Coaches tackle health issues

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July 24, 2005

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Coaches tackle health issues
By Michael Wallace
mwallace@clarionledger.com



Photo illustration/The Clarion-Ledger

After being fired at Ole Miss last December following a difficult season, David Cutcliffe stepped down as Notre Dame's assistant head coach in June. Cutcliffe's resignation came less than three months after he had triple bypass surgery in Tupelo.




Feeling the pressure

Stress-related health issues have forced a number of coaches off the sidelines:


Rudy Tomjanovich: Resigned in February after 43 games as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.


Mike Krzyzewski: The Duke men's basketball coach became dizzy and collapsed during a game in February. In 1995, he returned to coaching10 days after having back surgery. Later, he missed much of the season due to exhaustion.


Mike Ditka: The former Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints coach suffered a midseason heart attack in 1988.


Rick Majerus: Resigned as Southern Cal men's basketball coach in December 2004 after five days on the job, saying he couldn't handle the strain of college coaching. Earlier he had left Utah due to health problems.


Dick Vermeil: Quit as Philadelphia Eagles coach in 1982, saying he was burned out. Returned to the NFL in . 1997 to coach the St. Louis Rams and Kansas City Chiefs.

Source: Orange County Register




OXFORD — Former Ole Miss football coach David Cutcliffe admits he never saw it coming, even despite the signs.

There was pressure. The relentless 20-hour work days. The irregular eating and exercise habits. The regular aches he ignored.

The environment for danger and the ingredients for a physical or emotional breakdown engulfed Cutcliffe — just as they surround many aging men in his profession — and led to heart problems that put his career as a Notre Dame assistant coach on hold following triple bypass surgery in March.

Coaching football, especially in a high-stakes league such as the Southeastern Conference, where administrators and fans possess an extremely low patience level, doesn't include a maintenance manual with advice on coping with stress and avoiding health problems.

There often are only warning signs beforehand, and painful anecdotes afterwards.

Cutcliffe, 50, is as an example of the latter for a group of his former colleagues as they gear up for the grind of another season, beginning with SEC Media Days Wednesday in Hoover, Ala.

"I think maybe (work-related) stress had something to do with this heart problem because a year ago I had a (check-up) and everything was perfect," said Cutcliffe, who was fired from Ole Miss in December after a losing season and then resigned as an assistant at Notre Dame in June, citing health issues. "Suddenly, kind of out of nowhere, this hit me. It snuck up on me. It's not been fun to go through. We're all aware of the pitfalls that come with coaching. But it's still a wonderful profession."

Other coaches said Cutcliffe's situation, along with Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey's ordeal following a March heart attack that forced him to skip spring practice, has them more conscious of their own health as the start of football practice approaches in August.

Media days

SEC

at Hoover, Ala.


July 27 — Ole Miss, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina; July 28 — Mississippi State, Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt; July 29 — Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, LSU.

SWAC

at Birmingham


July 29 — Jackson State, Alcorn State, Mississippi Valley State, Grambling, Southern, Texas Southern, Prairie View, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Alabama State, Alabama A&M.

Conference USA

at Memphis


Aug. 2 — Southern Miss, Memphis, Tulane, UAB, East Carolina, Tulsa, UTEP, Marshall, Rice, SMU, Houston, Central Florida.




Several SEC coaches will head to Media Days either coming fresh out of a doctor's office from a preseason check-up or a gym, where they've tried to prepare to physically endure another demanding year.

"It's certainly got my attention," said Georgia coach Mark Richt, 45. "I know both of those guys well and like them very much. When they do what you do, and all of a sudden, they have an issue, you've gotta take a step back and look at everything you're doing."

Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said Cutcliffe's and Gailey's health issues hit so close to home that he's adopted a new policy for his staff entering the fall.

"For the first time, I've decided to make all of our coaches go and get a thorough physical, a full check-up before each season," said Nutt, who spent most of the offseason walking and playing basketball three or four times a week. "I don't just mean having your heart rate or blood pressure checked. I mean every test. Some of the things we've seen just re-emphasizes the whole issue of doing a better job of protecting yourself from yourself (when working) jobs like ours."

