Coach John Bonamego's Cancer Survivors Story

Scott talks with Coach John Bonamego about his Cancer Survivors Story. #family #radiation #cancer #farrahfawcett #michaeljackson #billymartin #centralmichiganfootball #hpv #umhospital #drmattewspector #ronrivera #meditation #chemotherapy #graduateassistants #drymouth #patriepma #hillsdalecollege #mayoclinic #americancancersociety #cancerremission #johnbonamego

Episode Transcript

(00:20):
Good evening, everybody, Welcome toanother edition of No Limits. When you
wonder why I'm a little bit morestraightforward with the way I said it tonight,
I have very good reason to be. Please be joined by Coach John
Bonamego and Coach Bonamego as a cancersurvivor. This is a disease I take
very seriously. Okay. My grandfatherdied when I was ten years old at

(00:42):
the age of fifty five and Iwas ten, And anytime I hear a
cancer story, it makes me ill. It really really really does. Well.
Every time I get an opportunity tobring a cancer survivor on the show,
that makes me feel very, veryvery good. I had an opportunity
recently with the Reel and the Rareto bring on Irma Perrone locally here at

(01:04):
the Coral Springs Chamber of Commerce.We promoted our book and also talked about
it. So tonight's show is whatI consider the John Bonamago cancer survivor story.
Coach John coach will and I willgo over certain aspects of what he
had to do with and I'm goingto let him pretty much take over the
broadcast and tell his story. Sofolks, we hope you can join us

(01:26):
before I go any further. Though, No Limits is being broadcast around the
world. The audio version of theshow can be heard on iHeartRadio, Apple,
Spotify, Google, wherever you getyour podcasts. Please hit the red
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(01:49):
guest? One way to do isjust participate in the chat room, or
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Our Twitter is at Tribute in SouthCandy. Heaving is behind the scenes,

(02:10):
only working on the website, butproducing the show as well. So
you know, as I said before, this is a show that you know,
we aim to inspire. Yes,we do. And I really like
doing different types of shows because itreally allows us here at the Self Florida
Tribute and not be in one trickpony. I believe in human interest.
Anybody that's ever been brought up injournalism, should because you know what,

(02:31):
we could write all the game storiesa lot, but these are the stories
will separate the men from the boysand women from the lady the girls,
and this is how we're going tolead into a coach. So glad to
have you on Coach. Bonamego workswith me on the Sports Exchange and he's
a regular contributor on Inside the Piskin. I gave him the week off from
Inside to Pittfin so we could tella story tonight. Glad to have you

(02:53):
on, coach. Thanks, Scott, appreciate it. It's great to be
here and you know, good tosee you and I can't I'm very,
very grateful to be able to tellthis story because you know there's going to
I just want to be able tohelp somebody, if there's somebody out there
that maybe has a relative going throughsomething similar or you know, when we

(03:13):
talk about the warning signs, Imean that was something that I really wasn't
educated on and I don't want tosay I ignored them, but I just
didn't really understand what was going onuntil I got that diagnosis. All right,
Well, we're gonna go over alittle bit of thing I have a
feeling on this show I won't losemy voice because I do a lot of

(03:34):
talking, a lot of them,and there are some where I just have
to let the guests tell a story. So I guarantee one thing by the
end of the night, I willnot lose my voice. Anything else I
guarantee well for TBD as we hopethings like to talk about it. That's
the closest thing you're getting too.A last to night And alright, coach,
let's get to it. We talkabout squamish cell Carsonoma comprises over ninety

(04:00):
five percent of oral fairy nagal cancers. Tobacco and alcohol are major risk factors.
But human papalo pablomal virus HPV,that's good enough now cases causes most
of these tumors. The symptoms includesore throat and painful and or difficult swelling.

(04:26):
Why don't you give me an overviewon that. Yeah, the HPV
virus is one that's very, veryprevalent throughout our society. Um, it's
one that affects everybody. You're notgoing to know when you got when you
have it. It's a you know, similar to like a common cold.
And I don't know what the exactsthat stats are, but it's very very
very common virus that's transmitted, youknow, from from person to person.

(04:53):
You can get it from hugging youruncle. H. I mean, it's
one of those things where it doesn'tand cause cancer and all people, but
in a very small percentage of thepopulation. Um, it just nixed your
DNA and later on in life itcan develop into cancer. For me,
it was it was in my lefttonsil. So a lot of the head

(05:16):
and neck cancers is what they're talkingabout there. Uh, it's also the
same virus that causes cervical cancer inwould um. Fortunately it is you know,
we've gotten to the point where it'svery treatable. There is a there
is a vaccine for those of youwho have, you know, preadolescent children.

(05:38):
You can get your children vaccinated andthen they will never have to worry
about getting head and neck cancer orcervical cancer for um, for in females,
for in the future after they afterthey get older. So it's a
it's fairly again it's a common virus, but it's a in a fairly uh

(06:02):
you know, fairly common cancer andunfortunately it's one that is not one hundred
percent treatable, but very treatable.Okay, let's talk about the HPV infections
that you indeed just alluded to thatare very common. Neverally, everyone will
get HPV at some point in theirlives. More than forty two million Americans

(06:25):
are infected with types of HPV thatcause disease. About thirteen million Americans,
including teams, will become infected eachyear. Why don't you please elaborate on
that. Yeah, I mean,those are the stats. Like I said,
it's it's gonna it's gonna present itselflike a common cold. You won't
know, you know, I don'thave any recollection of when I got it.

