Revered local soccer coach upbeat in battle with ALS





By Mark Zeigler
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

7:53 a.m. December 24, 2008

As a kid Howie Hawver saw “The Pride of the Yankees,” the 1942 film that chronicles how baseball great Lou Gehrig succumbed to a rare, incurable disease. That was the extent of his knowledge of ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
“Ignorance is bliss in some cases,” Hawver says.



Hawver, a revered youth, high school and college soccer coach in San Diego, was diagnosed in November with ALS, which attacks the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement and which in this country is often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease. His fiancee, it turns out, is a nurse who once worked as a caregiver for someone with ALS.
“She knew first-hand what it was all about, and I think she was more shaken than I was when we first heard,” says Hawver, 47, who had the diagnosis confirmed by a specialist in San Francisco. “One day she raised her voice and said, 'Do you know what happens? You lose use of this limb and that limb, and it finally attacks your respiratory system and you die.'

“I just said, 'OK.' And I've pretty much been that way all along. I'm just of a mind that I'm going to enjoy every day I can, being with the people I love and doing the things I love – enjoying every day I can on a soccer field.”

To understand Hawver's impact on the local soccer community, you can look at his coaching record since, as a favor, he helped out an uncle with an AYSO team called the Soccettes in 1984. Twelve state playoff appearances in 14 seasons as the only head coach the Grossmont College women's program has ever had. Eight Eastern League girls titles in a decade at Patrick Henry High. Dozens of tournament trophies and State Cup finals with youth clubs, mostly the Crusaders. Dozens upon dozens of girls who received college scholarships.

Or you can look at the reaction to news of his condition.

One of his current players at Grossmont College started an e-mail campaign to raise money for ALS medication, which costs about $10,000 per year and largely isn't covered by insurance. Within a few hours, they had $1,000 in pledges.

A group of coaches is organizing “Friends of Howie Hawver Day” on Monday at Valhalla High, a full day of youth and adult games culminating in a 7 p.m. match featuring “Hawver alumni.” Proceeds will go to his mounting medical bills.

Wrote former El Capitan High and Cuyamaca College women's coach Matt Robertson in a mass e-mail: “I have personally coached club, high school and college against Howie. His soccer knowledge is second to none, and his players are a testament to that. Now it is time for us (even coaches like me, who was always competing against him) to make our testament to Howie.”

This in difficult economic times. This from a soccer community that is regularly accused of being too fractured and too selfish.

“I don't have the words to express my appreciation for what people are doing,” says Hawver, who played soccer at Helix High and Grossmont College. “I was coming home from San Francisco from a doctor's visit when I saw the first e-mail. I was checking my e-mail in the airport, and my fiancee was with me. I just came to tears. Both of us did.”

Hawver first had an inkling something wasn't right about a year ago, when he motioned for a player to come to the sideline with his left index finger.

“I noticed it was just happening slowly,” Hawver says. “I didn't think too much of it. I figured I was getting older and it was cold out.”

But he also is a drummer of some repute in local rock bands and gives lessons on the side, and he noticed his reaction times were slowing in his left arm. He had it checked out, and the initial diagnosis was a compressed ulnar nerve. In June, he had surgery.

It didn't work, and when he began to experience similar symptoms in his right arm he went to a neurologist. After ruling out several other possibilities, doctors settled on three chilling letters: ALS.

It is considered a neurodegenerative disease, meaning it progressively afflicts the body's motor neurons to the point of paralysis and death. In rare cases, the symptoms progress slowly or mysteriously stop. In the majority of cases, patients die within five years.

You won't find Hawver sprinting across soccer fields these days. You will, however, still find him on the sideline, wearing his trademark black floppy hat, preaching his interpretation of “Total Football” concepts popularized by the Dutch national team in the 1970s.

“It just slows me down,” Hawver says. “I leave more time for things I do on a regular basis. The days of the 15-minute shower, shave and get-out-the-door, those days are over.

“But as far as my passion, which is working with the kids, it's not going to stop me. Coaching soccer does not have to be a physical thing, as long as I have something to give and as long as there is someone who is interested.”

In the fall, he coached the Grossmont College women to a 13-3-5 record and yet another state playoff appearance, along with under-12 and under-14 Crusaders girls teams. He plans to return next fall for his 15th season at Grossmont, where he is three wins short of 200.

A few weeks ago, he gathered his returning players at Patrick Henry High and explained that he has ALS.

“I told them, 'You'll see some different things in me. I just want you to know why,' ” Hawver says. “One of the girls said, 'Howie, we'll just make sure we win CIF for you this year.'

“I said, 'OK, but I want you to win it for yourself.' ”

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