A Bittersweet Season for Sprinter Harding : Preps: San Dimas senior finishes second in 100 meters at state track meet, but his thoughts are with his cancer-stricken brother.

Sprinter Matthew Harding of San Dimas High is going through the best and worst of times.

Last week he concluded a remarkable senior season at the state track final by finishing second to Compton’s Ricky Carrigan in the 100-meter dash and placing fifth in the 200.

The success followed All-CIF Southern Section honors in football as a halfback and in soccer as a forward.

Harding, 18, can also look forward to attending the University of Hawaii on a football scholarship.

“He’s had a phenomenal amount of success, but it’s all been so bittersweet,” assistant track Coach Dave Dangleis said.

That is because Harding is concentrating much of his attention on his 15-year-old brother, Travis, who is suffering because of cancer.

Harding said he will never forget the day the disease was first diagnosed. It was April 17, the day he and his brother--a pole vaulter on the track team--were scheduled to compete in a meet against Gladstone of Azusa.

“The day it happened he was vomiting in school and I took him home and called my dad,” Harding said. “Then we saw that the left side of his body was completely paralyzed and he was having seizures. So we took him to the hospital and they told us he would have to be operated on right away.”

By the time the disease had been discovered, Travis had already developed malignant tumors in his brain and optical nerve area. He underwent surgery at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana on April 20.

That was the day before Matthew, at the urging of his brother, ran in the high school division of the Mt. San Antonio Relays and won the 100 in 10.75 seconds.

“The day before, he told me to win a gold (medal) for him,” said Harding, who had spent most of the 48 hours before the race at his brother’s bedside. “I may have been lucky because Carrigan wasn’t there, but I still won the 100.”

Since the initial operation, Harding’s brother has undergone extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment. To complicate matters, he also underwent surgery a short time later when his appendix burst.

Because of the proximity of one of the tumors to his optical nerve, he has also lost his sight--at least temporarily.

“Right now he can’t see, he weighs only 90 pounds and he’s lost all of his hair from the chemotherapy and I just don’t want it to be that way for him,” he said.

Harding said the disease has had a devastating affect on his family.

“It’s just a terrible tragedy,” he said. “My family’s real tight and I’m real close to Travis and he’s not the kind of kid who’s into drugs or anything like that and to have this kind of thing happen to him is just terrible.”

That has made the performance of Harding on the track, including top times of 10.40 seconds in the 100 meters and 21.18 seconds in the 200, even more impressive. “Week to week you wonder how he can stay so focused because he’s been so up and down with this,” Coach Phil Lough said. “He’s missed some practice and it took a lot out of his legs but it hasn’t taken anything out of his heart.”

Said Dangleis: “I think a lot of what keeps him going is his parents want him to keep going and his brother wants him to keep going. It’s almost like he’s been on a mission.”

Harding’s challenge hasn’t been made any easier by the fact that he only started competing in track as a junior and doesn’t particularly care for the sport.

From the time he enrolled at San Dimas, Harding has concentrated more on football and soccer. As a senior, he rushed for 1,089 yards and 19 touchdowns in only 107 carries in football and scored a team-leading 34 goals in soccer.

Not that he doesn’t have the ability to pursue a track career.

“He’s only a second-year runner so he’s very raw and his potential is just enormous,” Dangleis said. “I think he would have a good future at (track) but it’s his decision as to what he wants to do. He says he hates it but I don’t know how you can hate something that you do so well.”

Despite his success in football, Harding was largely ignored by recruiters because he is only 5 foot 10 and 145 pounds.

So along with his father, James, he decided to take the matter into his own hands.

“I sent letters out for football and they saw my height and sent them back,” he said. “Then I sent the same ones with my (highlight) film and I got some teams interested.”

Brigham Young, Azusa Pacific and Hawaii showed the most interest.

Lough said Harding initially tried out for the track team in hope of improving his chances for a football scholarship.

“In a small league like ours it’s hard to get noticed but we told him if he ran well in the 100 he’d get noticed, and he has been,” Lough said.

After running 10.7 in the 100 as a junior and 4.3 in the 40-yard dash during football season, Harding went into the track season with an optimistic attitude.

Only he wasn’t sold on the idea of competing in track, particularly after he signed with Hawaii.

“I signed my letter of intent in February and I still put out for the soccer team to get us to the 2-A quarterfinals,” Harding said. “I didn’t really want to run track but I have a lot of close friends at this school and on the team and that’s why I chose to go out and compete.”

By finishing second in the state meet, Harding said he has exceeded any expectations that he had at the start of the season.

“I’ve surprised myself but my father always told me I could do a 10.4 (100) and I could do a 21-flat (200) so he’s kept me going,” he said. “Even though I’ve finished second or third sometimes, I’ve always been right up there. I may not beat Ricky Carrigan but I’ll always give him a race.”

Harding said that competing has helped to release some of the anger that he has been feeling because of his brother’s illness.

“I have a lot of anger inside of me because my brother did nothing to deserve this,” he said.

“So instead of taking it out on anyone or hitting a wall, I just run hard.”

Harding says he would like nothing better than to see his brother win his battle with cancer.

“I’ve had to work hard all season for my success, so I’m not about to give anything up, but I’d trade it all for him to be healthy again,” he said. “If they told me I could give up my scholarship to help Travis, I would give it all up for him.”