(06:47):
I mean, and you know,there's a lot that's not known about
um, you know, in termsof when people actually get it during during
the during their life. But youknow, those stats are real. Almost
everyone is going to contract it atsome point or another. Okay, well

(07:09):
let's talk. We're going to gothrough a few days that we talked about
earlier. Today, May twenty third, twenty fifteen. You noticed a lump
in your neck. So when didyou find out about your symptoms? Yeah?
Actually, you know, I hadI had taken the job as a
head coach at Central Michigan University,which was my alma mater, was my

(07:30):
dream job. Started that job inFebruary, I think it was February fifteenth,
you know, and we were actuallyPaul It and I my wife were
in Jacksonville because our oldest son wasa senior in high school and we were
we were down for his graduation andit was really like the day after his

(07:53):
graduation. I just I felt alump on my throat on the left side,
right near my tom and it waspainful. Now, tumors themselves don't
really don't cause pain, but youknow, just where it was positioned on
my neck, it did. Itwas you know, it wasn't excruciating,

(08:13):
but it was painful, and um, you know, kind of brushed it
off for you know, first coupleof days, and then um, you
know, not really wasn't getting anybetter. And so I called, uh
called a you know, a doctorfriend of mine, and uh, you
know, I was about ready togo into a uh you know, urgent

(08:35):
care, and you know, heconvinced me not to do that, you
know, just to wait. Youknow, he said, give me thirty
minutes. It was doctor doctor Keatingup in Mount Pleasant and uh and UH
said, let me see if Ican get you in to see somebody.
I was. He was able toget me, you know, to a
doctor quickly that same day, andthat's really kind of what started to the

(09:00):
whole process. And the thing thata lot of people don't realize is that,
uh, cancer diagnosis doesn't happen overnight. You know, it's a process
of elimination. It takes takes sometime. I had, like, you
know, just a general um appointment. I went through X rays, I

(09:20):
had a fine needle biopsy. Alot of that stuff was still inconclusive.
Um. And it really wasn't untilI had my open neck biopsy. I
don't want to steal your thunder Scott, but one on June seventh, I
had a four hour operation where theywent in and um, they explained to

(09:41):
me, I had a time thatthey were going to take out as much
as that they possibly could. Um, you know of that that that tumor,
that lump um. But the doctoralso said, you know, you
have a lot of nerve endings there. There's a lot of you know,
arteries. We're going to as muchas we can send it in for testing.

(10:03):
He said, if we don't getit. It doesn't matter because if
it comes back in its cancers,you're going to have to get uh,
you know, some type of treatment. Anyways, Well, like you said,
the early stages of any cancer,let alone this one, are vilely
important. You have to go througha process of elimination. Unlike other ds
where he could disease or he couldget them early, this is just not

(10:24):
one of those types of correct Andthere. You know, there were two
signs that I want to mention,you know, just so people are aware
of it, because I really wasn'taware. You know. The first one
was fatigue, you know, andI'm not talking about just regularly tired,
like really really tired. And youknow I experienced that, but you know,

(10:46):
coming off an NFL season as aas an assistant coach, going through
the whole process of interviewing for ahead coaching job, taking over a program.
I just chalk that up to me, you know, just being tired
from my job. The other thingwas for me, and my case was
was night sweats. And night sweatsare when you wake up in the middle

(11:07):
of the night and you are justsweating excessively. Um, it's a little
bit confusing and everyone's different. Inmy case, it wasn't something that happened
every night. It was probably Idon't know, I probably experienced maybe three
or four episodes of it. Andagain I was, you know, we're

(11:30):
moving from Detroit. We were intemporary housing and mouth pleasant from temporary housing
to moving in. You know,I didn't know if it was I had
messed with the thermostat, you knowwhat it was. I do remember one
time vividly waking up and going thinkingto myself, why am I sweating so
badly? So you know, thosethose two things, um, you know,

(11:52):
are very very important early signs andindicators. And and you know,
if you're experiencing that, if youhave a spouse, a loved one that
you know, don't let those thingsgo unnoticed. That you know, especially
the night sweats man, go getyourself checked out. And when you got
to diagnosis on June fourteenth, you'renotified. What was your initial reaction when

(12:16):
you did get it, Well,it was you know, I'm glad you
asked that. I Mean, thefunny thing is I was actually in Detroit.
I was in the parking lot ofa high school, getting ready to
go, getting ready to go insideand speak to about three hundred high school

(12:37):
football players at the Sound Mind,Sound Body football camp. And you know,
it took a week to get thebiopsy result back. So it was
June fourteenth. I get the calland you know, the nurse on the
line just said, you know you'vegot cancer. You have a promise squeamis

(12:58):
cell Carson Noma hpv uh. Youknow, the oncologist and Mount Pleasant would
like to see you as soon aspossible. I mean, I was shocked,
Scott. I mean those are that'syou know, something that you never
really want to hear. Uh,and that I would really wouldn't wish on
anything anyone. Um. There werea lot of things that were going through

(13:22):
my mind, honestly. The firstone was I need to get home and
talk to my wife. UM.The second thing was, UM, I
just had a lot of questions.I didn't know anything about the disease.
Uh, didn't know if it wastreatable, curable, any of those things.
UM. And you know the otherthing that was on my mind in

(13:46):
a big way was man Um.We had a player at the time at
Central Michigan by the young man bythe name Derek Nash, who is extremely
courageous who who uh was going througha battle of himself for you know,
for the third time, and eventually, you know, succumbed to that.

