Warrior mentality inspires


DON BURK/The Times Union
Eagle's View coach Ryan Keith, 30, has ALS, a terminal disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. This season, Keith led the Warriors to the first playoff win in school history.


Coach Keith motivates Eagle's View's football players while confronting Lou Gehrig's disease.
By Hays Carlyon
Story updated at 7:04 AM on Thursday, Dec. 25, 2008

Eagle's View football coach Ryan Keith is hoping for divine intervention.


If it favors fighters, he has a great chance.


Keith turned 30 in October, but the coach with the boyish looks and megawatt smile is facing a grave challenge. He's suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS, which is noncontagious, affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, typically leading to the patient's death two to five years after diagnosis.


Keith began showing symptoms two years ago. Holding a master's degree in exercise science, Keith worked out regularly and weighed 195 pounds despite his 5-foot-7 height. Keith noticed a problem when his lifting routine became harder to get through.


"I started having symptoms back in November of 2006, but I didn't know what it was," Keith said. "I noticed that the weight I was lifting that usually wasn't heavy for me was becoming very heavy. My right side was really lagging."


The problem took months to identify. Doctors were puzzled for two reasons. The disease, which can strike anyone, is fairly rare. An estimated two in 100,000 Americans will get ALS.


Making the diagnosis harder was the fact that Keith didn't fit the profile of the usual ALS patient, whose average age is 55.


"My doctor told me I was the youngest person he'd ever diagnosed with ALS," Keith said. "To my knowledge, I still am. It's a diagnosis through exclusion, where they say, well, you don't have this and you don't have this, so you must have this. I didn't fit the normal profile, plus the disease is fairly rare, thankfully."


Finally, Keith received the grim news. Keith, an only child and a husband of seven years to wife Katie, had to drastically rethink his life's timeline.


"It's stunning when the doctor tells you literally you have a certain amount of time to live," Keith said. "My wife and I had been planning on having kids and then that hits. You do start to question at first, but you have to live your life the best you can and follow God's word.


"You know, who's to say that I wouldn't have been in a serious car accident. I still could. You never know how long you have, so why sit there and be bitter? I don't have time for it, and I don't want to be known as a bitter person."


'We beat them for him'


Keith has always fought the odds and certainly has never been intimidated by them. As an undersized player, Keith was a two-year starter at strong safety and fullback for area power Trinity Christian, before graduating in 1997. He returned to his alma mater as an assistant and helped coach the 2002 team to a state championship.


"To make up for his size disadvantage, Ryan worked tirelessly," Trinity Christian coach Verlon Dorminey said. "If you took his heart and put it in a big kid, you'd have an NFL player. He was a kid you could build a program around.


"I'm so proud of what he's done as a coach. It's a tribute to him that instead of taking it easy, he's overcoming the obstacles and making a difference in the lives of those kids."


In his two years as head coach at Eagle's View, Keith has won two district titles. However, building a championship program at Eagle's View, a Class 1B private school with only 195 students, might have been an even greater task than his playing days.


The team's weight room, coaching office and storage are all included in a house on campus that's roughly 1,000 square feet. Keith's office is a three-step hallway from the weight room, which features only five stations. The house's hardwood floors take a beating when an athlete drops a weight. While Keith works in his office, the floor under him shakes when players are lifting, and objects are prone to fall off of his filing cabinets. The Warriors don't have a field on campus to practice or play on.


Yet, all of those obstacles could be countered. Telling the players his condition could not.


Keith's weight was dropping, and his function in his right hand began to waver. So, before a practice last spring, Keith told his team.


"Most of these kids have been here with me for three or four years," said Keith, who served as an assistant coach with the team before his promotion. "They know I like to lift seven days a week. I can't keep telling them I'm OK. I knew they'd wonder why I couldn't spot them anymore or why I couldn't throw a football as well. Plus, we didn't know how fast the disease would progress. Sometimes, it can be very fast, and I didn't want the kids to find out some other way."


Eagle's View principal Terrance Freeman accompanied Keith the day he decided to share his fate with his players.


"I stood by his side when he told the team," Freeman said. "We all choked up, but I saw a look in all of the kids' eyes as they listened to their leader tell them he was facing a battle that the percentages say he wouldn't win. There was an instant determination. After that, we had kids coming out to play football that never had before. They wanted to play for coach Keith."


Competing with a 25-man roster, Keith guided the Warriors to a 7-5 season that included one remarkably special night. Eagle's View defeated Graceville 22-16 in overtime of the Region 1 semifinals for the school's first playoff victory.