Most SEC head coaches have multi-million dollar contracts, but there's a price to pay for being in that line of work at their level, they say. The stress starts with a football season that can run from August to as late as January, shifts gears to a just-as-intense recruiting season that peaks in February, then spills over into spring practice in March and April and winds through a summer filled with seemingly non-stop travel for speaking engagements.

"This is a major pressure situation that we're in every day, and it's not just during the season," said Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who preceded Cutcliffe at Ole Miss. "There's a lot that we all go through. But as competitors, as we are, we try to hold a lot of the stress and pressure in. And that brings on a lot of these kind of health issues."

Stubbornness could also be a painful symptom that makes what should be a manageable health issue a major problem. Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom hobbled around on a bum knee so long during his 29-year coaching career that he eventually had to have it surgically replaced last spring.

"My wife and doctors continued to worry and were in more pain watching me walk than I was walking," Croom said. "When it got to a point where it started keeping me from sleeping at night, I knew I had to do something."

Stressful jobs, long hours, little sleep, a poor diet and middle-aged men are a combination for disaster, said Clarke Holmes, a sports medicine physician at University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The range of ages among the SEC's head coaches runs from 40-year-old Mike Shula to 63-year-old Rich Brooks at Kentucky. Holmes said men in general in that age group are naturally at risk for health issues that include heart problems, depression, anxiety, diabetes and some forms of cancer.

Key dates

Mississippi State


Aug. 3: Players report

Aug. 4: Practice begins

Sept. 2: Season opener vs. Murray State at Starkville

Ole Miss


Aug. 4: Players report

Aug. 6: Practice begins

Sept. 5: Season opener at Memphis

Southern Miss


Aug. 5: Players report

Aug. 9: Practice begins

Sept. 4: Season opener vs. Tulane at Hattiesburg

Jackson State


Aug. 7: Players report

Aug. 9: Practice begins

Sept. 3: Season opener vs. Hampton at Detroit




Mix in the pressure to please 90,000 fans on a Saturday afternoon or to win at least eight games a year, and anyone is capable of breaking down at any moment.

"It's an easy pattern to fall into when coaches spend so much time looking out for everyone else in the program that they pay decreased attention to themselves," Holmes said. "And sometimes, when you're trying to avoid the limelight, the fear of sitting in a doctor's waiting room, seeing a bunch of fans and facing a bunch of questions can be difficult for a coach to do."

Coaches sometimes also have to deal with exaggerated rumors about their health issues.

Cutcliffe, who suffered from pancreatitis soon after coming to Ole Miss in 1998, spent his final two years in Oxford shooting down speculation he was on the verge of quitting for health reasons. Tuberville was in a similar sling at Auburn, where after undergoing two neck surgeries in 2003, he was reportedly "on my deathbed," he later joked.

Staying active is the best way to head off the potential health-related headaches, Holmes said. He recommends a routine that includes 30 to 60 minutes of exercise three times a week, a regular diet and at least six hours of sleep a day.

Richt said that plan is realistic — to an extent.

"We all start off with good intentions," Richt said. "But somewhere along late October or November, something goes awry and I don't run as much as I should and end up eating more than I should."

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said he makes time — even when things get busy during the season.

"I've worked out more in the last four or five months than I ever have in my life," said Spurrier, 60, who spent 12 seasons at the University of Florida, coached the NFL's Washington Redskins for two years, then returned to the SEC in the spring. "Coaches choose to work out or they choose to do nothing. You can't use that excuse that you're too busy to work out. We've all got time if we really want to. That's the way I look at it."

Ed Orgeron, who replaced Cutcliffe at Ole Miss, sees things the same way. Orgeron, 43, who spent two seasons as a strength coach at Arkansas, said he's either in the weight room or on the track as much as he is in his office.

"He's usually in here around 5:30 every morning doing something," Ole Miss strength coach Aaron Ausmus said. "The staff follows his lead. You have to be in shape to play this game. But if you work with Coach O, you also have to be in shape to coach it, too."

[Bankermane]

Run that through again.