Dana Bible: Coaching Life's Lessons

The date was November 20, 2009. North Carolina State Offensive Coordinator Dana Bible even recalls the time -- 5:35 PM. He was told he had Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia or cancer of the blood.

“I was certain they were wrong,” Coach Bible said. “That night, as the team was headed to play Virginia Tech, I was going to the hospital.”

Bible spent the next 30 days in the hospital receiving treatment. Bible says he hadn’t felt well all season, but it never occurred to him that he was battling cancer.

“For months I was either lying in the hospital, lying in bed or lying on my couch,” Bible says.

The treatment appeared to work; his cancer has been in remission for seven months. For Bible, he rarely reflects on those dark days.

“I felt slammed and was in a lot of pain,” Bible says. “It was not pleasant.”

Through it all, Bible did not step aside from his coaching duties. He admits that by spring workouts in 2010, he was at 40-percent but still made it a point to be there.

“I wanted to be part of the team,” Bible says. “The ACC is so competitive. If you have a weakness, teams will expose it. I didn’t want to be the team’s weakness.”

So Bible persevered, saying his players were compassionate and filled gaps when he physically couldn’t perform some of the tasks he needed to do as an offensive coordinator and coach of the quarterbacks and wide receivers. He was determined to stay on the field, though he will admit that after just the second game this past season, he was on empty. Still, he fought through it and finished the season with a bowl victory. No one knew how tired he really was.   Bible has met and talked to others with similar medical diagnoses. He says he doesn’t sugar coat it since there is no cure for leukemia. But he does offer some insightful advice.

“Hate the disease and then fight it,” he says. “There’s not a redeemable quality about the disease. I had a chip on my shoulder and I fought.”

Bible says he literally lives one day at a time and doesn’t pass by opportunities of today with the hopes they come again tomorrow. He says he tries to be a better everything - coach, husband, dad and brother and says the true heroes are those fighting to beat cancer. He hopes to live to see the day when there’s a cure for cancer. Till then, he’ll continue to despise it.