Thoughts on Koch

At the NCAA College Cup in 2007, I remember remarking to one of the reporters from the Collegian that everybody has an uncle just like Sam Koch. The mustache.. the sense of humor that's hopelessly corny but you can't help but laugh at. He's a warm guy, a consummate family man. Most of us have an uncle or a neighbor just like Sam and we're glad we do.

The national college soccer media was enthralled with Koch at the College Cup press conferences. They loved his underdog story and the sheer improbability of UMass making college soccer's version of the Final Four.

But they also liked Sam and his folksy charm. He told them how the longer he kept winning, the longer he could put off raking the lawn. It was fun to watch Sam on a bigger stage.

Back in Amherst, I don't know that I ever seen the rest of the athletic department rooting harder for one of their own. Everybody likes Sam Koch and enjoyed seeing his team's success.

When I talked to Koch yesterday after he made his sinus cancer public, he was passionate as he talked about the fight he had ahead of him. He was ready for that.

He was emotional when he talked about UMass' other coaches and how the athletic department was a family. Even more so when he talked about how much he loved the town of Hadley and how much its people support each other.

The most emotion came as he talked about his wife and his kids.

A man with cancer talked about how lucky he was and how blessed he's been.

He compared preparing for his battle with cancer to getting ready for a soccer season. This is a man who, 22 years ago, was hired to guide the men's soccer program's final season and help the current players find a place to transfer to. Instead he turned that team into a winner and not only kept the program afloat but took it to the NCAA Tournament three times.
In 2007 he took a team picked No. 10 in the Atlantic 10, with limited scholarships, to the College Cup.
If he's as good at fighting a disease as he's been at overcoming odds as a coach, cancer doesn't have a chance.

Or as Koch put it in his everybody's favorite uncle sense of humor:

"I'm ready to rumble," he said. "I don't think cancer knows who they're messing with."