Coachspeak: Spalding football coach Mike Whittles
Archbishop Spalding football coach Mike Whittles has helped the Cavaliers battle a lot of opponents since he took over the program in 1999. His teams have won four MIAA B Conference championships including the last two and now they will move up to the tougher A Conference.
While he helps the Cavaliers take on some new challengers, he is facing the toughest foe of his own life, stage four pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed in February, Whittles has been undergoing chemotherapy and said the treatment will continue “for a while.” That hasn’t kept Whittles off the football field as the Cavaliers prepare for their first season in the A Conference after having some success in recent years against A Conference opponents, including pushing last year’s No. 1 team Calvert Hall before falling in triple overtime.
Whittles, 57, talked with us about his team’s move to the A Conference and about his health.
Your team has been very competitive with A Conference teams in recent years, beating Loyola last season and Calvert Hall the year before. Are you happy to be moving up to the A Conference?
Oh yeah. There’s a lot of the excitement. That was one of goals when I became coach in 99. One of the things we wanted to do with football was move up to the A conference. Now is the time. I thought pretty competitive last year and why not? Now’s the time to do it and hopefully things are going to go our way.
What’s the biggest difference between competing in the A Conference and competing in the B Conference?
The B Conference is extremely competitive with Curley, Boys’ Latin, St. Paul’s and then when Spalding was in there. What’s going to happen now is you’re just not going to get a week off playing in the A Conference. Not that we took anybody lightly. You have some very good teams in the B Conference but then your lower tier teams struggle and some of them have moved to the C Conference. With the A Conference, there’s only seven schools, so you have six tough opponents. I think every week we’re going to have to coach our guys up and be prepared week in and week out.
Are your players excited about the move up?
Oh yeah. There’s a lot of excitement. They’re very anxious to get started. It’s just a very, very exciting time for Archbishop Spalding football. Fortunately I know where we were. People don’t realize it, but we didn’t win a football game in 2000 and we only won two games in 2001. I’m very fortunate to have been a part of that growth. For the guys to be moving up into the A Conference, they’re really excited about it, because they’re also part of that growth. They’re going to the pioneers. The pioneers are all those guys with the arrows in their backs (laughs). Hopefully, that’s not going to be us. I think our guys are ready to step up to that.
How does this year’s Cavaliers team compare with last season’s?
It’s going to be a little bit different. We’re going to put a few wrinkles in which we try to do year in and year out. I think with the experience that we have on the defensive side which we didn’t really have the year before -- we’ve got a lot of those guys coming back this year – should be a huge help to us. And our line was new last year and with our line coming in most of our backs are repeating their second year back there last year, but our line was new on the offensive side so with our line coming in being experienced, I think that’s going to be a big help for us and that’s going to help our young guys in the backfield who are going to have step it up
How is your health?
The diagnosis is bad. I’ve got stage four pancreatic cancer. I’m up and about and doing what I can do coaching. I remind myself it’s the chemo that’s knocking me down it’s not the cancer. The chemo is something you've got to deal with and the side effects of the chemo as far as eating, nuisance things I have to deal with. I tell everybody that I just feel like God’s prepared me for this all my life. Playing football and coaching football has really helped me deal with this ferocious opponent I’m facing right now.
I tell everybody that this doesn’t compare to getting my ass kicked for 48 minutes on the football field, because the guy across from me is just bigger, faster and stronger. There’s no place to hide. You have to tough it up. Playing the game and then coaching it, it kind of reinforces things in my mind. As long as I've got a life to live, I’m going to live my life and I’m going to do the things I want to do.
The bad news is the stats say only 20 percent of the people with that diagnosis last over a year and only five percent make it past their third year, but my goal is to be around for a very, very long time. My goal is to beat this and I’ll continue to fight. Like my son Nick said, “Dad, cancer doesn’t know who it’s messing with.”
I’ve got such support -- my faith, my family, my friends and football. I swear if it weren’t for those things, I doubt I would be here today. It would have been real easy to just give in. I can see how people think that, going through chemo therapy where you go, “Oh, my gosh. Enough’s enough. Can’t take it anymore.” But like I said I just have to toughen up and tough it out and that’s what I’m doing.
I still have some of my hair. My dark hair fell out; my gray hair stayed. I tell everyone God prepared me, He had me fat for a reason; he knew I was going to lose weight when I got this (laughs). I try to make light of as many things as I can, believe me.
If you saw me I doubt you would know anything was wrong. I think everybody that sees me, they’re kind of relieved because I know they didn’t know what to expect. I know what I’ve always thought when I would hear that somebody had stage four cancer. It would be like, “God bless them. I hope they don’t have to suffer” and then say a prayer. Well I need prayers. Anyone who’s got this hideous disease needs prayer, because of what they have to go through. It can be rough at times.
I think the more people that know, the more prayers I’ll have. I had a parent at a lacrosse game say, “Coach, how can God say no to children? You’ve got all these kids praying for you.” Prayer is definitely powerful. It definitely has kept me where I am. I wish I could thank each and every person out there who has said a prayer. It’s just been phenomenal.