(14:07):
So a lot of my thoughts were, you know, Okay, how am
I going to handle this? Howam I gonna you know, what am
I going to say to my team? You know? Um and uh,
you know a lot of the questionsdidn't get answered until we got up and
spoke to the physician up in MountPleasant, and then you know, from

(14:33):
there it became you know, wehave to take a course of action.
How are we going to release this? You know? Um, I thought
we did a really good job,you know, with our athletic director,
our our leaderships, uh, youknow up in Mount Pleasant, Dave Hike
or athletic director who's now the athleticdirector at Arizona President Ross. I mean,

(14:56):
uh, basically, I went uhback down to ann Arbor like two
or two days later, they youknow, took me in part of a
clinical trial. UM. I hadanother you know, small biopsy there,
drove back to Mount Pleasant, filmeda press release you know, at around

(15:18):
eleven o'clock at night, and thenthe following morning, had a team meeting
and as soon as you know,so that you know the players on the
team, my team could hear itfirst. Uh. And then you know,
as soon as that team meeting wasover with, they did a press
release. But uh, you know, there's a lot of things that go

(15:39):
through your mind there. You know, you you think about your family first
and uh and and you know,naturally you have a million questions that that
you just don't have answers to whileyou're making that two and a half hour
drive back up to uh to MountPleasant from from Detroit. Well, how
did your team react to the newsthat you had this? I think,

(16:03):
um, you know it was theytook it well. I mean my message
to them was, you know,again, I wanted to be sensitive to
to Derek and his family. Um, there are a lot of different types
of cancers there. Um, there'sa lot of different phases for I wanted
them to know that. UM.And and basically my message to them was

(16:26):
it already you know, by thetime I had spoken to them, it
was time to speak to them.I had already made my mind up that
I was gonna you know, Iwasn't I was gonna keep coaching. I
was going to keep a regular scheduleas much as I possibly could. Um,
you know, and look, youknow again, my administration they offered

(16:47):
you know, uh, you know, they offered, you know, for
me to take some time off,step away for a little while. And
you know, you know, Paulknows this, my wife. I mean,
I never really ever even entertained thatI had worked my entire career to
get the opportunity to be a headcoach. But even at another deeper level,

(17:11):
you know, I felt a senseof responsibility to my players and my
staff. You know, I thinkthat you know, you you preach things
throughout your career, and um,you know, I had a group of

(17:32):
seniors that were getting ready to playtheir final year of college football. When
you're a leadership, when you're ina leadership position, you know, especially
as a head coach, the decisionsyou make, you know, they affect
everybody, you know, everyone aroundyou. And so I really didn't want
to let anybody down. And Iwasn't going to let this stop me.

(17:52):
And my message was, look,you know, I will handle this.
I will I'll fight this. Uh, you guys don't need to worry about
me. We have another opponent onour schedule, but it's one that I've
got to defeat on my own,and you know, it was as much
as possible, we tried to keepit as you know, business as usual.

(18:15):
You know, the summer was reallyreally busy because when my treatment started,
I decided to go or we decidedto go to University of Michigan Hospital
in ann Arbor. So that's abouta two hour and fifteen two hour and
a half hour drive from Mountain Pleasantto ann Arbor. So the regiment was,

(18:37):
you know, it was eight weeksof chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation.
The chemo I got on Mondays.The radiations I got on Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So there was you know, seven
weeks where we were driving to annArbor and back to you know and back

(19:00):
to Mount Pleasant, you know,five days a week. And you know,
the radiation, the way it stacksin your body. The first couple
of weeks are easy, you don'tnotice anything, and then it starts to
accumulate. And the way radiation worksis it's it's like, you know,

(19:22):
Scott, if I give you afive pound, five pounds weight today,
right, and you carry that allaround all day long, and then tomorrow
I give you another five pounds.So now you've got ten, after three
days, you're gonna have fifteen.After four days, you're gonna have twenty.
You know, after the first week, you've got twenty five pounds.

(19:44):
In three weeks, you're gonna havefifty. Three weeks, you're gonna have
seventy five four. So that's howit stacks up. And then when you're
done with it, it leaves yourbody. You know, it leaves your
body at the same rate, sothe symptoms don't actually come on all at
once. They gradually occur. Andyou know, I don't want to spend
the whole time, the whole showabout that, but you know, in

(20:10):
short, UM, I had toget a feeding tube because I couldn't swallow
anything really, uh, you loseyour sense of taste. UM. I
lost a total of seventy five pounds, you know, which was was nuts.
Um. But you know, thatwas the that was the regiment.

(20:30):
So that went from you know,June twenty ninth to August twenty first,
So that was you know, throughthe first part of training camp UM,
which you know, fortunately for meas the head coach, I was the
guy that that made the schedule.So I've always had that you know,
I had the first appointment slot atthe at the Oncology Center in the Radiation

(20:55):
Radiation Oncology Center at Michigan. Thatwas at seven am, So it was
I was there every morning at sevenam, and I would get my Saturday
and Saturday and Sunday off to recuperatea little bit. Well, you know
you mentioned this and I'm going toreiterate on it for a moment. Coach,
Okay that I really am, reallyam proud of you for knowing that

(21:15):
you could have had an interim coachstepping your place, but you chose to
set a good example for your studentsbecause I called players at that level students
first, because they can call ita student athlete. And you kept on
coaching. And you know what,I cannot give any higher praise than I
am able to do. Little one. Anybody that's watching this or we'll watch

(21:37):
it, Donline. I mean thatthat's incredible. A lot of coaches know
they could, but you just keptbattling. And you know what, that's
an inspiration not only the player,for just anybody in general. I mean,
I'm coaching and that and that's whatyou did. Well, I appreciate
that, and I was very veryfortunate, and it wasn't you know,
I wasn't by myself. Thank youGeorge for your comment there. I appreciate

(22:00):
that. Um. You know,I was worked at you know, the
players were super supportive. I getobviously the administration was supportive. I had
a great staff. Those guys reallyyou know, stepped up and uh,
you know, I have the bestsupport system at home and my wife,

(22:22):
who you know, uh, youknow, held my hand every night when
I fell asleep, when I hadto sleep propped up because if I you
know, if I laid down completelyflat, I probably would have drowned in
my own mucus. As as grossas that is, that's, you know,
just part of the part of thedeal. But um, I think

(22:44):
one of the things also a bigpart for me, and I'd have been
asked this before, is was youknow, people say, you know,
do you appreciate things? Do youappreciate life more? Um. I don't
ever think that I ever was thatperson that took things for granted, But
I do think what it does isit changes your perspective on things. You

