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Since surgery to remove a cancer from his pancreas more than four years ago, BYU head basketball coach Dave Rose has returned to the Huntsman Cancer Hospital in Salt Lake City every six months, for routine diagnostic scans. "It's an interesting way to live," Rose says of the regular visits.
After years of clean reports, his most recent scan revealed cancer 'spots.' The decision was made to perform surgery to remove the cancerous tissue.
Two weeks ago Monday, Rose underwent the procedure, followed by days of recovery in the hospital. On Sunday, Sept. 15, Rose returned to his Provo home. Today, he is well into the recovery process and on track to lead his team when practice begins on October 7th.
"I went in and we went through the process and everything went fine," Rose told me during a visit to our radio broadcast booth before the Utah game on Saturday night. "The pathology reports are perfect."
"The best part about it is I'm feeling really good. The last (few) days I've gotten back to see the guys, watched them work out a couple of times, we've had a recruit in on campus, so things are looking really good."
Rose said the medical staff at the Huntsman facility were "very, very accommodating" to his schedule relative to the basketball season; he says "now it's kind of up to me just to do things the right way, so I'm healthy and feel good and am ready to go when we start in October."
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Rose says since his his initial cancer diagnosis in June of 2009, "I had gone four and a half years where these things were all clear--nine scans or so where it all looked really good."
The coach says the last MRI a few weeks ago showed "a couple of spots, and Huntsman did the process that they go through to figure out the next situation for me, and they determined that surgery was what we needed to do."
"I'm actually really grateful for the tumor that I have," said Rose, "because it's a manageable thing, and I'm actually grateful for really smart people who know what they're doing and can take care of it."
"Four and a half years ago they took a tumor out the size of an orange, and the tumor they took out this time was maybe the size of a peanut."
Rose says that while the regular hospital scans are always "extremely emotional" for him and his family, "they're actually pretty comforting, too--to know that I'll never get in the situation that I got into four and a half years ago." It was then that Rose became ill at the conclusion of a family vacation; an emergency hospitalization in Las Vegas saved his life, and resulted in the diagnosis that has since changed his life.
"Hopefully next time it'll be a little easier process," said Rose about any future treatments, "because there are a lot less invasive ways to do it, and that's what we're cheering for, if they come back again. Hopefully they never come back."
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In the summer of 2009, Rose's players never saw their coach until he was back in town and fully recovered from surgery. This time around, his team and his assistant coaches were able to visit Rose in his Salt Lake City hospital room. His daughter Taylor tweeted a picture of the gathering--15 smiling men surrounding the head coach of the Cougars, who was also smiling broadly.
"That was a special day," said Rose of the team's hospital visit, "and not just for me. Our guys actually went to two or three other rooms with patients who are BYU fans, and our guys were terrific."
"But for me, personally, it was so different than the last time, because it all happened, then I came back and saw the team. This time, the guys got to go through it a little bit with me, and so I was really appreciative of having them come up, and it was a good day."
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Rose was quick to warmly credit the "great" hospital staffers, but said that his recovery at home "is way better than the hospital, I can tell you that." He says his wife Cheryl is "making sure I don't overdo anything; she thinks I kind of have a tendency to overdo things."
"In the next week or so, we'll just take it how it goes," Rose said on Saturday. "Our coaches do a tremendous job of getting our guys ready for our first practice, and with our new strength coach Bobby Medina, and Coach (Mark) Pope, Coach (Tim) LaComb, Coach (Terry) Nashif and (Operations Director) Cody (Fueger), things are in great hands."
"I believe that by October 7th, when we start practice, that I'll be back full-bore, ready to go."
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Rose will be coaching a team expected by many observers to leap-frog St. Mary's in the West Coast Conference and pose a stiff championship challenge to perennial WCC powerhouse Gonzaga.
Juniors Tyler Haws and Matt Carlino return as starters on the guardline, with the versatile Kyle Collinsworth back from an LDS mission and certain to occupy a starting role. Other backcourt players include veteran Anson Winder, junior college transfer Skyler Halford, and prep-school standout Frank Bartley.
The frontcourt will feature highly-touted incoming freshman Eric Mika, along with junior big man Nate Austin, freshman Luke Worthington and returning forward Josh Sharp. Shooting star Chase Fischer will redshirt after his transfer from Wake Forest.
"I'm really excited for this year's team," Rose says. "I think that our guards are going to terrific, and we've got really good, young, talented big guys. It's a good time to have young, talented big guys, when you've got experienced guards, so I'm looking forward to it."
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BYU opens the regular season on Friday, Nov. 8 home to Weber State, preceded by the Cougar Tipoff on Wednesday, Oct. 23, and exhibition games on Oct. 26 (Colorado College) and Nov. 2 (Alaska-Anchorage).
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