Rhode Island Football Egg Crack Challenge for Diabetic Fan Makes Lasting Impact

In the middle of a practice huddle with the Rhode Island Rams football team, 11-year-old Matt Tokarski counted off.

"One! Two! Three!" 

The huddle broke. It was one of the best days of Matt's life. 

It was the good kind of counting, too, which is important. For the Tokarski family, there's been far too much of the bad kind. The kind that involves life and death. 

At the age of six, Matt was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Unlike Type 2 diabetes, Type 1 is a chronic autoimmune disorder. Matt's pancreas naturally produces little to no insulin, so a pump is placed on his arm, which is already covered in scars from injections and catheters. 

"His pancreas is basically outside his body," his mother, Kate, said in an interview with Bleacher Report. 

Every carbohydrate consumed and every blood sugar level must be counted. 

To raise awareness of Matt's disorder, Kate challenged New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, New England Revolution midfielder Scott Caldwell—Matt's favorite player—and the University of Rhode Island football team to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Egg Crack Challenge. 

Of the three, the Rhode Island Rams answered the call by inviting Matt to attend one of the final practices of the spring and taking the challenge. 

The Egg Crack Challenge is exactly what you'd think: Participants crack eggs over their heads and nominate others to do the same. The goal is to spread awareness for a disorder over which people like Matt have no control. 

It was a disorder that was lurking within Matt's body far before anyone knew. 

A Parent's Worst Nightmare

The warning signs were there.

One summer five years ago, Matt began eating and drinking more, yet he was losing weight.

"When he took off his shirt, I could see all of his ribs," Kate said. "It looked like he had cancer or something." 

Because there's no history of diabetes in Matt's family, Kate wasn't sure what was happening. (Autoimmune disorders are primarily inherited, but what they result in is anyone's guess.) On the day before his diagnosis, however, Matt went to the bathroom 22 times. That was the undeniable sign that something was terribly wrong. 

While his parents drove him to the hospital, Matt was slipping in and out of consciousness, his eyes rolling back into his head. Shortly after arrival, doctors gave him an insulin shot, and Matt finally came to. 

The doctors knew instantly what was wrong. A non-diabetic adult's blood sugar is usually between 70 and 100 milligrams per deciliter. At his diagnosis, Matt's blood sugar was at 619 milligrams per deciliter. 

The Tokarskis were horrified. Their son's life would never be the same. It would require constant monitoring. The concern wasn't only that Matt's blood sugar levels would be too high; readings too low from something as simple as playing little league soccer could hurt him, too. Simple things, such as having an afterschool snack or treating himself to candy, had health ramifications.

"You want your kid to be able to go to a carnival and eat cotton candy," Kate said. "Can he do that? Yes. But he makes those decisions not to because he knows he'll feel bad."

She paused, her voice cracking. 

"I'm proud of him for choosing that, but I want him to be a kid, too." 

Every day, his food intake is measured. If Matt wants pancakes for breakfast, all the carbs he will consume must be calculated. The syrup has to be measured—there can't be a pool of it on the plate—pancakes have to be weighed and Matt must take a shot of insulin. This happens at every meal, every day. 

"You have to second-guess everything," Kate said. "You can do everything that's necessary, but his blood sugar levels can be different every day. If someone asks me why Matt's levels aren't consistent, I tell them, 'Because it's Tuesday, and the wind is blowing east.'" 

But that didn't mean Matt's life was over. The child with newly diagnosed diabetes accepted his challenge. He didn't give up. He didn't want anyone's pity. He wanted to help.

Matt, his twin brother and their father, Stephen, set up Sweet Rush Lemonade Stand and raised $409 right away. Matt spoke at the JDRF Children's Congress and at nursing classes about the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. To date, Matt has helped raise more than $10,000 in donations for Type 1 research and awareness. 

The Egg Crack Challenge was simply the next step along the way. 

"You find out how resilient kids with Type 1 are," Kate said. "He's OK with getting a shot because he knows he'll feel better once he does. I don't think he realized how bad he was feeling before." 

The Tokarskis have adjusted their lives to Matt's disorder, but the reality is they'll never be used to it. One of the amazing things about the human body is its ability to keep itself in balance in order to stay running. Matt's body is out of balance, and the Tokarskis are never quite sure which way it'll lean. The delicacy of it is scary. 

"The biggest fear as a parent is that one day, you're going to wake up without your child," Kate said. 

Credit: Rachel Tecca

Challenging Rhode Island 

Matt was given a challenge at an early age. Now, he's challenging others, and Rhode Island gladly answered it.

"Kate left me a voicemail explaining that she had nominated us for the Egg Crack Challenge," said Rachel Tecca, Rhode Island's director of football operations. "I certainly had never heard of it. So, I did a little research, and once I realized what it was, I immediately brought it to coach [Jim] Fleming's attention, and he was on board with it."

The movement came on the heels of last year's Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (known as ALS and also Lou Gehrig's disease). The origins of the Egg Crack Challenge honor Will Hauver, a 22-year-old lacrosse player at Florida's Rollins College who had Type 1 diabetes and died in February from complications from the stomach flu.

Overcome by Matt's story, Rhode Island invited him to participate in its April 24 practice right before the spring game. He received a team jersey and got to break the huddle. After practice, Kate explained to the players what her son deals with on a daily basis. 

"Type 1 diabetes hasn't been exposed to the level that it needs to be," Fleming said. "Our kids recognize that there are others who don't have it as good as they do, that they're fortunate to play this game." 

Then the players cracked the eggs over their head. There were only 12 available—Kate didn't want to be too wasteful—which meant it was a madhouse deciding who would do it. Everyone wanted the chance.

"Our guys were jacked to do it," Fleming said. 

Fleming then challenged The Rhode Show on WPRI 12, the Rhode Island Rams women's soccer team and the New Hampshire Wildcats football team.

With any luck, word about Type 1 diabetes will spread in the same way it did for ALS.  

Credit: Kate Tokarski

As for Matt, consider him an unofficial member of the Rams football team.

His team jersey hangs on the wall of the Tokarski family's sports-fueled "man cave." 

"He's welcome to come back anytime during preseason camp or during a game," Fleming said. "It's an open invitation." 

"Creating a special day for him was big for everyone," Tecca added. "That's something he can cherish forever."

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes obtained firsthand, unless noted otherwise. For more information on donating to help Type 1 diabetes, visit HERE.