(23:07):
know. Um, you know,when you're going through something another trial,
another tribulation or something, you know, I kind of go back and say,
well, this might be tough.Uh, this stinks, but it's
not It's nothing compared to you know, what I want to the other in
perspective is so important. And everysingle day when I would go down there

(23:30):
to Michigan, man, I feltreally really lucky. I really did,
uh you know, because like Isaid, we ended up losing Derek Nash.
You know, we ended up havingto you know, to bury him.
And uh, you know, Ijust learned a lot of lessons.
Um, you know that this diseasedoesn't discriminate. You know, I saw

(23:52):
all people from all different walks oflife, all different ages, and a
lot of them were far worse offand I was, and and your heart
really goes out to that, andyou know, so just you know,
if there was one lesson, onebig lesson, it was, you know,
always keep things in perspective and uh, you know, find your your

(24:14):
the people that that that are importantto you, just you know, keep
them close and hang on and uhyou know, those were those were just
really you know, really important deals. The other thing I would say is,
you know, um, don't forgetthat if you have somebody, a
loved one or whatever, you know, a friend, or don't forget about

(24:36):
the families. You know, therewas a lot of support for me,
and there was a good amount ofsupport for my family, but you know,
I felt like, um, youknow, they were such a big
part of it. And you know, your your children, your kids,
they you know, they range fromsenior in high school to freshmen in high

(24:59):
school to you know, sixth grade. Their understanding of it is different,
you know, So just um,always keep that family in mind too,
if you know somebody that's going throughthere, because trust me, it's it's
uh, it's just as tough onyou know, a lot of the lot
of the tension, a lot ofthe focuses on the individual because of the

(25:23):
treatments and that sort of thing.But man, don't don't forget about those
families too. They need your supportas well. Okay, find it interesting,
I don't want to say ironic,because when we play these shows that
we do and dates sometime come intothe having no work out, and this
one really did because you indicated thatyou know, you're diagnosed on what June

(25:45):
fourteenth, and here we are doingthis broadcast at June fifteenth. Yeah,
I mean, so let's have alittle there is a way we can have
a little bit of fun here,and this is probably the window that we
can do it. Okay, whatdo you think we're doing this on June
fifteenth? We're diagnosed in June fourteenth. Perspective on that, well, you
know, I'm still here. That'sthe best perspective I can give you.

(26:06):
And I know, baby, that'snot you know, um, I'm still
here. And and really was itwas Paul Att was my wife that that
When we were on the phone yesterday, she goes, John, you realize
it was June fourteenth when you gotyour your diagnosis. And I'm like,
yeah, that's that's right. Youknow. The the better one was,

(26:26):
you know, the you know aboutin November. It was mid November.
I think it was right around Thanksgiving. Um, when when I got the
all clear. You know that's that'sthe one that that that's really important.
Well, let's have a little bitmore fun on dates. Because when I
had major back surgery at Holy Crossingfor a latter now and I was in

(26:51):
there on morphine. That was myfavorite drug. All you talk about candy
other than one I married. Thatwas a good drug back then. But
the amazing easing part about that andthis I was going through a severe bag.
I herniated this with the L fourL five. Well at this Michael
Jackson and very Faucet died on thesame day. Oh now here's the intriguing

(27:15):
part about this coach. Okay,every time I need to look up my
operation, all I need to dois look at Michael Jackson said, oh,
hey, by the way, youknow on my medical reg And if
that isn't interesting, okay, AndI want to look up Billy Martin's death.
I tore my ankle on Magic Mountainin Vermont. I just look up.
Oh that's when I busted up myankles. So say, well,

(27:37):
what about days? But you know, if there's any kind of thing that
happens for a reason, and I'mgoing to mention Billy Martin, you know,
Michael Jackson and Vera vaust that's acouple of my major situations occurred.
So I mean, and yet,ironically, you know you found out the
day before we're going for what thatsaid when you got the cancer diagnosis,

(28:00):
and we talked about cancer. Excusethe sorry about that. So let me
try again. When you got thecancer diagnosis, let's go those you in
your head, you feel It's like, do people react like this is a
death sentence now, you know,because traumatically, psychologically I got a cancer.
I only have so much time tolive. Is that the initial reaction

(28:21):
that I think, I think itis from a lot of people that don't
know you, if you don't havethe opportunity to explain it to them.
Um, you know, I youknow, I'm pretty stubborn and hardheaded.
I wasn't. I never really thoughtof it that way. I never.
I mean, obviously maybe it's inthe way back recesses of your mind,
but uh, I personally never allowedmyself to and and Pault would never allow

(28:48):
me to turn turn flip that coinover to look on the what was on
the other side. You know.It was we were focusing on just you
know, really, you know,one day at a time. I mean,
you know, obviously you know you'reyou're getting into training camp, you
know, football. I think wasa great diversion for me. Um.

(29:11):
It was challenging because I would losemy voice really really easy. You imagine,
you know, it's like having strepthroat for whatever three months, right,
But yeah, I think your attitudeis is really truly the most important
thing because you, none of us. We can't control the circumstances that happen

(29:34):
in our lives. We're all goingto go through things, but what you
can control is how you react tothem. And you know, if you
let the diagnosis beat you, thenyou're done right. So to me,
I really approached it like a game. It's like it was going to opponent.
I was going to get this outof me at whatever costs. And

(29:56):
again, you know I'm biased,but there's there wasn't there's and it isn't
a better hospital in the in thein America that I could have been at,
or in the world that I couldhave been at then Universe U of
M Hospital. I mean, uh, doctor Specter, Uh, Matt Specter

(30:18):
was my you know, he's thehe's the head and neck cancer specialist there.
I mean, he was phenomenal,just absolutely phenomenal in every sense of
the way. And so when you'rewhen you have something and you're gonna go,
you know, you're going to goto battle against something, you want
to know that you have the verybest team on your side. And I

