“Want to” – Would you show up for work if you knew you were dying of cancer?

Coach Bruce Dehaven

Originally this blog was tagged “Challenge and Inspire.” I was leading a Sport and PE Department in a Sixth Form College and much of teaching allocation was with the same group of students studying a Level BTEC course. As much as I loved the teaching, it was as much about tutoring and mentoring, challenging and inspiring. I would collect anecdotes, fables, stories and quotations which would find their way onto the PE noticeboards and classroom door, into our classrooms, into our lessons and conversations. You can find some of my most warn out and tired writings here.

Yesterday I shared with my Maths class a story shared by Dan Rockwell over at the Leadership Freak.

Would you show up for work if you knew you were dying of cancer?

66-year-old Caroline Panthers’ special teams coach Bruce Dehaven was diagnosed with an incurable form of prostate cancer. He was told he had anywhere from a few months to five years to live. DeHaven didn’t miss a practice all season, scheduling his treatments around practice.

I little digging around the story, I found this CBS interview. In the extensive media coverage leading up to the Super Bowl, you will hear him repeatedly tell reporters that he / it is not the story. By all accounts he didn’t share the information with the team either.

I appreciate your interest, but it’s not a story.

Bruce Dehaven

DeHaven, a man you clearly knows his “want to.”

Everyone has their own style. His was unique in that he really was more worried about your life and your family and your personal well-being than football. And that’s saying something because he put football about as high up there as anybody can.

JJ Jansen addressed the entire team in the wake of DeHaven’s death at the age of 68, 

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