By Steven Schoon
TAMPA, DEC. 1, 2015 – Quintin Reiss wanted to meet someone just like him. Someone who loves basketball and someone who is forced to live with a rare medical condition. Someone named Chris Perry.
In August of 2014, the Reiss family took a vacation to Montana. During the trip, their oldest son, Quintin, complained of chest pains.
“They did an echocardiogram,” said Quinton's father, Alex, a 1991 USF alumnus and currently an assistant professor of medicine at USF's College of Medicine. “They said there was something wrong with the myocardium, the muscle of the heart. When we got back to Tampa we saw a cardiologist who ordered an MRI of the heart and a special kind of echocardiogram and they confirmed the diagnosis. Since then, he's gone through a number of tests.”
On Feb. 25, 2015, the USF men's basketball team was not more than an hour into its team practice in Hartford, Conn., when Perry complained of chest pains. The 6-8 forward from Bartow, Fla., was taken to the nearest hospital for tests. As a precaution, Perry did not participate in team activities for the remainder of the season, missing the final 12 games. It wasn't until he saw a specialist in Boston that he was told he was able to play basketball again.
“I was so relieved because I was so scared,” Perry said. “That period of time, not knowing if I was going to be able to play again, it killed me. Having my mom and my whole family there helped me a lot.”
Quintin, now 9-years old, was scared as well. For an assignment in school, he was asked to write a poem about himself.
“The last line in the poem was about his greatest fear, which he said was dying at a young age from a medical condition,” said Alex. “We can tell that he is concerned but it hasn't stopped him yet and he loves sports.”
The Reiss family, which includes Alex's wife Martina and 5-year old son Colin, loves sports and has been season ticket holders for USF men's basketball since 2001. Since it was discovered that Quintin and Perry both have the same rare disease, called ventricular non-compaction, arranging a meeting between the two seemed like it would be the best for both.
Shortly after 10 a.m. on Sunday, after the Bulls' shootaround in the Sun Dome, Quintin got to meet Perry for the first time. Two people who went through similar situations with a disease so rare that it is unknown how many people have it because not many get tested.
During the meeting, Quintin told Perry that he thinks about the disease often.
“I don't think you should be thinking about it,” said Perry.
Quintin did not have much to say to Perry, but his smile said enough. Every time he sees Perry play, it gives him the confidence to not be afraid anymore.
“I think it reassures him that the cardiomyopathy is not what defines him,” said Alex. “Chris' message was that it is just a thing that can be overcome like any other obstacle. That every life has adversity and this is part of life that you deal with. It doesn't have to hold him back.”
Perry is a role model for Quintin. Not by just being a basketball player at USF, but by overcoming a rare disease and shining on the court. So far this season, Perry has averaged 9.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game while starting every game. Perry has not let his disease define him and hopes Quintin, who is thinking of becoming an anchor on SportsCenter, can follow his lead.
