The part of the Cooper and Ace Flagg Basketball ProCamp had arrived where campers could try their luck in 2-on-2 battles against the Maine hoops stars. The first challenger was a thin boy with glasses, high red socks and braces on both ankles who took a defiant stance against Cooper, the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA Draft.

It was just a showcase for campers to watch up close as Flagg exhibited the dunks and athletic finishes that have raised him to stardom. But Jackson Kalbhenn did his best to keep up with the Newport native and current Dallas Maverick.

“I don’t know how to play defense, in any sport,” he said. “I had fun.”

For Jackson, an 8-year-old living in Kennebunk, the victory was being out there at all. He’s a survivor of Ewing sarcoma, a cancer that attacks bones and soft tissue, and in his case, his left fibula, one of the two bones making up the lower leg. It’s an experience that over two years has resulted in the loss of the top half of that bone, months of grueling chemotherapy, constant physical therapy and occasional complications, such as stress fractures and nerve damage, related to the diagnosis.

Today, however, Jackson’s story is one of recovery. He’s nearly 18 months cancer-free, and while the player he went up against is beginning his first professional season, Jackson is in the middle of a full athletic load of his own. He’s on the soccer field, with basketball due up in November and baseball waiting in the spring. He runs, cuts and moves like every other kid on the field, with no outward sign of the battle he’s had to endure.

“He had a soccer game (earlier) and I’m watching him kick the ball down the field and it’s just remarkable. You would never tell looking at him, if you didn’t know, that he has gone through something horrible,” said his mother, Martine, who runs the JC Strong Fund to raise money for Ewing sarcoma relapse. “He’s out there playing, having a good time.”

Martine and her husband, Kyle, know they’re not in the clear yet. Non-metastasized Ewing sarcoma has a 78% event-free survival rate, according to a Children’s Oncology Group report published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2021. Event-free means no relapse, metastasis or other complications related to the cancer.

“Until that five-year mark, we all kind of hold our breath, live each day as it is and enjoy life,” Martine said.

‘I WAS IN DISBELIEF’

Jackson was visiting his grandparents in Burlingame, California, with his father in July 2023 when he tripped and fell. The next two nights he woke up screaming in pain, prompting Kyle to take him to urgent care.

The clinic suspected blood clots, and Kyle and Jackson went to a children’s hospital and spent the night in the emergency room. After X-rays and ultrasounds, a doctor came to Kyle in the early morning hours with the cancer diagnosis.

“I was in disbelief,” he said. “I said ‘Are you sure? Show me this. What are you talking about? You can’t all of a sudden have cancer.’ It really caught me off guard.”

Cancer meant chemotherapy, starting two weeks after diagnosis, and a surgery in November to remove the stricken part of the bone.

“I was like ‘But he wants to be an athlete,'” Martine said. “There’s no crystal ball in the beginning to see if you’re going to get through this.”

From there, he faced one draining task after another. He had to go to physical therapy after the surgery to relearn how to walk and ward off atrophy in his legs and ankles. Chemotherapy resumed two weeks later and continued through March 2024, every other week for two-day or five-day periods. In between, he developed stress fractures and had to return to the hospital for transfusions and treatment for fevers.

“They always say kids bounce back, but you don’t really know what that means until you see it,” Kyle said. “Having to see him go through that broke my heart every second of every day. That kid is the strongest kid I’ve ever seen in my life.”

One of the most difficult parts, however, was that the procedures halted the active life of a sports fanatic with 21 jerseys in his closet and dreams of playing in the NBA or NFL someday. He was in a wheelchair for a month after his diagnosis, and confined to a bed for a month after the surgery.

“That was hard,” Martine said. “Sports are life for him. He always has a ball in his hand, ever since he was an infant, sitting up and throwing a ball, that was the first thing he did as a baby.”

Recognizing that, Dr. Reid Briglia of Spine Strong Physical Therapy in Falmouth constructed parts of Jackson’s therapy around sports, in order to keep him engaged in the work. He’d have him shoot baskets while properly putting weight on the left foot, or throw a baseball while landing with his foot on a wedge to practice a correct landing, or kick a soccer ball while standing on one leg.

“We were making it as fun as possible with like, literally, any sports game we could come up with,” said Briglia, a former baseball player at the University of Indiana. “It just kept him occupied while he was still doing what he needed to do, rather than having him do 20 calf raises against the wall. (He) would look at you like Medusa (and) be bored after a minute.”

‘BEST DAY OF OUR LIVES’

The recovery so far, however, has been successful. The surgery hasn’t affected his mobility, and Martine said doctors have told her it won’t limit his athletic endeavors in the future.

“The fact that a year (and a half) later he’s playing sports is, I didn’t know what to expect,” Briglia said. “He literally knocks me over with a soccer ball when he kicks it with his left foot. It’s pretty cool.”

Chemotherapy ended on March 31, and the family got word on April 12 that there was no evidence of disease, though he still has scans every four months and does physical therapy one to two times a week.

“That was the best day of our lives,” Martine said.

For Jackson, thankfully, the memories are a blur. His leg, he said, is pain-free and “doesn’t really feel like anything.” Asked if he remembers hard days in the hospital, he recalls instead the fun he had watching movies and playing on his iPad and Nintendo Switch.

“The best part about being in the hospital was that I got to skip school and play video games,” he said, laughing.

There have been other perks. His battle has drawn a measure of celebrity, and gotten him on the field and ice at Portland Sea Dogs, Portland Hearts of Pine and Maine Mariners games. Last year, Mariners captain Wyllum DeVeaux appeared at his school to surprise him and his friends.

Then came the latest sports highlight, as Martine saw that there were chances for sale to go up against Cooper Flagg, one of his favorite players, at the camp in August.

“When I saw that, I thought ‘That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,'” she said.

The days of chemo and surgery recovery seemed a distant memory as Jackson stood face to face with one of his idols.

“I don’t think he really understood it’s kind of a showcase,” Kyle said with a laugh. “He tried his best, but Cooper did some dunks.”

How did it feel to face Flagg?

“I don’t know,” Jackson said. “That was five months ago.”

Talk about living in the moment.