Palmetto senior’s perseverance through illness inspires Panthers’ boys’ lacrosse team

Palmetto High senior Luke Funcia would do just about anything to play lacrosse, and he proves that every day by merely walking onto the field.

Funcia, 17, has been through a lot over the past three-plus years – two brain surgeries, countless seizures, a misdiagnosis by doctors and – most damaging to his enjoyment of life – the loss of his junior season of lacrosse.

“I’ve been playing lacrosse since the first grade,” said Funcia, who has a 4.0 grade-point average and is interested in studying Finance in college. “All my friends play. It’s very important to me.

“Lacrosse is the game I love. it has taught me confidence -- on and off the field. It has taught me resilience, how to deal with pressure and how to commit to something.”

Funcia’s health problems started on Oct. 26, 2021, when he was a freshman playing fall ball with the Palmetto varsity.

Jake Hawkins, who is one of Funcia’s best friends on the team, said Luke had a great practice that day.

In fact, the coaches let him break down the huddle, which is an honor given to somebody who gave great effort that day.

However, when the players were busy taking off their pads, disaster struck.

“All of a sudden, Luke collapsed,” Hawkins said. “I was almost crying – seeing someone you know go down like that.

“Even to this day, it’s still traumatic to think about.”

That was Funcia’s first seizure.

Fortunately, his mother, Beth Funcia, was in the parking lot waiting to take him home from practice.

“I went running over and saw him have another seizure in front of me,” Beth said. “He had another seizure in the ambulance, and he went into respiratory failure.”

Beth jumped in and performed CPR, something she has been trained to due to in her role as a teacher and a volleyball coach at MAST Academy.

The ambulance took Lucas to Baptist Hospital.

“I was terrified,” Beth said. “Nobody knew what was going on. The doctors thought he had been hit by the ball.

“He had no history of seizures, and I was a bundle of nerves waiting for somebody to tell me what was wrong.”

Two days later, doctors finally told Beth and her husband Jose that Lucas had a parasite in his brain that had died, and no treatment was needed – just anti-seizure medication.

Unfortunately, that was a misdiagnosis.

Two years later, in the summer of 2023, Luke was having focal or partial seizures two or three times per day.

“During these smaller seizures,” Beth said, “he can’t hear anything or speak for a couple of minutes.”

Luke then went back to the hospital for more tests, and doctors found something, namely corticodysplasia, which can cause swelling and/or abnormal cells in the brain.

It was soon determined that Luke was a candidate for brain surgery.

Luke had two brain operations. The first, which lasted 4½ hours, took place on Valentine’s Day 2024. The second one, which lasted for eight hours, happened on Feb. 26.

In the first procedure, doctors placed a grid in Luke’s brain for monitoring purposes. Then, they took him off medication to essentially induce a seizure.

That gave the doctors more information.

During the second surgery, doctors removed as much of what they thought was a lesion as possible. Doctors put Lucas under anesthesia for the operation as normal. However, they then slowly woke him up during the surgery so that they could talk to him to make sure they did no damage while they were working so close to what are known as the “eloquent functions” in his parietal lobe.

“He was awake for two hours while they were taking things out of his brain,” Beth said. “They were asking him whatever questions they could think of just to keep him talking.”

After the surgery, a biopsy was performed, and it was only then that doctors discovered that what they thought initially was a dead parasite and then a lesion was in reality a glioneuronal tumor.

Sadly, Luke will – at some point – require a third surgery to remove as much of that tumor as possible.

In the meantime, he was able to get back on a lacrosse field on Sept. 17, and he plans to play his senior season until or unless doctors say it’s time for that third surgery.

The good news is that the scar on his head has healed, and the swelling from the trauma of surgery is gone. However, he is still having seizures, and the medication prescribed has not shrunk the rest of the tumor, which is about seven millimeters long.

As a coach, Beth knows the power of athletic competition.

“Sports has the ability to take you out of your misery,” she said. “Lacrosse was taken away from Luke, and it was important for him to get out there and show he can play.”

Lucas said his parents left the decision of whether to play or not up to him.

“Playing in the fall was scary because I could get hit in the head,” said Luke, who has already been admitted to Florida State, Miami, UCF and FIU. “But it was also good to get out there with my teammates.”

Those Palmetto teammates have helped in Luke’s recovery in various ways.

For starters, the players got buzz haircuts in a show of solidarity with Luke. Aiden Alonso, who was a senior last year, spearheaded the effort.

