sister Lori, and our mom (Sandy Abernathy of SJ-O) all do the day-to-day things to help assist.”
“But on top of that, Cory has countless friends and acquaintances that are willing to jump in at a moment’s notice.
“My phone as well as my husband’s phone dings constantly with people checking in and wanting to do something to help. Cory, Gabe, Steph and I have about the same group of friends and we would do anything for each other.”
“The saying “it takes a village” brings on a whole new meaning when facing a tragedy like this. This is the absolute most terrible thing that could happen to a family and I can’t imagine going through it alone.
“It doesn’t make the heartbreak, the worry, or sadness go away; but helps ease the burden of the heaviness of it all knowing that so many people in our awesome community are praying, supporting and caring for him and all of us through this. I can’t imagine a better place to live.”
