Tailgating for Telly: Marshall community comes together
Before the game on Friday night, The Marshall Athletic Excellence and FFA students are putting on a Tailgate for Telly. Telly Dominguez graduated from Marshall high school in 2008 and he’s been battling cancer. Thursday he will have a kidney transplant and the kidney is coming from his mother, Armida.
“I’ve been graduated for years and they still care. I had kidney problems. They first started me on dialysis. That failed miserably. They wanted to do the transplant.,” said 23-year-old Dominguez.
As soon as the Marshall student athletes learned of Telly’s latest battle they huddled together and called an audible for this Friday’s pre-game meal.
“Originally Friday’s tailgate was to raise money for our athletic excellence group, after finding out about Telly, switching our organization to the donation wasn’t a hard choice at all,” said Marshall junior Ty Deforest.
“You are going to see two communities (Marshall and Cambridge) an hour from when they’re tailgating are going to be at each others throats but for the time being they are together fighting for the same cause,” said Matt Kleinheinz, Marshall athletic director and head football coach.
While the Cardinals tackle the tailgate, Telly’s head coach at home made the most important call.
“My mom is like, I will give you my kidney. There really wasn’t much of a conversation. Once she decides something you cannot say no,” said Dominguez.
Thursday, Telly will face his toughest opponent in the operating room, yet his loyal Cardinal teammates will cheer him on.
“I just hope for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery,” said Marshall senior Cam Ward.
But his mom, Armida, will be his biggest fan by his side.
“I am going to save my son,” said Armida Dominguez.
Tailgate Information
5-7 Friday October 11th at Marshall Middle School commons.
$3 for hot dogs, chips, beans and desserts
Proceeds go to help support the Dominguez family as they go through some challenging times in the weeks ahead.
If you would like to donate here is the link
Marshall hosts Cambridge Friday night in our Channel3000 Prep Mania Game of the Week. The game will be live on TVW Ch 14 or live streamed on Channel3000.com at 7pm October 11th.