(30:40):
really felt confident in that that.You know, that gave me a tremendous
amount of confidence that I was gonnayou know, I was just gonna beat
this and that it was going tobe something in in my history. But
also knew that, man, there'sgot to be a reason. Uh.
It was overwhelming the number of peoplethat reached out, complete strangers. Um,

(31:03):
you know, there were several peoplethat had gone through the same exact
cancer that that reached out. Andyou know what I've only I've just tried
to pay it forward or pay itback whenever I can anytime I've heard of
it. I mean, ironically,I've gotten I didn't really know Ron Rivera,
uh, but Coach Rivera when hewent through his deal a couple of
years back, it was the sameexact thing. And I was able to

(31:27):
hop on the phone with him becauseit was such a big advantage to me
to you know, to have hadspoken to people who had gone through the
same thing. So you gotta,you know, you have a little bit
of an idea of you know,what to expect, you know, I
mean, you know it's gonna betough going into it. It's not gonna

(31:48):
you're not going to be comfortable.There's nothing fun. There's nothing easy about
you know, you know, radiationor chemotherapy, it sucks. It really
does. But again it's it's allabout your attitude, in your in your
mindset. Hey Brian, thanks fortuning in. You know it's amazing you

(32:09):
talk about doctor Matt Specter. I'mgonna have to google him up a little
bit. My mom and stud what'sthat? He is an absolute stud.
Yeah, I'm gonna google him up. I'd like a little bit more information
about him. You never know,if I may invite him to come on
one day to know and follow yourlead. Anything's possible with me. You

(32:29):
know that right now. But here'sthe thing. My mom went to the
University of Michigan Hospital as well,and she was dealing with some serious COPD.
I think they may have called ita little too late. There wasn't
much that they could do. Butyou know, I've heard a lot of
great things about University of Michigan Hospitalme, but I had my major throat,
I had a major reconstruction. Ihad to get mind done at the

(32:52):
Mayo Clinic. Yeah yeah, Andyou know what, I've never been at
University of Michigan Hospital and heard nothingbut good things about it. But I
mean, for Mayo Clinic, it'sa place that I've always felt comfortable with
because they have locations you know,Jacksonville out in Arizona and of course a
big one out in Rochester, Minnesota. So but I'm glad, I mean,

(33:14):
you know, amazingly enough though hereyou are having to take a two
and a half hour drive and thenyou probably never dawned on you to go
ahead and play YouTube music on thereor do you? Are you a big
believer in meditation? Um? Yes, I am am. I A huge
practicer of it. No, Ithink that. Uh you know too,

(33:35):
I'm a big pressure, big proponentof effective thinking and visualization. I think
that. And you know meditation fallvery very very closely, you know,
hand in hand. Uh you know, as far as making the trip you
know, down the ann Arbor andback every day for you know, five
days a week for for seven weeks. Uh. You know that is you

(34:00):
know, when you're the head coach, you have you know, head coach
privileges. So you know, luckilyI wasn't driving myself. I had to
you know, I set up theschedules. I had the gas picking me
up. You know, I hadmy graduate assistance that was you know,
you know they're picking up at likeyou know, you know four or forty

(34:21):
five in the morning, and uh, we'd make make the ride. So
that's so you're telling me, beinga head coach, you have those little
extra privileges where there's no my wife. I really really bad. At least
I didn't have to drive myself.Yeah, so you take a wheel away

(34:42):
from me two and a half threehours and I'm driving crazy. Everybody.
I think I'm going to lose it. You talk to my wife, Candy.
She'll tell you right now that ifhe's healthy, he's dangerous. And
I don't know if we have anycops out there listening. Don't worry.
I do the best I can tostay players right because I'm not looking to
Financial City. I want to getit. I'll tell you. I'll tell
you a funny story. Is youknow my my office at Central was right

(35:06):
across the hallway from like the teammeeting room, and I had a pick
line in inserted in my in myleft arm, which a pick line for
people out there, they don't knowthey it runs through it. They take
it all the way up to yourheart, you know, because the thing
that that happens is you end upyou end up getting blood test after blood

(35:30):
test after blood test after blood test. They're every day they're they're drawing blood
from you, and you know you'renot eating because you can't. You're you're
on a liquid diet. You're losingweight, you're emaciated. After a while,
it's like it's hard to you know, it's hard to find a spot
on your arm to draw blood.So they did. They put a pick

(35:53):
line, and well, the goodthing about that is that one of the
other benefits was they would be ableto hook me up to an IV.
So I was taking you know,two to three leaders of fluid every day
in between practices. Um, soI wouldn't so that I wouldn't dehydrate,

(36:14):
right, because that would have justmade things worse. So this one particular
day during camp, it's like Ican't locate the trainer. You know,
I'm calling the trainer like he's gotto come take this thing out of my
arm. I can't find him,and you know, my meeting's getting ready
to start in two minutes, soI'm not going to be late for the

(36:36):
meeting. You know, That's it'sunacceptable for anybody, you know, especially
if you're the one running at you'rethat coach. It doesn't set a very
good precedent. So I just tookthe you know, the IV stand in
with me into the meeting and wentabout my business. I told you,
guys, look, it's just youknow, fluid, don't don't not a

(36:57):
big deal, it's not. SoI'm going through my my meeting and the
you know, the IV bags probablyflopping around like a puppet. Well,
when ivs done right, it worksby gravity. By the time I've done
with the meeting, the eyes andin the players their eyeballs. I didn't
realize it, but after the fluidemptied out, well it started to go

(37:22):
back up and it was it wasstarting to fill up with blood, not
a lot, not you know,it wasn't all right, but but it
was still you know it was Ifind it funny at this time that happened.
But hey, listen, you couldmake light out of that situation.
I told you got a preformance thatwhatever you want, you can do it.

(37:44):
The only thing I'm gonna add tothat is and everybody associated with medical
bodies weren't made to be treated likedartboards. Okay they're not, but unfortunately
the reality and medicine modern or prehistoricis dartboard one on one okay, and
that's that we don't want to sithere and get too creative with the visualization.

