Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Dealing with and playing through health issues is part of a football player's DNA. Apparently it extends to coaching, too. Notre Dame offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Mike Denbrock and graduate assistant Kyle Mc- Carthy, who works with the safeties, have not allowed personal battles with cancer that occurred this summer stop them from coaching on the field. On Aug. 19, Denbrock disclosed the reason he missed the first week of training camp at the Culver Academies (Aug. 4-8) was because of prostate cancer surgery near the end of July. He made his first appearance on the field in the initial practice at Notre Dame held Aug. 9, but limits were placed on his time on the field and he had to "pick his spots." By the end of August, Denbrock was more reluctant about revealing how much he was working than dis- cussing the cancer itself. "I'm not going to say how much I've been involved in what's been going on because my wife [Diane] and my doctor will probably hunt me down and get after me," Denbrock said with a chuckle. "But I've been able to do more than I anticipated I would to this point." Denbrock's doctor has indicated that all the cancer has been removed. Two days prior to the Rice game, head coach Brian Kelly said he thought Denbrock was back to 100 per- cent. "I would definitely say that he's been in our morning meetings and evening meetings, and putting in 14-15 hour days," he said. "I haven't seen anything different from him relative to his health from where he was last year." Meanwhile, McCarthy began chemotherapy treat- ment Aug. 13 for what he termed a "treatable" form of cancer and had been through four before returning to the field for the Aug. 19 practice. One of the team captains in 2009 as a safety, Mc- Carthy led the Fighting Irish in tackles in 2008 (110) and 2009 (101), and also paced the '09 team in inter- ceptions with five. He joined the staff this spring after spending the previous four seasons with NFL teams as a player. "He's an incredible young man," said Kelly, who has seen his own wife overcome multiple bouts with can- cer. "Some people obviously don't take very well to those treatments. He was on the field coaching the safeties like it was his first day of practice." McCarthy had a second round of treatments in late August. "We've made accommodations for him if he needs to be off the field," Kelly said. "The NCAA has made an accommodation for us, as well, in that we can hire another graduate assistant if we are forced to pull him off the field. … We're going to hold off right now." Fighting Irish outside linebackers coach Bob Elliott has had his own bouts with cancer for nearly two decades and in recent years has even given himself di- alysis treatment. He has been able to counsel McCarthy on his current battle. "Everybody's got to find it out their own way, but I told Kyle that for me the best thing I could do was keep working," Elliott said. "As long as I physically could do it, I was going to keep working to keep my mind off of the downside. Only worry about what's in the moment and what the doctors are saying at the moment. Coaches Mike Denbrock And Kyle McCarthy Fight Cancer Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock missed the first week of training camp due to prostate cancer surgery. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND