Wood's Newcome inspires, leads as she deals with rare kidney disease

BERRYVILLE — By producing 60 goals and 56 assists, McKenna Newcome has heard her a lot of applause during her girls’ soccer career at James Wood High School.

Colonels fans have never been happier to cheer on the senior All-State midfielder and captain than they were on Thursday, when Newcome jogged off after playing just 30 seconds of James Wood’s season-opening game against Clarke County at Feltner Stadium.

Newcome — who has signed with NCAA Division I Marshall University in Huntington. W.Va. — has been a starter throughout her career at James Wood. But even though Newcome has been practicing with the Colonels since Feb. 22, she didn’t expect to be on the field when the opening whistle blew against the Eagles because of her uncertain health status.

On Feb. 20, Newcome was released from the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System hospital in Charlottesville. She had been hospitalized for three weeks because of a rare disease that aggressively attacks the kidneys called Diffuse Crescentic Glomerulonephritis Anti-Glomerular Basement Membrane. Newcome also had issues with ANCAs (Anti-Neutrophilic Cytoplasmic Antibodies) and high protein. ANCA are a type of autoantibodiy. Autoantibodies are proteins made by your immune system that mistakenly target normal tissues.

Anyone who’s ever talked to Newcome walks away knowing that she’s a cheerful and engaging person. The last several weeks have obviously been difficult for her, but countless people have come forward to help her maintain her typical positivity.

“The support that I’ve had from not just the James Wood soccer community, but the whole [Frederick County and Winchester] community, and the school system, and my family ... I had a lot of visitors while I was at the hospital,” Newcome said. “Obviously, we never predicted this would happen, but just the amount of people I’ve seen reach out to me is overwhelming, and I’m so grateful for everybody.”

After not feeling well for a few days, Newcome went to Valley Health Winchester Medical Center on Jan. 31. Valley Health eventually performed a kidney biopsy on her and after examining the results of the biopsy the decision was made to airlift Newcome to UVA on Feb. 2.

Over the next 18 days, Newcome spent time in the intensive care unit and a regular hospital room, with UVA conducting 14 plasmapheresis treatments. Plasmapheresis is the process used to obtain plasma — which is mostly water containing electrolytes (dissolved salts) and proteins — from blood, and the treatments help with trying to stop the antibodies from continuing to damage the filtering system in her kidneys. UVA also performed two dialysis treatments on Newcome. Dialysis helps a body remove extra fluid and waste products from the blood when the kidneys are not able to do so.

That’s a lot for anyone to go through. In James Wood coach Donavan Russell’s eyes, Newcome couldn’t have handled it any better. When he went to visit her, Newcome was the one who lifted his spirits up.

Russell was one of Newcome’s many visitors, and one of the people who have taken the time to contribute to Newcome financially. Newcome’s former teammate and 2023 James Wood graduate Lydia Watson decided to organize a GoFundMe for Newcome’s medical expenses. (Watson’s sister Ella, a sophomore, is a current varsity player.) It started with a goal of hitting $45,000 in donations, and that goal was reached. The GoFundMe for Newcome has resulted in 568 donations.

On Feb. 20, Newcome and the James Wood soccer program had their spirits lifted collectively. When Newcome was released that day from UVA, she immediately went to the Colonels’ soccer practice — James Wood had started tryouts the previous day.

“I came up the hill [to the practice field], and everyone came over, and it was really emotional,” Newcome said. “It was really cool to see everybody.”

Since being discharged from UVA, Newcome has been taking medication, and she has weekly lab sessions for her kidney team to review. As evidenced by the fact she only played 30 seconds in Thursday’s game, Newcome has not been cleared for full physical activity. But for the most part, her lab results show improvement, and she’s gradually increased her activity. She started participating in non-contact passing drills the week beginning March 3.

“It’s kind of looking at my [lab] numbers every week to see how much I can push myself, how much I can do,” Newcome said. “Hopefully, moving forward, I’ll be able to do some more [activity. My condition] is rare, so [the doctors] don’t really know the next steps. It’s just determining what steps to take as we go.”

Even though Newcome hasn’t participated in any game-type situations in practice, she’s been a huge source of leadership and inspiration for her teammates in practices, scrimmages, and on Thursday.

“It’s been a bit of a different dynamic [playing without Newcome],” said James Wood junior forward Sloane Ferrebee. “But she’s been doing a really good job taking on the leadership role more from the sideline. Just giving us all the hype from the sideline, and making sure our head is always in it, and seeing what runs we need to see that she can see are there for us.”

On Thursday, Russell gave Newcome a chance to inspire her team as a game participant. In the parking lot at James Wood before the Colonels left for the game at Clarke County, Russell asked Newcome if she had playing gear.

“I was like, ‘What?’” said Newcome after Thursday’s game, recalling her reaction while standing next to Russell. “I thought he was joking. It kind of surprised me.”

Russell said he felt Newcome being on the field was something that needed to happen.

“McKenna’s been such a big part of our success over the years,” Russell said. “Having her on the field, I couldn’t think of any other way to start our season.”

The starters for both teams were announced in numeric order before the game and ran out to midfield. Newcome — who wears No. 18 — was the last Colonel announced. After jogging out to midfield, she hopped across in front of her teammates and high-fived each of them. The last person in the line was freshman DeLaney Newcome, McKenna’s sister.

In a conversation about McKenna Newcome before the game, Russell told an observer she would start, but it wasn’t clear how long she would play.

Russell put her at left back, and Newcome quickly found herself in the middle of the action. With the ball at the feet of a Clarke County player, Newcome closed in, and her pressure resulted in the Eagles kicking the ball out of bounds.

“It made me nervous,” said Russell as he stood next to Newcome after the game.

“Hey, they’ve got the ball,” said Newcome, with a smile. “I’ve got to step to the ball. That’s my job.”

Newcome was taken out of the game after that play. Getting to force the action was just icing on the cake for Newcome, who hopes she can do everything else she does on the field so well for a full game sooner rather than later.

“It was a great day,” Newcome said. “Just getting to be out there, warming up with the team, being a part of everything, getting my hair done ... I’m still there [with the team], but being engaged and active, and being able to get on the field, senior season and everything, it just really meant a lot.”

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at
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