(38:07):
But you know what it's you know, this is an opportunity for you
to tell your story, the good, debate and the ugly, and if
we want to incorporate that story,go ahead and do it. All right,
Let's talk a little bit about thetreatment program that you were involved in.
I know you touched on it,coach, okay, but now it's
an opportunity, if you feel likeit is, to get a little bit

(38:28):
more specific about what you had todo. And then we're going to talk
about another fatality a little while.Let's I just want to go through the
actual chronological order, and we talkedabout the June twenty ninth, you know
date, well, so let's talkabout the significance of that June twenty ninth
eight, and then we're going totalk about some treatment as well. Yeah,
June twenty ninth is when I gotmy first chemo. First round of

(38:52):
the chemo. You know, thatamounts to basically your sitting in a room
with you know a lot of otherpeople and you're just connected to an IV
and the mine usually took about twohours or so and you know, just
sitting there and then you know,the following week we started the radiation.

(39:16):
Uh, the radiation really doesn't takethat long. I mean, but to
let you know the scope of thisUM at Michigan at the time, these
uh, these radiation machines, theyhad six of them, UM and I
think they're you're twenty million apiece,that's how much they call. You know,

(39:37):
the walls. The walls are youknow, they're six feet of steel.
You're in there by yourself. You'reyou're strapped down to a board.
They make you like a custom maskthat that and you know, they literally
screw you down to so you cannotmove and this thing goes around your head

(39:58):
and it it it zaps you withradiation from different angles, which is part
of the technology that enables you touh, you know, they want to
The big side effect with a lotof people that have gone through this in
previous you know, previous generations,was the radiation would kill off your saliva

(40:20):
glands, and so by rotating itthey are able to preserve a lot of
that and you're still going to losesome of it, but the theory is
that the ones that are preserved canmake up the difference for those. So
there's times where I still get like, you know, dry mouth if I
talk too long. But man,unfortunate and it's it's nothing that I can't

(40:45):
live with and deal with. Andagain, very very lucky. But yeah,
the radiation only takes about by thetime you're there. You know,
you're in and out in fifteen twentyminutes. But to give you the idea
of the scope of people that they'retreating, you know, those things are
booked solid, you know, onfifteen minute increments from seven o'clock in the

(41:08):
morning until you know, seven oreight o'clock in the evening, and that's
how many people are going through thereon a daily basis. I imagine that's
where your graduate assistants were real bighelp there. Thing. Yeah, I
mean just trying getting me there.Yep. Yeah, I get trying mout
because I talk too much. Butthen again it's something you're surprised anyways,

(41:31):
I don't know. But all right, so let's talk about the fact that
you know, if it's caught early, you're okay, but if it's not,
it's fatal. Let's talk about theHillsdale story if you don't mind.
Yeah, a good friend of mine, pat Riepma, was the head coach
at Hillsdale College and was battling thesame cancer for the second time when I

(41:58):
was diagnosed and ventially succumbed to itum the first time, you know,
he was able to they caught it, he was able to get treatment,
and then almost five years to theday, it came back. And you
know that's why when when you whenyou finish your you know, when you

(42:19):
get the all clear, all clearstamp of approval, uh, technically you're
in remission. So the American CancerSociety has a window of five years.
You're in remission for five years untiluh, you're officially declared you know cancer,
your your cancer free or you know, cured. After after the five

(42:45):
year mark, the the incidents ofit or any really any cancer returning is
vastly diminishes almost to nil. Youknow. But you know, so after
the treatment, you know your youryour cancer free. But you're technically in
remission until you hit that five yearmark. So you know, the first

(43:07):
year you're still going in for amonthly check up and then it goes down.
After year two and three, you'remaybe going every three months. Year
four and five, it's a sixmonth check up and after year five.
Now I don't I never have togo back. Good story unfortunately for the

(43:30):
culture Hillsdale College in that way,and coach Ribmo was what it was,
a great guy, great mentor.He was a graduate assistant at Central Michigan
when I was a player. Um, you know, he was a Hillsdale
grad and just a really, youknow, really great man. It was.
It was tough losing him. Yeah. How old was he when he
passed on? Well, he wasolder than I am, so I'm going

(43:53):
to guess he was in his youknow, mid fifties. Okay, all
right, let ask is there anythingelse you want to talk about this?
I mean the floor is yours tosay whatever you want. I just want
to make sure we got a lotof the particulars all the way for her.
Yeah again, And I mean Ijust go back to to the lessons
learned. You know. The firstone I would say is, you know,

(44:15):
adversity cancer doesn't discriminate, you know, it affects everybody. I mean,
you know, that was the hardestpart I think going there every day
was was seeing your young kids andjust really the amount of empathy you need
one and half for the not justthe child, but the family. Um.

(44:36):
The second one you know lesson toois you know, in life you
find your rock and hang on,you know, find your support system.
For For me, it's my wife, you know, you know she was
she was a rock star, butnot no pun intended, but she it
was find your rock and hang on, you know. The next the next

(44:58):
thing I would say is, um, you know I said it before is
you you you know you'll never beable to you know to You'll never be
able to completely control the circumstances thatoccur in your life. But what you
can control is how you react tothem. So your attitude and all things
is really the most important thing.You know, find a reason to look

(45:23):
forward, find the positive in anysituation that you're you know that you're dealing
with, because ten percent of lifeis what happens to you and ninety percent
of it's how you react to it. That's just those are facts. I
just really believe that that. Um. The and then you know, the
last thing is like I said,you know, the adversity you know,

(45:46):
uh or excuse me, just perspectiveand adversity and perspective to me go hand
in hand. It's like no matterwhat you're dealing with, there's going to
be somebody out there that's worse offthan you are. You know, it's
just you know, to today mightbe a bad day, but man,
tomorrow is going to be better.And even though today was bad, it's

(46:07):
not as bad as you know,maybe what happened back then. So you
know, just try to keep aperspective on thing because there's you know,
there's always one more game, onemore play, you know, uh,
one more you know, one moreopportunity somewhere on the horizon. And so
just you know, keep it allin perspective. That's, uh, you

(46:29):
know, that's really the most importantthings. And that's that's my message.
And you know, have empathy forthose people, have empathy for their family.
That's the best way that you canshow support. And just remember those
warning signs. And if you experiencesomething, you know, don't ignore it,
don't blow it off. Go youknow, go get it checked out.

