A Relay Race, a Health Battle and a Community of Support

For more than a decade, Ravenscroft students have laced up their shoes each summer to take part in Oregon’s grueling 200-mile Hood to Coast Relay. Though unofficial and student-led each year, the running teams have long embodied school spirit, camaraderie and a commitment to cancer research.

For Max Haensel ’14, these three themes have become deeply personal.

Brett '17 (left) and Max '14 (right) with their father, Doug Haensel, who drove the support van during the 2022 race.

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Early Days of Running

Max joined the team originally known as Ravens in the Hood (now known as Ravens on the Run), as a sophomore, and the experience quickly became a family affair. By the next year, Max was serving as team captain, and his dad, Doug, volunteered to drive the support van. His younger brother, Brett Haensel ’17, followed in his footsteps and later captained the team himself.

Those years were formative—and difficult. While leading the team and raising funds for the American Cancer Society, Max lost both of his grandparents to cancer. The cause took on new meaning.

After graduating from Ravenscroft, Max kept the tradition alive by recruiting friends from high school and college to form a new team called Doug’s Dirty Dozen, named in honor of his father, who continues to serve as their van driver.

The 2011 Ravens in the Hood team.

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“There’s a reason we kept coming back,” Max said. “It was very fulfilling from the fundraising standpoint and just an incredible experience. You run one of your legs overnight, so at 2:00 a.m., you’ve got a headlamp on and a sea of runners in front of you.”

Each Hood to Coast race covers roughly 200 miles from Mount Hood to the Pacific Ocean and takes about 24 hours to complete. Each runner covers three legs through wildly varying weather and terrain.

“The energy is unlike anything else,” Brett said. “It’s a community of a thousand teams, 12,000 runners of all levels and backgrounds. This will be my 10th or 11th year doing the race, and it takes my breath away every time.”

A Diagnosis That Changed Everything

In spring 2021, Max began experiencing severe back pain—at first assumed to be a weightlifting injury—among other symptoms. A trip to the emergency room led to a life-altering diagnosis: advanced testicular cancer. Scans showed masses throughout his body.

What followed was a punishing treatment regimen—six rounds of chemotherapy and abdominal surgery to remove lymph nodes.

“It was a rocky road. Sometimes you’d get good news, then other times your numbers go in the wrong direction. It feels so out of your control,” Max said. “Many nights I went to bed thinking the end of the road was near. I was advised at several points that my survival chances were less than 50%.”

Throughout the ordeal, his community—especially friends from Ravenscroft—rallied around him.

“There were friends who distracted me when I didn’t want to think about it, people who just showed up to play video games with me,” he said. “In my darkest moments, my Ravenscroft friends were there to lift me out of it.”

By December 2021, Max was in remission.

Classmate and Ravens in the Hood alum David Silver ’14 walks with Max at Hood to Coast in 2024.

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A Return to the Race

After months of treatment and recovery, Max was eager to return to the race that had meant so much to him.

“I signed up for a half marathon and started training right away,” he said. “But keep in mind, all my hair was gone, my cheeks were puffy from the steroids, so I was building back from square one. The chemo I had caused high lung toxicity—just running a mile felt like my lungs were on fire.”

Returning to Hood to Coast in 2022, the Haensel brothers found the experience more meaningful than ever.

“Fundraising had always been important, but I was really in it for the run and the time with friends,” Brett said. “Then we got the news about Max. All of a sudden, those years of raising money for cancer research felt very real and very personal.”

(left) Brett hands off to Max during the 2022 Hood to Coast relay. (right) Max celebrates at the finish line in 2022.

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A Community Legacy

The impact of Max’s journey—and the community built through Hood to Coast—rippled outward. Three years ago, Sam Kasierski ’14, a longtime teammate, formed a new team called Doug’s Kinda Dirty Dozen. The team, which includes several Ravenscroft alumni, was named in playful tribute to the original Doug’s Dirty Dozen, and has become a yearly tradition.

“It’s been such a phenomenal experience. I hope it’s something we continue to do annually,” Sam said. “I graduated over 10 years ago, and it’s cool that we still maintain those relationships we started in high school.”

Like the Haensels, Sam found that his reasons for running became deeply personal. Just before the 2024 race, his stepmother, Christina, died from triple-negative breast cancer. The loss cast a new light on the team’s purpose.

“Seeing what she went through and tying that to why resources from groups like the American Cancer Society matter so much—it changed everything,” Sam said. His team now plans to rename the group in her honor.

Brett and Max are joined by their parents, Paige and Doug Haensel, at the 2019 Hood to Coast race.

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In late 2024, Max joined a national fundraising call with the American Cancer Society. As the presentation began, a familiar name appeared on the screen: Ravens in the Hood. It was listed among the top three Hood to Coast teams to surpass $1 million in lifetime fundraising. That figure didn’t include totals raised by alumni teams like Sam’s.

“I was blown away,” Max said. “I sent that around to everyone when I saw it on the screen.”

What started as a student-led effort to do some good and run an iconic race has evolved into a powerful network of support and impact.

“Now, I’m at follow-up appointments, and my doctors are talking about grants they’re applying for—from the American Cancer Society,” Max said. “You see it firsthand. My life was saved by the technological advancements in treatment over the last 25 to 30 years.”

For Max, Brett, Sam and a growing circle of Ravenscroft alumni, the run is no longer just a race. It’s a testament to friendship, resilience and the enduring impact of a community that shows up—mile after mile.

Max Haensel ’14 (left) — in his first race back after beating cancer — poses with his 2022 Hood to Coast teammates Brett Haensel ’17, Davy Babson ’15, Ben Kasierski ’17 and Sam Kasierski ’14.