Basketball Coach Beats Cancer and the Competition

There's only one thing strong enough to keep Cesar Odio off the basketball court: Cancer.

"You know I lost like 50 pounds, I was missing hair and I was going through a tough battle but my goal was always to come back and coach," Odio said yesterday.

Two years ago, Barry University's head basketball coach was diagnosed with leukemia. The weight loss and the chemo were so bad it forced him to sit out all of last season.

"There was times there where I thought I wouldn't be coaching ever again," Odio said, "there was times I thought I would never be around."

But Odio beat the odds and returned to his team at the start of this season.

"When that happened, it hurt so bad," said Bryan Chiverton, a senior on the Barry basketball team. "So we all kind of rallied together and said we're gonna do something special for him."

Chiverton said Odio is like a father to him. And even though Odio never used cancer to motivate the team, they did.

"When we have meetings with just the team, we'll talk about what we need to do and we always remind each other that we're doing this for Coach Odio," he said.

So far, so good. This weekend, Barry will play in the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament.

"For this season to turn out the way it did, it's been almost magical," Odio said.

Odio's leukemia is in remission, so he still takes pills daily and goes to the doctor for treatment every four weeks. But on the court, he's the same high-energy coach he used to be. Well, almost.

"He used to get really fired up, but now sometimes he's more laid back," said Chiverton. "He'll say what he has to say, you can still see that he wants to, because he loves basketball more than anybody I've ever met."

Odio constantly tells his team to play every play like it's their last. And now, he lives that way too.

"Every day I wake up, I tell you I open up my eyes and I just say 'Thank you,'" Odio said.

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