Ed Johnson
Seattle, WA
I miss coaching college
and high school volleyball. I was a college volleyball coach for 15 years with
various schools. Perhaps the high point was when our Missouri Valley College
men’s team was ranked number two in the entire nation. We were so good that
year that many bigger-name schools refused to play against us, fearing embarrassment
if our smaller school won. That was BEFORE M.S.
How did I get into coaching? I had a rough period
in high school and for a few years thereafter, but I finally settled down. It
was a good time in my life. I enrolled at Northwest Bible College in nearby
Kirkland, WA. The only thing missing in my life was a woman. I decided to look
for open gyms that would introduce me to a new group of people—females.
To meet datable women, I often went to open
gyms at night, and there always seemed to be ladies around. I liked that. In
fact, I did indeed meet a woman whom I married in 1991.
I
always enjoyed volleyball, and I had the time to take it up pretty regularly. I
played at various open gyms in the area. My volleyball playing got progressively
better, and I interviewed at Everett Community College. The athletic director, Larry
Walker, hired me to coach at his school, which I did for nine years.
When I started coaching at Everett, they had
won a total of only 10 matches in the preceding 10 years of the program. My
first year seemed to continue that pattern, with 1 win and 23 losses. We
improved rapidly, and that second year we had 12 wins and 13 losses, an
impressive record for Everett. Our performance continued to get better: in the
third year we gained 18 wins and only 4 losses and went to the NWAACC
championship tournament for the first time in Everett’s history. During the last
part of my nine-year run as volleyball coach at ECC, our team won the league
championship and performed very well at the tournament, partly due to our
coaching and partly due to our recruiting, and of course largely due to the
efforts of the women on our teams
.
During my years at ECC, I also continued to
coach club volleyball. Our club team was the most successful in the region,
with over 100 girls participating in it. Unfortunately, while our volleyball
teams excelled, my marriage crumbled. My wife and I ended up filing for divorce
in 1998; however, we had produced two amazing boys, Austin and Kyle.
After the divorce, I had an opportunity to go
with a buddy and coach at Missouri Valley College, which I did. Not sure if it
was to get away or for the adventure of a new coaching opportunity, but it sure
turned out to be the right choice for me. My first year there I coached the JV
women’s team, and we did well. I had conversations with the administration, and
we decided to start a men’s program. I would be the head coach and still
continue coaching the JV girls.
The men’s program took off like gang-busters;
in fact, during this run, we were ranked as high as #2 in the country at one
point. Even with this success, there was still something missing from my life: my
kids. I did fly home several times, but it was not as good as seeing them at
the drop of a hat. So, in November, following the girl’s season, I moved back
to Seattle.
Then came the M.S.
CRISIS. When I was in Olympia, WA, in January, I was
coaching a club team and helping out at Evergreen State College. While I was in
the gym, I noticed there was something wrong with my walking: I was not walking
straight, but like I was drunk. I was having numbness in my face and limbs. There was a nurse in Olympia who suggested
that I go to the emergency room to get checked.
The hospital in
Olympia said I either had M.S. or a stroke. I feared it might be
a stroke. I was saying, “Please don't be a stroke. Please
don't be a stroke.” I knew what a stroke was, and I had no idea what M.S. was. I
was in and out of the hospital so much that they thought that it would be
better for me to come up to a place in Seattle.
I went to the Harborview
Medical Center, where I had a lumbar puncture and other neurological tests. I
was told I didn’t have a stroke, which was a relief. Instead, I had multiple
sclerosis. I knew nothing about M.S. I saw a doctor in
Seattle, Dr. Lucas, and she put me on a drug for M.S.
Multiple sclerosis has
changed my life almost completely, but I have come to be able to cope with this
radical change in my situation. I have learned that, in dealing with this
affliction, patience and persistence are crucial. I had hoped to have a
long-term career in coaching. Instead, I am now dealing with the challenge of
being paraplegic, living on my own.
Certainly, M.S. has
caused numerous medical and personal complications in my life, including the
loss of jobs that I loved, greater difficulties in traveling, and preventing me
from continuing as a successful volleyball coach---recruiting, training, and guiding
my students.
Despite
the seriousness of multiple sclerosis, which has made me wheelchair-bound, it
is not a death sentence. I run a small business selling t-shirts (mstshirts.org)
with inspirational messages related to MS, all profits of which go to the local
Swedish Neuroscience Institute. I live from day-to-day, one at a time. I love my sons, to whom I dedicate this
article, and I find things to enjoy every day.
Life goes on, although at a different
pace.
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We are pleased to publish this here. I was happy to have assisted Ed with it. I am baffled by the sections that are having the white background. May be embedded instructions I cannot see.
My writing-editing-coaching site is
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