(46:51):
Because obviously, one hundred percent whatyou said, early diagnosis is the
biggest factor in in UH and beatingit. I was I was fortunate,
you know, I was fortunate thatnumber one we caught it early. Number
two was very treatable. Number three, I had a great support system around
me. Number four. I youknow, I had an unbelievable team of

(47:16):
medical people, and you know,we were able to we were able to
beat it. You know, it'snot easy. It wasn't easy, but
I mean, if I can doit, anybody can. Great story.
And ironically, I was talking tomy aunt Nancy Spector today. I was
telling her about my concussion issues whereI have second and packs says, you

(47:42):
know, second impacts symptoms. Ithink it's what they call it. Anyways,
and she's trying to advise me toget the bowtots. I have one
schedule right now, the insurances gettingin the way. Hopefully we'll ultimately get
it. But she was telling me, just if there's ways so they'll get
it if you write them a niceletter. And I told her, you
know, I really enjoyed branching offto not only do sports stuff off different

(48:05):
things, and yet here I am. But by the way, she's not
related to doctor Matt Specter, orshe is. I don't know about it
yet, who knows, but Specteror breed Spector. I mean, when
you have a common name, youhave a common name, and I have
a feeling at some point she'll probablywatch this show because I told her,
I has really been looking forward todoing your show for a long time,
doing this thing after we touched basedon a couple of things in the time

(48:30):
and couldn't worked out. But youare right them, you know, you
talk about a soul significant other,soul mate. My wife Candy's been with
me ten years and she's probably seenjust about every hospital in South Florida.
But the way I've been getting bangedup and she just you know, the
only thing she hasn't come with AaronRodgers is she does relax, okay.

(48:50):
And you know when we were beforewe were married, and I was having
some major, major probably just there'sa yeah, you know, Candy,
you know I can see the outside. You know. I don't like to
tell her story too much, butshe was involved with the guy before she
was with me, unfortunately passed awayin that very hospital. So then she
wheels me and I said, well, you know, people can't leave JFK

(49:12):
Hospital out we're out in Lake Worthor wherever alive, and I'm just one
of those things. Oh, youknow, I told her, let's get
over the beach. I didn't reallylike the view from the hospital, but
it's dock and as when my motherwas calling me, a future mother in
law was calling me three times aweek, but please tell your wife that
Candy and I are looking forward tocatching up with you and you and we

(49:34):
got tons of stuff to you anyways. Yeah, but you know, hey,
you're right, You're gonna have asoul met I mean, you know,
I always tell people when you talkabout my way, she's a different
bird. She probably deserves a goldmedal bigger than the one they get it
the Olympics or dealing with me ona lot of different fronts. But I
told my aunts, aunts inspector ona candid note, no matter what happens

(49:55):
to me, when when it's allsaid and done, I said, you
know what, always know what Isound like, you know what I look
like? All you need to do, Candys go to YouTube, okay,
and that's that and then you'll knowwhat you know? You know, you
hear somebody passes on. You maynot have enough tape to know what they
sound to look like, but Igot it here. You don't have to
use me as one of those getup, get up and they have a

(50:17):
ring tone made after me. Butyou know, well, we'll take that
off of me and keep the focuson you. It's just some ironic synergy
here that if you have a strongso lift another like I do. Then
to me, that's important because youknow what you always feel, coach,
that you're not in the battle alone, and there's something Yeah, there's nothing

(50:38):
more powerful than they know you havesomebody raped by your side. Well so
yeah, yeah, and I'm lookingforward to meet your wife. But you
and me, we're gonna be doingsome remote stuff. All this streaming is
all, well we got I'm glad, you know. I gotta tell you
a funny story though. And Ialways used to joke around with my mom,
but she always used to take thatthe wrong way because she was a

(51:00):
flamboyant individual. God love her.Okay, she taught me a lot of
things about creativity, my mom,there's a deal, okay. And you
want to talk about a poker facecould really get into somebody, sad dog,
And there's things about poker faces andcommunication that you ought to know.
You're a head coach and a regularcoach, right, But you know,
when my mom had numerous cancer scaresand health problems, you know what the

(51:22):
problem I told my mom, andI'm giving her the most serious face,
like it looks like I'm Domanior.You know, Mom, I hate tell
you this. Okay, God doesn'twant you and the devil won't take it,
she said, And then it tooka little whilder processes. Mom,
you don't even understand. That's thebiggest compliment. You didn't even go out

(51:44):
there and figure out they don't wantthe devil won't thank you? Okay?
Did it means you get to thelive? Oh? I didn't know that.
I'm telling you so, folks,if you ever want to line,
you heard it here on the Southworda Tribune broadcasting that way, whether it's
your mom, dad, or whoever. God doesn't want and the devil won't

(52:05):
take it, because that means equalsl I V to live? All right?
So I'm glad I had to getthat one out here because I know
that we do take cancer seriously,we really do. And I know if
it happens with me, well,you know what, I'll deal with it
like you, I'll just be I'lltake care of it head on and do
the best I can. But everybody, our goal here, coaches, we

(52:28):
know is to inspire and educate,and inform, And I think every time
I put a broadcast together, thoseare my top three priorities when I'm doing
this stuff. And you know,one of those type of things that we
have a job to do. Wehave to maintain our professionalism. We have
to know when to use home humor, and then there are times we have
to be serious about the things.So you have to be a chameleon in

