Ian Supra

He Touched the Hearts of a Community

by John Magrino, Dr. Phillips High School athletic director
& Natalie Nickson, Dr. Phillips High School swimming coach


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Ian Supra of DrPhillips competes for the Dr. Phillips High School water polo team before succumbing to stage 4 esophageal cancer on Nov. 24, 2015, at the age of 20.

The news of Ian Supra’s

Ian Supra touched the hearts of a community and affected many people in DrPhillips and beyond. Natalie Nickson: “There is an emptiness in my heart …”

. Ian was an extraordinary young man who was so gifted athletically, academically and personally that to list his accolades and achievements would never come close to recognizing how much he impacted the community emotionally. He brought everyone together; showed us the power of community, love and hope; made us stop and appreciate all that is good in the world; and taught us how to be strong for each other.

I think I can speak for many of us when I say I will never understand why he was taken from us so soon, and all the love I have for him is compounded by a selfish anger I know I will never overcome. We grieve for his parents, Jackie and Chris, who courageously welcomed all of us into their lives when it would have been understandable to request privacy. Nearly every day I write; yet today, I simply can’t find the right words, because I’m not sure they exist. And if they do, I’m not strong enough to find them.

However, Natalie Nickson, DPHS’s swimming coach and a great friend to Ian, has:

There is an emptiness in my heart knowing Ian is gone. Words can’t even begin to describe the man he was and the man he surely would have become. As I sit here grieving, wondering why you were taken away, all I can think is everyone must know who you really were, the profound impact you made, not just on me, but on a program, a school and a community. I will make sure you are celebrated for all the incredible things you did and not remembered for the way you left this world. In the end, you did not lose the battle with cancer. Even as we hugged just a few days ago, you had won. You never gave up. As a coach, we can wait a lifetime for an athlete like Ian. The one who not only makes his teammates and the team better instantly, but the one who changes you as a coach and human being. Ian was that person and so much more. From the moment he dove into the pool, my life and everyone around him was never the same. He worked so hard with no complaints. He pushed his teammates to work just as hard. They won when people thought they couldn’t. He was a perpetual light that never dimmed. Even when he got sick, he handled it with all the grace, humor and poise everyone had come to expect from him. He was more concerned about how everyone else was handling it than he was about himself. I remember after a grueling 12-hour surgery in Pittsburgh, when I finally got to see him, one of the first things he said to me was, ‘Thank you for being so tough on me all those years. It makes all of this seem easy.’ And we smiled and laughed. That’s who Ian was. A charismatic leader who, if given the chance, would have changed the world. Instead, he changed a community and touched the lives of everyone he met. So while a piece of my heart has gone with him forever, I am also at peace knowing I was privileged enough to have him in my life. I will never stop sharing stories about No. 13 Ian Supra. Until the very end, he fought with all the strength in his heart. It’s only fitting that even in death, he will live on in our hearts — always and forever.