Coaching or Cancer: Its All About the Team
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28 years of coaching and out of the blue I'm diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. How does a non-smoker get so unlucky? I have always tried to lead a healthy life, and encourage my students in all my classes to lead a healthy life too. In all the classes I've taught as well as all the years I've coached I relayed that the choices we make at an early age can catch up to you at an older age. When I became a head coach I always talked about the life lessons that we learn in athletics will also relate to your life as you become an adult. Adversity would be one example as we have it every year in a sport we play or coach and it will happen even more when we get older. So being able to deal with it in a positive manner is important at any age.
Coaching was a passion for me. I dedicated a lot of my life to coaching and took it very serious. I wanted to be the best I could be for the betterment of my athletes both on the court or in life. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way and admitted to them when I made them. I have always tried to learn from these mistakes and get better each year I coached. It was always about the team when I coached. Not every player was necessarily on the same page. Through the years the players who were out for themselves found out rather quickly that to succeed on my team they too needed to conform to that concept.
There were many ups and downs to those 28 years of coaching but finding out I had cancer was definitely the shock of my life. There are so many ways I related it to coaching or athletics and I think this has helped me deal with this uncertain future. A pleasant and perhaps biggest surprise was how so many people supported me. Friends and family from Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, other states, and even other countries reached out to me and prayed for me and it just amazed me. I have been so inspired by so many people and the kind words they have sent. I didn't realize how much of an effect you have on athletes as so many former have sent emails, facebook messages or sent cards to me that I was overwhelmed with emotion a lot of the times.
I didn't want cancer and would give up a lot to get rid of it, but now that I have it I feel that was God's plan in a positive way to maybe help someone else along the way and to be a better person overall to all the people I love. My faith has grown stronger and whatever the future brings I am ready to deal. Just like I would tell my athletes, if you get knocked down seven times you get up seven times and keep pushing forward in a positive way.
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About the Book
This is my story of twenty-eight years of coaching high school sports and dealing with success, frustration, failures, adversity, and building relationships along the way. It is also about losing some of those relationships, worrying about all of the what-ifs, and second guessing the things that were done. Before it was over, I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and once again faced frustrations and adversity; even so, a strengthened faith and an overwhelming support system helped me deal with it. In the blink of an eye, those twenty-eight years were put into perspective, and things that I had once thought were important were not. It was the life lessons that I tried to impart to those that I taught and coached that best serve me now and hopefully can give you perspective as well.
About the Author
Robin David Drake served in the US Navy right out of high school and then was a police officer for one year following that. But he finally found his passion teaching and coaching. He taught for twenty-two years, leading elementary and high school students in physical education during his early years and finishing up teaching health and driver’s education at the high school level. He has coached volleyball, basketball, and golf. He married his high school sweetheart thirty-seven years ago, and they have three children and seven grandchildren. He recently retired from teaching after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Because he was a non-smoker, the diagnosis was a big surprise and has caused him to step back and look at what is important in his life.