When 10-year-old Brynn Moore came to watch FC Dallas soccer practice, she arrived in style; a police escort led a pink firetruck from Pink Heals to the front door of Toyota Stadium in Frisco.
"Welcome to training," Moore said to herself as she walked to the practice field. "Um, soccer is like, probably the world to me."
The avid soccer player came to watch FC Dallas players practice before their match against FC Cincinnati on Saturday. "It's a little bit more intense than I thought it was," Moore said as she watched from the sideline. "There's like a whole shabang!"
Moore isn't used to sitting on the sideline. A persistent injury to her right foot kept her from playing for several months. Then, doctors did some tests.
"Found out that I have cancer," Moore said. "So what do you call that? Luck."
Luck, because had Moore not been injured while playing soccer, she might not have known she had Ewing's Sarcoma, a cancer growing in the soft tissue around the bones in her foot.
"So be be able to catch it at 10 because of soccer is a blessing," Brynn's mother, Lindsey Matthews said.
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Moore has been through five of her 40 chemotherapy treatments. Her blonde hair is gone, but her humor is firmly in tact.
"I get the head from my mommy, not my Daddy," Moore joked as she sat next to her father, who is bald.
"I know so much about her and I've never met her," Cedar Hill Police Officer Andrew Rhodes said. When Rhodes heard about Brynn's Battle on Facebook, he wanted to help, so he contacted FC Dallas and Pink Heals. "I know what it's like as a parent."
On Friday, FC Dallas President Dan Hunt gave Moore a 2-day contract with the team. She will act as 'co-captain' for Saturday's game, go onto the field with the team, and be included in the starting lineup photo.
"Wow," Brynn said wide-eyed as she looked at the contract.
The special day also included a chance to meet her favorite player, Bryan Acosta, and join the rondo, kicking the ball with the entire team.
"We fight really hard every day as players, and then you see someone like Brynn. That's a real fighter," FC Dallas player Paxton Pomykal said. "It's humbling for her to want to come out and meet us."
