Beating cancer is a significant feat for anyone, but it’s not something that former OSU goalkeeper Matt Lampson wants to define him forever.

“I think what I’ve done is a good accomplishment — beating cancer is a big deal — but I want what I do after, in my second life, to determine the type of person I am,” he said.

Lampson’s second life, as he calls it, took a major turn toward fulfilling one of his lifelong goals in December when he signed a Home Grown contract with the Columbus Crew.

Back in 2007, when Lampson was diagnosed with Stage 4 of Hodgkin’s lymphoma (the worst type of the disease), such a goal seemed farfetched. He was content just playing soccer.

“Soccer was one of the biggest ways I could get away from what I was going through at the time,” he said. “Every chance I had I was going out to play, even though I couldn’t last maybe five minutes.”

After months of chemotherapy, Lampson tried out for the Crew’s academy team, but couldn’t last long on the field, he said. After redshirting his freshmen year at Northern Illinois, he moved back to Columbus to play for Ohio State.

Talk of going pro began, he said, after a successful freshmen year goalkeeping at OSU. Lampson brushed aside such talk, especially as his first summer training session with the Crew proved he still had much room for improvement.

“That first year playing with the Crew’s team … I was barely keeping my head above water,” he said. “I was doing everything I could, but I just wasn’t good enough.”

But after his sophomore year, Lampson said, he could notice a difference. The summer training sessions with the Crew were paying off, but it wasn’t necessarily from a physical perspective.

“It’s the mindset that changed,” he said.

Lampson said observing current Crew goalie Will Hesmer and his preparation for game day showed him that he needed to sharpen his mental approach. He began watching film of every game he played in to see where he could improve.

“That’s really what transformed me to the player I am today,” he said.

But it was cancer that gave him the drive to even get to that point, he said.

“It gave me a little fire,” he said. “Nothing was going to stop me from accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish … I didn’t want to give anyone an excuse to not pick me.”

Now that he’s signed with the Crew, Lampson hopes to spend as much time learning from Hesmer, with an eye toward hopefully starting for the team he grew up rooting for a few years down the road.

“Being signed as a homegrown player to a multi-year deal, I know (the Crew) hope to develop me and really make me into a good goalkeeper for the future,” he said. “I know that and I’m hoping that learning from such a caliber goalkeeper as Will — because he’s really top-notch — will translate into me going into the Top 18 (players). I know I have a lot of work cut out for me, but my role will be prominent in the years to come.”