by Olivia Phelps
“I’m the only one with blonde hair,” responded freshman Samantha Logan enthusiastically. “She had blonde hair. Everyone else is brunette.”
Logan lit up at the mention of her mother as a smile spread from cheek to cheek on the guard’s flushed face from a tough women’s basketball practice at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Gym.
Anyone familiar with Samantha knows that it’s not like the starting guard to talk about hair or manicures and fashion.
But, this was different. Logan smiled, taking pride in the fact that she inherited her late mother’s golden locks, while her two sisters took after their father.
In May of 2003 when Samantha was just eight years old, Donna Logan, the mother of three girls and wife to Corona Centennial High School football coach Matt Logan, was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer – a diagnosis that rated six-of-nine in aggressiveness.
Beginning that July and for the following three months, Donna received four rounds of chemotherapy and in May of 2004 underwent a breast recurrence-surgery for what was considered stage IV metastatic cancer.
At eight years old, Samantha remembers a blur of dinners from friends and lots of family. And, of course, a steady diet of sports.
At the time of Donna’s diagnosis Samantha was already suiting up with the boys in a baseball uniform and was the only girl in the league.
After making the all-star team, Samantha spent every night at the field practicing, squeezing visits in to see her mother at the hospital.
Her father, as she recalls, made it a priority to facilitate positive and healthy memories with her mother having experienced his own loss at a young age.
“My Dad did a really good job at keeping us away [from the hospital],” said the 5-foot-9 guard, who also goes by “Sami.” “When his grandmother passed away he saw her sick and that’s all he remembered of her, so he kind of kept us away [for that reason].
“I didn’t get to see her much in the hospital. Which was kind of good, because I didn’t want to see her that sick.”
After Donna’s surgery in May of 2004, the beloved elementary school teacher received 36 radiation treatments to her right chest wall before a PET scan in August revealed a mass on the opposite side of her chest.
In the meantime, sports kept the Logan family going.
Matt, a well-respected coach that had already led his squad to a CIF Division V Championship in 2000 and 2002, claimed the title again in the fall of 2004 in a 49-35 victory against cross-town rival, Norco High School.
Samantha immersed herself in everything from tennis, softball, track and her favorite sport, basketball.
Sami points out that her father definitely passed down the athletic talent.
“She was the clumsy one,” chuckled Samantha of her mother. “Breaking her toes, stubbing them on the corners of tables.”
Sami’s coordination on the field and court are a gift from her father, but her mother’s infectious smile is one and the same with her second-eldest daughter’s.
In September of 2004 an undeterred Donna underwent a lumpectomy and in October received oral chemotherapy for two weeks.
Then, for six weeks in early February of 2005 through March 14, Donna and Matt stayed at Duke University in North Carolina while Donna received an Autologus Bone Marrow Transplant.
The Logan girls watched over everything at home in Corona while their grandparents made sure the girls got to school and practice on time.
As a testament to the love from the community for the Logan’s, in addition to a constant stream of meals, Sami remembers a family gifting an IPod and a laptop to her parents for their time in North Carolina.
The computer was the girls’ lifeline to their mother and father at the time, enjoying Skype sessions in order to keep each other up to date on the happenings of the days.
Once home, Donna underwent another 36 treatments of radiation in May through June of 2005 before a PET scan revealed a number of masses located on her ribs. The Logan’s received good news in October after the frightening PET scan, when a follow-up bone scan and a chest X-Ray came back negative for cancer. Doctors believed the discrepancies were due to inflammation caused by the surgeries and radiation.
Five months later in March of 2006, Donna had discovered another lump under her arm.
The month of April consisted of the removal of cancerous lymph nodes and an MRI before another round of chemo in August.
In January of 2007, a PET scan revealed that the cancer had further spread.
“Me and my sisters and my Dad just sat around my Mom and prayed,” remembers Samantha. “My Dad said, ‘No matter what happens we’re going to be a family and stick together, we’re going to get through this.’”
In July of 2007, Donna Logan passed away at age 41.
Two days later, Sami received the game ball after going three-for-three in her baseball all-star game. While Samantha may have inherited her athletic abilities from her father, sports continue to bring the standout closer to her mother.
“Seeing [my mom] push through made me such a stronger person.”
Former Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball head coach, Marcia Foster, described Logan as “toughness personified.”
Logan, who committed to Fullerton in her senior season as a Centennial Husky, displayed that toughness long before reaching college and becoming a Titan. In fact, she honed that toughness on a different type of playing surface.
Sami participated in a powder puff football game in 2012 and caught the attention of the head football coach when he realized she was throwing a regulation-sized ball.
“I didn’t know you could throw like that,” said Matt Logan.
The father-daughter pair had always toyed with the idea of Sami playing football. The dream became reality during the October 26 Pink-Out game when Sami’s unrelenting desire to take the field won out.
She suited up in a helmet and pads in an attempt to be the first female to throw a touchdown pass in the state of California, and to honor her late mother.
Sami suited up for two weeks of full-pad practice to become eligible to enter a game while working with her father on three pass plays and a single running play in preparation for her debut.
In a statement to The Press Enterprise, coach Matt Logan said he never worried about Samantha getting injured on his field. There was never a question about his daughter’s toughness.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought,” said Sami of the physical contact, “those pads do protect you.”
With all of her family watching from the end-zone, Sami fired a pass out of the shotgun formation and connected with senior wide receiver Jordan Dye, who had also lost his mother to breast cancer, for an 18-yard gain.
While Samantha Logan would not throw a touchdown pass that season, the spark plug added “quarterback” to her list of accolades.
Despite protection from football pads and playing against one of the best defenses in the state, some might venture to say that Sami had other forces on her side that night.
She recounted, “Being on the field and hearing everyone yell my name, [my family was] all standing up and cheering for me. When I threw that pass, players on the field, even players on the other team [said] ‘Good job.’ It was really amazing.”
Sami continues to display that toughness as a Titan as she has earned a starting role on the women’s basketball team under coach Daron Park.
The guard is averaging 7.1 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game and 26.4 minutes per game. The freshman also boasts the sixth-best three-point percentage in the league at .388.
Just as her family sat in the end zone her senior year at Centennial, the Logan contingent is a constant fixture in the stands at Titan Gym. Sami explained that her father’s loyalty often goes so far as choosing a road trip to one of her games over coaching an all-star team.
At 3-3 in the Big West and 7-12 overall, Logan has 19 collegiate games under her belt.
As the national anthem booms through the gym on game day, Logan thinks of her guardian angel.
“She taught me how to be the lady I am and taught me how to grow up and be polite,” she said.
While Sami ties up her long blonde hair before every game, she thinks, “This one is for my mom.”