Coaching with cancer, Michael Boehle has support | College News

On the day earlier than volleyball observe started in January, Hall of Fame coach Michael Boehle spoke to his gamers at Loyola High to allow them to learn about expectations for the approaching season.

“One of the things we talk about is cancer within a team and how there are times when cancer can really affect a lot of things and it’s not curable and it spreads,” he mentioned. “We use that analogy talking about bad teammates.”

Players had no concept what was about to come back out of their coach’s mouth.

“Unfortunately, today, I’m here to tell you your coach has cancer.”

As if that wasn’t stunning enough, then got here a warning.

“You have to stay patient with me. I don’t know if I’m going to be missing practices, games or be gone for a month,” he mentioned. “All I can ask you to do is say an extra prayer for me. Coach is a fighter. That’s all I got. See you tomorrow.”

Boehle grabbed his water bottle and put his head down. There was silence. When he lastly regarded up, he noticed gamers lined up in a single file offering hugs and telling him, “We’re going to win this battle together.”

Boehle, 58, discovered he had prostate most cancers after a routine bodily and blood take a look at final October alerted his docs to research additional. An MRI scan simply earlier than Christmas revealed a spot on the prostate. Then got here a biopsy in January to verify a most cancers analysis.

Since it was found early, the prognosis is sweet. Surgery is scheduled for July after Boehle is completed teaching membership volleyball.

As the Southern Section playoffs start Wednesday and the Mission League-champion Cubs search their eighth Division 1 title underneath Boehle, he agreed to debate the feelings he went by means of and to encourage others to be checked for a illness that’s second solely to pores and skin most cancers in affecting males.

He remembers the day after his most cancers affirmation coming to highschool, shutting the door to his workplace and simply crying.

“I was scared to death of spread,” he mentioned. “I went down the rabbit hole and started looking up all the different cancers.”

In February he underwent a scan that makes use of radioactive tracers to see if it had unfold. He’ll always remember the day his physician interrupted his observe with a telephone call to reveal the outcomes.

“I’m not supposed to know for about a week,” Boehle mentioned. “And it’s my doctor. I ran out to the pool deck. He says, ‘Michael your report is back and, as we suspected, there’s no metastatic disease.’ I literally dropped the phone on the pool deck. I ran back in and my son, Davis, was there and must have seen what I looked like because he asked, ‘Did you get bad news?’ I said ‘Don’t have a spread. It’s just in the prostate’ and gave him a big hug.

“I was so relieved. That was the biggest news out of my cancer diagnosis, hearing it had not spread. That’s what I needed to hear. I was in a bad place. I needed to hear that.”

With support from his household, gamers, mates and training colleagues, Boehle has been in a position to transfer ahead and settle for the judgment of his docs that all the pieces can be OK. He’s eating higher and understanding to be within the best form doable for his surgical procedure.

He desires to make sure others perceive that although there’s been no most cancers in his household, having a routine blood take a look at is a should to help uncover issues earlier than they develop into worse.

“The support and love I got from the volleyball community has been outstanding,” he mentioned. “My message was I was in great health. Just because you don’t have that in your family doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get tested. A lot of people aren’t doing physicals. It’s a real easy test.”