(52:49):
the way you approach anything that youdo. I imagine your coach the same
way, too, right, youknow, sometimes it's funny, sometimes not.
Sometimes you gotta lean on people thefull spectrum of your person now,
you know, to get through toyour audience. You know. I think
that's uh, it's really important incoaching. I mean, it's important you

(53:09):
have do you have one hundred playerson a team. You got one hundred
personalities. Every one of them aredifferent, you know, and it's you
know, you are a team,you know, but but still it's like
you have to know, you know, you have to know as a coach
what makes the individual tip right.Well, one of my long term goals

(53:29):
to coaches to be able to dopublic speaking, and I'm looking forward to
doing that one the situation presents itself. I like taking a index card with
just a bunch of things on thereand my own bad chicken scratchically every once
in a while if I my neuropathydoesn't kick in. Or long before I
had this stupid stuff anyways, Iused to write it on there, and
I used to have bullet points,you know, one, one, two,

(53:51):
and then to go in front ofa mirror and poom, there you
go. That's your speech. Everybody'slike, I'm like, I got just
eight and a half by a level. I got to read it like a
monotone robot. Anything about a darnrobot. Man, I just put it
out there. Let's go out there, and you know, but well,
you know those types of things.We have to be able to incorporate what
you do. And I think theone thing I can close a shoal on
though, as I'll tell you rightnow, you working in Central Michigan coaching

(54:15):
under those adverse circumstances, what youwere able to do with your student athlete
wasn't you know what I would.I'm in a tough situation right now,
but I'm gonna fight and I expectyou to do the same. So if
you talk about the ultimate cliche.Let's turn a negative into a positive.
I think that's probably the one thingthat the message you were looking to aim
towards your students, wasn't it.Absolutely yeah, I mean yeah, there's

(54:38):
times you know you have to putup or shut up. You know,
you know, if you if you'regoing to talk to talk, you have
to walk the walk. But again, for me, it was it wasn't
even there wasn't even a decision tobe made. You know, it was
about you know, I didn't wantto I didn't want to let anybody down.

(54:58):
You know. From this, youknow again you have a lot of
people depending on you when you're you'rewhen you're in that position, you know,
your decisions affect everybody, right well, I mean like anything else.
You know what Earnie Harwall once taughtme a little thing of the tigers.
You can't stand the heat, getout of the kitchen. I'll tell you
what, though, with cancer,you can't get out of the kitchen.

(55:20):
You had to stay in the heatbecause it's a matter of survival at that
point. But you know, I'mglad that we had a chance to tell
your story. Let me go outthere and in case you didn't hear it
the first time. No Limits isbeing broadcast around the world. Now.
The audio version of No Limits canbe heard on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify,
Google, wherever you get your podcast. Please hit the rent, subscribe
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(55:44):
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and YouTube. Our website www dotSouth Florida Tribune dot com. Our Twitter

(56:07):
information is a tribute South and CandyDlink, as usual, does a magnificent
job working behind the scenes. Shereally does. But she does to get
all of our shows up there,or the construction of the website, building
it from the ground up from scratch. I mean, she's just a marvel.
And more importantly, if there's theway I look at it, when
it comes to putting somebody on ahigh pedal. So she definitely deserves it,

(56:29):
and I'm sure you feel the sameway in another. So you know
what folks really enjoyed doing this editionof No Limits. I enjoyed doing a
lot of them anyways. But sometimeswhen you run across a cancer survivor a
guy that you care about, andwe've worked together before, and now you
and I have a chance to dostuff here in the media together, which
is even better because that means weget to stay in touch more and you

(56:51):
get to go ahead and take allmy other stuff when it's serious. But
this is one of those kinds ofthings here, okay, to me that
hits closer to home. And I'mglad coach tonight you had the opportunity to
tell your story because I'll tell youwhat, like you say, whether you
go to a seminar or whether yougo to a public speech or anything,

(57:13):
if you can inspire one individual,okay, then you've gotten your job done.
And that's so so important, andthat's what we're striving to do.
And I'm just so glad that youand I had an opportunity to use a
day after your diagnosis to tell whatwe call the John Bonamego cancer surviving story.

(57:34):
Folk, that's how we type it, and that's exactly what I'm really
proud to do. And you know, Coach, to me, you're my
hero, you really, really reallyare, and it's the truth. You
are appreciate that you're a great friendand colleague, but you're my hero.
And as I said before, youknow, we want our goal here when
we do this sort of thing,is we want to inspire people and motivate

(57:58):
them where you know, when youthink things are bad in our lifetime,
go to foreign countries or they're homelessand they aren't fed well. And I
know that's a tough situation for them, and I only respect that a bazillion
person, But we're focusing on thepresent. I'm just glad that you're able
to enjoy retirement and state of Florida, and that your coaching career was well

(58:20):
defined as we talked about in yourfirst show with us, and what we
got more to do, don't we? Sure do? Sure do. Thanks
Scott for having me. I appreciatethe opportunity to tell the story. Thank
you to all the people we didn'tget to all the comments, but I
appreciate those. And you know,just as a final thing before we sign
off again, just know the warningsigns, you know, get help and

(58:45):
keep things, keep it positive,keep it in perspective, everybody. Thank
you all right, So this concludesthis edition of No Limits. My name
is Scott Morgan, rolth Motor CityManmouth. Please to be joined by coach
John Omego, John bonn Omego.This is an opportunity for coach would tell
his story and I hope that you'reable to get as much out of this
episode as much as we enjoy puttingit together and getting it out there for

(59:07):
everybody else. So once again,folks on we have a coach down Bonham
Ago. My name is Scott Morgan, Ruth the Motor City Madmouth. Thank
you for joining us on this editionof No Limits. And you know what,
we're gonna have coach back on talkingfootball next week. But we gave
him a break this time, butnow we're going to give back and talk
some grid iron real soon. Sogood night everybody, and once again,

(59:28):
thank you for joining us.