"Coach Keith instills in us a mind-set to push ourselves every day and aim for big things," Eagle's View senior receiver/safety Chavon Mackey said. "It was a great feeling to get our first playoff win and to see how happy he was. We beat them for him."


Coaching a team to a win in the playoffs is difficult enough, but Keith had to overcome his disease in every practice.


With his right hand ailing, Keith had to learn how to throw the ball left-handed. He also delegated more of the physical aspects of practice to his six assistants.


The more hands-off approach did not sit well with Keith.


When he could, he was still as active in drills as ever. That's not an easy task for someone who now labored through mundane daily chores such as brushing his teeth and buttoning a shirt.


"I used to always run the scout team as the quarterback," Keith said. "But now, if we were facing a team that threw the ball, I couldn't do it well enough to give our defense a real look. Luckily, Graceville runs the option exclusively, so I did run the option in practice. I wasn't bad, when I wasn't dropping the ball."


Sticking with the program


Keith certainly didn't drop the ball when it came to his dedication to his players. He could've walked away from the program after hearing his diagnosis, but he remained. Aside from the X's and O's of the game, Keith has taught his pupils lessons most in his profession never could.


"I could've just quit, but then everything I preached to the kids would've been for naught," Keith said.


"This is a life lesson. What I have can't be simulated. Other issues can be. These kids are seeing a person go through the biggest trial of his life. If I can be any source of encouragement to them, that's great.


"We have finite minds, and we can't comprehend eternity. I have the platform to preach the gospel to these young men. If I can help bring the message of Christ into their daily life, they'll be better citizens and have better lives. I tell them all the time, I need them more than they need me."


Despite his unfavorable long-term prognosis, he remains upbeat. His devotion to teaching has not just inspired his players.


"Ryan has the opportunity to be a shining light in a world of darkness," Freeman said. "His drive and determination make these kids and this community believe they can accomplish what others say they can't."


Keith's medical situation hasn't slowed down his desire to accomplish more. A football junkie, Keith will be an assistant coach in next month's Shrine Bowl All-Star game. He's also excited about watching Nebraska practice in town for the upcoming Gator Bowl on New Year's Day. His dry-erase boards are full of team information as he begins to think about his depth chart for spring practice.


"It keeps me active," Keith said. "If I had a bunch of time off, I'd go crazy. I'll be up here Christmas break. Football can't be good when you show up in August and stop when the season ends. It's got to be year-round. If we don't think like that, we can't compete."


That brings up the obvious question. Will he return next year?


"I'll be here as long as they'll have me," Keith said. "I won't stay once I can't do the job. It'll be hard to walk away. Most people are in their 60s or older when their bodies force them to have to quit working. I'll encounter that much sooner."


A ruthless disease


The future isn't pleasant. ALS is ruthless and ravages the body. When the motor neurons fail, the brain's ability to initiate and control muscle movement is gone. With voluntary muscle action affected, some patients in the later stages become completely paralyzed.


"Once I was diagnosed, I looked online for all the information about ALS I could find," Keith said. "Initially, I was scared because I didn't want to die like that. The brain isn't usually affected, so you understand your condition throughout. Most people suffocate. However, I don't have any control over that. I'll be fine however God decides to take me. I can't worry about it, and I know there's nothing a doctor can do for me."


Doctors have been able to slow the process down somewhat through treatment, but ALS remains incurable.


With the help of local ALS fundraisers, headlined by Tom Becker's charity golf tournament, Keith is able to go out of network to the ALS clinic at the Mayo Clinic.


"This disease is terminal," Keith said. "But as with anything that is researched and studied, eventually there will be a crack. There's six billion people on this planet and it only takes one to cure this or to figure out how to slow it down or to just stumble upon the answer."


For now, Keith will coach his team and get ready for next season. He'll continue to be humble while generating inspiration for those around him the likes of which few people ever can. And he'll hope and pray.


"It's been two years now for me, and half of ALS patients die prior to the three-year mark," Keith said. "Unless it stops, which rarely but sometimes does happen. They call that burnout. I chalk that up more to divine intervention, but that's one thing I won't turn down.


"I'd love to be able to live like this, how I am now. I'm fine weighing 150, 140 or 130 as long as I'm here. I'd be thankful for five or 10 more years and even grateful for longer. I'll take whatever I can get."


Keith's players are hopeful they'll get at least one more season with their beloved coach.


"We want to make coach Keith happy, because we don't know how long he's going to be with us," Eagle's View junior running back Frantanzy Bryant said. "It would mean so much to everyone if he came back, and it would motivate us even more."




hays.carlyon@jacksonville.com,


(904) 359-4377

http://www.jacksonville.com/sports/h...ality_inspires