Lavin battles cancer, appreciates support
St. John's Men's basketball coach Steve Lavin looks on during Coches vs. Cancer pre game ceremonies before the New York Yankees play the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium. (May 11, 2011) Credit: Jim McIsaac
The texts and emails started coming in minutes after Steve Lavin went public. Next came the phone calls and letters. Some were from old friends, but many were from people he had never met.
Lavin, St. John's basketball coach, said Wednesday hee was "blown away" by the number of people who have reached out to him since the school announced on April 8 that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The Giants coaching staff sent him a football with all of their signatures. Reds coach Dusty Baker, a prostate cancer survivor, contacted him out of the blue and has become a confidant as has Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.
"It's kind of overwhelming, all the support and encouragement," Lavin said before the Yankees' game against the Royals.
Lavin was one of 10 coaches introduced in a pregame ceremony honoring Coaches vs. Cancer, a group of basketball coaches that works with the American Cancer Society to fundraise and raise awareness about the disease. It marked the first time he has talked about his diagnosis since the team sent out a news release announcing that he had cancer.
Lavin said is still talking to doctors -- he has spoken to four urologists and one radiologist so far -- and is still weighing his treatment options. His treatment -- whether it be radiation, surgery or something else -- is not expected to interfere with his coaching duties this upcoming season.
Lavin was originally diagnosed last September just as he was beginning his first season as St. John's coach. He said his initial reaction was "disbelief" and his second was "what's next?"
Lavin called the cancer relatively low grade, adding "The doctors I was working with were confident that if I tackled it in the spring or summer there wouldn't be any risk of it dramatically affecting my health."
So Lavin decided to wait and concentrate on his job, which he did well enough to lead the Red Storm back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine seasons.
Lavin said that he has been greatly helped by the knowledge that his 80-year-old father is a prostate cancer survivor, after having been diagnosed when he was 61. But he said it also has been completely mind-blowing to see how many people out there he didn't know about have dealt with the disease.
Boeheim, who was also among the coaches introduced before the game, was diagnosed with the disease nine years ago.
"It's a scary thing when you don't know anything about it," he said. "I tried to tell Steve about some of the things that happen. It's very treatable and very beatable. There's a lot of mystery about it. It's the combination of the word cancer and prostate. And there's a lot of old wive's tales that aren't true. So the experience can be very scary."
Both Boeheim and Lavin stressed early detection as being a big part of fighting the disease. Said Boeheim: "There's all kinds of advances being made out there, but early detection is still the best way."
