Daniel Siskowic, 44;
YOUTH SPORTS VOLUNTEER, COACH
By Jack Williams, Staff Writer

January 17, 2002

   Beset by migraine headaches and a heavy academic load, Daniel Siskowic reluctantly hung up his helmet after one year of football at the University of California Davis.
But his heart remained in the game until he died Jan. 9 at San Diego Hospice after a four and one-half year battle with melanoma. He was 44.
   A former team captain and all-Western League fullback at Mission Bay High School, Mr. Siskowic proudly watched his sons, Cameron, 17, and Kyle, 15, play varsity football last fall at Clairemont High.
Cameron, a second team all-county linebacker as a senior, was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma cancer after his freshman year. He underwent successful surgery to remove a lump from his lower back and earned Harbor League defensive player of the year honors.
   Kyle, a freshman letterman at linebacker, was named the school's outstanding varsity newcomer. He also joined his brother on the Chieftains' basketball team.
   "Dan never missed a football game at Clairemont and not a basketball game, either, until the Tuesday night before he died," said his wife, Liz.
   Although the cancer spread to his liver in the summer of 2000, "he was still tossing footballs with the kids and working out in September and October," she said.
As a founder of the revived Clairemont High Booster Club, Mr. Siskowic hoped to raise funds to provide the school with stadium lights and a weight room. He attended booster meetings and games between chemotherapy treatments while operating an engineering consulting firm , Sevier Siskowic Engineers Inc., which he bought in 1995.
   He coached youth sports as a volunteer, from T-ball and Little League to soccer and Pop Warner. Last summer, between traveling to Houston for treatments at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, he volunteered as a basketball coach at the North Clairemont Recreation Center.
   He also had taught a course in the San Diego Junior Achievement program at Marston Middle School.
For the World Sports Network, a Christian organization that sends youth teams around the world, Mr. Siskowic used his computer skills to create a Web site that enabled the friends and relatives of players to follow the teams overseas.
   Two years ago, he launched a Web site for the 25th reunion of his Mission Bay High graduating class.    The site also became a vehicle for graduates to share information and for Mr. Siskowic to provide updates on his life and cancer therapy.
   Born in Oceanside, he moved to Pacific Beach as a child. He earned three varsity letters in football at Mission Bay High, helping lead the Buccaneers to a first-round upset of El Cajon in the 1974 CIF-San Diego Section playoffs. El Cajon's quarterback, Mark Malone, went on to star at Arizona State and quarterback the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Diego Chargers.
   As a senior at Mission Bay, Mr. Siskowic was named a National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete, an honor his oldest son received on Jan. 11.
   "Dan was a great athlete, but also one of those great-attitude guys," said Denny Magnuson, his backfield coach at Mission Bay. "He was the kind of guy you would want to be in a foxhole with."
After graduating from UC-Davis with a degree in mechanical engineering, Mr. Siskowic married Liz Carson, his high school sweetheart. The couple had grown up a flew bocks from each other and began dating in junior high school.
   He was an avid body surfer during his youth and as an adult he added various racquet sports, snowboarding, board surfing, soccer, rock climbing and parasailing over the years.
   "The last thing he picked up was barbecuing," his wife said.
In addition to his wife and sons, survivors include parents, Sam Siskowic of Pacific Beach and Anne Bay of San Diego; his stepmother, Polly Siskowic of Pacific Beach; sisters, Dawn Siskowic of Santee and Diane Bay of Pacific Beach; and a brother, Steve of Tennessee.
   Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Horizon Christian Fellowship, 5331 Mount Alifan Drive, San Diego. A surfer memorial "paddle out" is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday on the cliff at the foot of Law Street, Pacific Beach.

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