Marathon to honor player who died of cancer

MARATHON CITY - Attached along the outfield wall of the Marathon High School baseball field is a series of signs that showcases the three WIAA state championships the program has won since 1992 along with one that documents a runner-up performance.

Located about four fence posts to the right of the 2008 championship banner in left-center field is a round sign that has a red and white pinstriped jersey with the number 32 on it centered between the name Andy Kaldunski.

It's a lasting memento of the co-captain of the 2008 state championship team. Kaldunski died April 3, 2015, after a long battle with brain cancer.

Marathon coach Steve Warren  hung the sign on the outfield fence before a team practice this past Memorial Day as the Raiders were preparing for the start of the postseason.

"We were going to have a ceremony at first, but it ended up being me, the sign and Andy, so to speak. That was actually a special few minutes for me," Warren said. "It was a quiet moment and a chance to say goodbye. When the team came out (to the field), we took some time to talk about him. There's a lot of players on the team right now have heard the name and some of them saw him play when they were growing up."

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The former first baseman will be honored again when his baseball jersey is retired in a short ceremony Friday afternoon between games of the Marathon Legion doubleheader with Minocqua. The first game is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the ceremony will be held at about 8 p.m. on a night in which Marathon will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the "Lights Project" and the installation of lights at the baseball field. Kaldunski's number is the first to be retired in the program's history.

"Baseball was something that was important to him and for the program to recognize him as someone special is obviously something special to us," said Kaldunski's father, Rob.

Kaldunski might not have been a vocal player, but Warren said he was a leader for both the high school and Legion baseball teams.

"He was our rock and our foundation there at first base. He let his bat and glove do the talking," Warren said. "He supported his teammates and if we were playing another team that maybe was a little obnoxious or something, he would usually take it upon himself to silence them with his hitting. And he usually did."

A four-year letter winner for the Raiders, Kaldunski ranks second among Marathon High School career leaders with a .409 batting average and totaled 111 RBI in his prep baseball career. He also ranks second on the Marathon Legion career list with a .384 batting average and finished with 136 RBI with Post 469.

"In the summer of '07, he hit well over .500, I want to say around .530 or something close to that," Warren said. "We lost in the regional (legion) tournament, but I remember his last at-bat of that summer was about a 390-foot line shot home run in Nekoosa. It was one of the hardest-hit balls I've  seen hit. At the end of that summer, I thought he was one of the best high school hitters in the state."

David Schreier, who was a co-captain of the '08 Marathon team, remembers Kaldunski's personality and disposition as much as his contributions on the field. He said Kaldunski's optimistic outlook never changed.

"One of the things I remember as he was battling his illness was that he was always looking toward the future. He was always thinking what his next steps were and what he was going to do next in his job when he got better,"  Schreier said. "Everything with him always stayed in a positive light and what he was going to do when he beat cancer."

Kaldunski attended Ripon College and was going to play baseball for the Red Hawks, but a knee injury he suffered during the state Legion tournament in his senior year derailed his athletic career. It was during college that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He left school in his last semester and went through 24 radiation treatments.

He returned to Ripon College the next fall with the cancer in remission, received his degree in computer science and landed a job as a software engineer with Sentry Insurance.

About 18 months after Kaldunski returned to school, he started having issues with his vision again, and medical tests showed the cancer had returned.

"They started one chemo option and (the tumor) actually disappeared on the scan that they showed us," Rob said. "Then like a month and a half later it developed again and took off and grew.

"It was inoperable, too, but (Andy) never, never complained. He was always positive right up to the last days," Rob said. "He never complained about a thing, but he always was like that."

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or timothy.johnson@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter@timmyjo11