Zeb: Small World, Big Dreams
Carolina RamirezSoccer goes by many names, but here in North Texas, one is of particular note: “The World’s Game.” This community is incredibly diverse. Students in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District speak upwards of 70 different languages at home. But, even though kids in HEB come from nearly 120 nations, junior high boys couldn’t play the most popular game in the world until recently. Portions of the population stopped paying attention in class. There was nothing for them there, no reason to keep their grades up.
This year, 138 of these boys got to represent their schools on the pitch. Their equipment came courtesy of the generous spirit of a boy whose dreams outlived him. Demographics vary in Liga HEB, the collaborative intramural soccer program run in partnership between 6 Stones and HEB ISD. Some players are part of local Academy programs. Plenty more have never taken part in an organized match; they know the game as they play it in the street.
But no matter where you come from, you need one thing to play: a soccer ball.
Zeb’s Small World
A native of Aledo, Texas, Zeb Montgomery developed his passion for soccer more than 30 miles from the fields where HEB ISD students play. His grandparents, Rick and Judy, can still hear him laughing as he runs wind sprints against his teammates after practice. We sit down for an interview on the bleachers from which they used to watch him.
Four years ago, doctors told Zeb’s family that he had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. On May 14, 2014 — the Wednesday after Mother’s Day — they learned that their spirited, teenaged boy needed immediate surgery to insert a port for treatment. He started Chemotherapy almost immediately.
“He was a fighter, and he was very fit. So he kept fighting back,” Judy remembered. “But his world got smaller and smaller, and he spent most of his time in the hospital. As his world got smaller, he didn’t have as much opportunity to go to school. He didn’t have as much opportunity to visit with friends.”
Zeb fought for 18 months; the first 15 filled with laughter. He danced with nurses, challenged his grandparents to Monopoly, and started a prank war with his doctor. If his attitude could have determined his destiny, he would certainly have beaten cancer. Over time, however, the disease began to take its toll.
Where There is No Vision…
As Zeb’s battle carried on, the family sought a bone marrow donor to jumpstart his immune system. Without any matches in the national database, they looked to his immediate relatives for help. Zeb’s brother, Zack, was a match at 18 points of reference; almost perfect. Zeb received a transplant on April 27, 2015. 98 days into the 100-day window for observation, the surgery appeared to be a success. But less than a week later, the Leukemia returned.
That’s when Judy started to wrestle with God, starting in Proverbs 29:18: Where there is no vision, God’s people perish.
“What is Zeb’s vision? His world is so small. As I tossed and turned and prayed about it all night, I felt like… Zeb is a soccer player. He’s a giver. He’s an artist,” Judy said. “So we had him come over to our house and we just kind of cast vision for what he could do. That he could get kids to give him soccer balls. And that, if he wanted to name it, he could call it anything he wanted to. He immediately said ‘Zeb’s Foundation.’
“It kind of caught his vision to be able to do that. It also gave us things to talk about with him… gave him something to think about besides the pain that he was in.”
Together, Zeb and his grandparents dreamed of a day when he was healthy, when his testimony could inspire people to make a difference. He told his family that he wanted to help people. That he loved soccer, and he wanted to share what he loved with others. Even as his condition worsened, his dream gave him something for which to fight.
“We really were never prepared for Zeb to pass away,” Rick said. “Even to the last few days, I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t wrap my brain around that. We were believing that he was going to get better, actually, down to the end. Zeb, he had hope. He believed that he was going to get better. He had hope for — out of the eighteen months, I think it was only the last three months that he had lost hope.
“That was truly one of the hardest things; for Zeb to lose hope that he was going to live. Couple with the pain that he was in, he became broken. That was very, very hard. But even at the very end, Zeb was a giver.”
Zeb’s Foundation
Zeb and his family spent their final months living as vibrant a life as was possible for a boy too sick to even throw a football without pain. He gifted his collection of crazy socks to his team mates and asked his uncle to prepare dinner for them on his behalf. Even his funeral proved to be a gift. When he passed, his family asked guests to bring soccer balls to the service instead of flowers.
The community responded. 834 soccer balls lined the church during Zeb’s funeral. Another 1,200 arrived afterward. Empty soccer shelves became the norm in every athletic store for miles around Aledo. In the midst of tragedy, the Montgomery family had a clear path in front of them.
“We felt like there was a Mandate on Zeb’s life. That the mandate was to share what was in his heart with other people… to give away soccer balls. For us, as Zeb’s grandparents, that’s enough,” Rick said. “We feel like Zeb is looking down from Heaven, and he’s enjoying this process with us. It makes us feel connected with Zeb. I don’t know what you believe, but I believe it’s a real connection, that he’s part of a crowd of witnesses that is looking down and cheering us on.
“When our life passes off of this Earth, then we are alive. In the twinkling of an eye, those who are in Christ are alive. I know that Zeb is not with us here, but he’s with us in Heaven. We believe that he’s enjoying what we’re doing with Zeb’s Foundation in Heaven.”
Zeb has plenty to enjoy. His foundation has delivered roughly 5,000 soccer balls to 26 countries around the world. Some of these donations are at the heart of prison reform in Kenya, where wardens have told Rick and Judy that the game is “creating peace and creating a camaraderie amongst the inmates.”
Prison teams there will host their own tournament in conjunction with this summer’s World Cup.
From One Small World to Another
As Zeb’s Foundation continued to grow, the family and the Board of Directors turned their attention back home. They wanted to make an impact right here in Texas, and they were delighted to find an international community thriving just a half-hour’s drive from their home. Liga HEB gave them a chance not only to serve the nations at home, but to connect with students who would have been Zeb’s peers on the field.
“To me, the middle school age is so vulnerable. They just capture my heart, in a way, because they’re at an age where their lives can take several different directions,” Judy said. “To think that just being able to do something as simple as playing on a soccer team and having the camaraderie and relationship with other kids could actually even help them in school? That means a lot to me.”
Zeb’s father, Daniel, helped Rick purchase and distribute equipment for Liga HEB this year. Each of seven junior high teams received a pop-up goal, shinguards, water bottles, captains’ armbands, and — of course — soccer balls. Rick and Daniel personally delivered the equipment during team practices on the week of March 19, 2018. They shared Zeb’s story every time, and returned to give away more balls during the Champions Cup Match on April 4. On those days, Rick says, it felt like sharing the game with Zeb again.
“Watching those players out on the field, you know, it tugs at our heart,” he said, recalling the time he spent meeting the players. “it was just such a joy… it was really like shaking Zeb’s hand in a way.
“The soccer ball — and soccer — is almost like a universal currency. So many people value it. But it’s also like a universal language… it’s like it overcomes the cultural boundaries that exist. It helps people to form a unity. A union. A relationship.”
When Judy describes Zeb’s world as an increasingly small one, she’s referring to the loss of connection he felt as cancer took its toll. But years after Zeb’s death, as his Foundation grows stronger, another meaning is setting in. Here in HEB, the world is getting smaller every day. From the Middle East to Central America, each corner of it touches the next. Cultures collide. And at the center of it all? Zeb’s passion. The World’s Game.
It’s a small world, after all.