“High school kids really like their long hair,” Hawkins said. “The fact that we did that shows that Luke is like our brother. We’re family.”

Luke said his ordeal has given him a new perspective.

“It has brought me to religion,” he said. “When you get close to dying and at certain point believe you are going to die; you start thinking about God.”

Luke is also thinking about Palmetto’s season opener at Coral Shores on Feb 7.

“I’m fired up,” said Luke, who is listed by coach Jacob Cropley as one of Palmetto’s top-nine players and top-two attackers. “I think it will be fun to play with my teammates.”

After all, Luke Funcia will do just about anything for lacrosse.

MORE BOYS’ LACROSSE

▪ Palmetto (12-6 last year) is led by seniors Scott Gould and Lucas Bauza as well as junior Walter Petkovich.

▪ Gulliver (18-3 last year) is led by a trio of senior attacks, Sebastian Schnur and Hoban Noyes, and senior midfielder Jordi Quirch.

▪ Columbus (13-9 last year) is led by junior midfielder Diego Duque, senior goalie Jayden Leon, senior defender Andres Salabarria and senior attack Marcelo Hoed de beche.

▪ Archbishop McCarthy, which went 9-10 last year, graduated 14 seniors, including their entire starting lineup on offense. However, the team added junior goalie Ayden Summerell to go with a pair of standout returners in sophomore Ryder Crews and senior Sean McDonough.

▪ North Broward Prep (7-9 last season) is led by senior Chandler Ripps, who had 32 goals and eight assists in 2024. Seniors Max Brownbill and Jeremy Panster are also players to watch.

▪ Keys Gate, a first-year program, is led by juniors Joshua Stanley and Kahari Jones and freshman Julio G. Jaramillo.

▪ St. Brendan has a senior-heavy team with a core group of kids who have played together for years. The leaders are seniors Stephen Varela (61 goals) and Maxx Garcia and sophomore Julian Rodriguez. This team is strong on attack but low on numbers in the midfield.

▪ American Heritage (10-8 last season) is led by Jack Switter, a senior who was limited to only four games last season due to injury. Junior Jacob Rosenberg should be key on face-offs.

GIRLS’ LACROSSE

▪ Pine Crest (9-9) is led by sophomore midfielder Andreanna Spyredes and junior attack Hailey Holland.

▪ Ransom Everglades (8-6) will be led on offense by juniors Abby Pollak (30 goals) and Bea Alves de Lima (32 goals). Sophomore Caitlyn White powers the defense. Pollak was selected to play for Peru’s national team in 2024.

▪ American Heritage went 16-2 last season, winning its first district title and finishing second in the regionals. Almost every player returns from last year, including senior All-American Zoe Horwitz (91 goals), sophomore Lauren Williams (43 goals) and senior Luna Mancuso (40 goals).

▪ NSU University School (9-7 last season) is led by senior/first-team All-Broward star Vincenza Priano, who missed half of last season due to an ACL knee injury. She is back and better than ever, according to her coaches. In addition, those coaches regard junior Chanel Miller as the best goalie in the state. And freshman Mia Farris is a future star after scoring 18 goals last season.

▪ Gulliver (5-10) is led by senior Marena Goodman (32 goals) and juniors Salome Garcia and Stefi Militello. This is an athletic team with several players with experience in other sports.

▪ Douglas (15-4) returns 11 key players, and there is plenty of speed on offense. The leaders are seniors Kaitlyn Irwin (75 goals) and Caroline Lam (27 goals) and junior Chloe Resnik (68 goals).

▪ St. Brendan, a first-year program, is powered by juniors Ava Ortiz and Miabella Hernandez and sophomore Briana Jorge. All three are fast midfielders.

▪ Lourdes (3-7) has a young team – its top three players are all sophomores – lefty Daniella Querejeta (10 goals as a freshman); Bianca Porro and Lola Francisco. Senior co-captains Sofi Rosello and Mia Salazar provide leadership, and Lourdes this year has added a JV team.

▪ Palmer Trinity (6-9), overall, has solid stick skills. Four of Palmer’s top nine teams are seventh-, eighth- or ninth-graders. The top players are eighth-grader Emma Salar (48 goals); senior Isabella Egea (43 goals); and seventh-grader Juliana Caravetta (10 goals).

▪ West Broward (7-6) is led by senior midfielder Leah James and junior midfielder Jaylin Urrea.

▪ Keys Gate is led by freshmen Astra Stanley, Aaliyah Castillo and Andrea Montes.

This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM.