Central Michigan University Athletics
An Emotional Moment for Coach
8/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - John Bonamego walked out of the locker room building and into the sunshine at Kelly/Shorts Stadium shortly after 3 p.m. on Friday.
A group of about 250 people -- his players, his assistant coaches, coaches and support staff from other Central Michigan sports, and CMU faculty and staff - were on hand to greet the first-year football coach hours after he had completed a grueling eight-week cycle of chemotherapy and radiation treatments for tonsil cancer.
It was an emotional moment for Bonamego, a former CMU walk-on who was named the Chippewas' coach in February. He was diagnosed with cancer in June.
"I'm glad to be back, I'm glad to be done with treatment," said the 51-year-old Bonamego, who rung a bell placed just outside the Chippewas' locker room, just as he had earlier in the day at the University of Michigan Cancer Center, a rite of passage for cancer patients on their final day of treatment.
"I feel about as good as you can possibly feel coming off of seven weeks of radiation and eight weeks of chemo," Bonamego said. "The last couple weeks I've kind of dodged that question because I don't want to lie and I don't want to complain. I'm doing. It's a relief to be done with the process.
"This is something that's very grueling, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It wasn't only difficult for me, but my entire family. I'm fortunate that Paulette is such a great wife, she's really supported me throughout the whole process."
The ordeal clearly took a physical toll on Bonamego, who somehow maintained his upbeat nature throughout.
"The symptoms once they start to pop up, they don't go away (and) new ones come to the forefront, and it seems like every new one is a little bit tougher than the last one, and you still have the last one (lingering)," he said. "At the end, it's kind of like walking around with strep throat, the flu, the worst cold you've ever had, and a migraine headache and a fever all at once.
"It's unrelenting and you don't ever get a break from it. It's just day in and day out. It's not a lot of fun."
Bonamego underwent daily treatments early on weekday mornings in Ann Arbor, then returned to Mount Pleasant to attend practices and meet with his staff.
"It was really important to me personally," he said of maintaining a somewhat normal work schedule at what he called his dream job at his introductory press conference in February. "They don't want you to give in and become a couch potato, which would be really easy in a lot of cases.
"I didn't really give myself a choice. I figured I have a job to do, this is a place that clearly is more than a job for me. It's something I'm passionate about. It's highly personal."
He faces regular followup visits with his doctors and he knows he isn't yet out of the woods. But finishing the chemo and radiation treatments was a monumental step.
"Everybody tells me it's just going to get incrementally better from here on out," he said. "It's not going to happen overnight. It takes seven, eight weeks for those things to build up, the radiation keeps working for two weeks or more after you stop. But gradually things will start coming back."
It was the annual Media Day for the Chippewas, and while Bonamego was forthcoming and frank in discussing his health, he clearly was happier to shift the focus to football.
"I'm excited for us to play against somebody else rather than go against ourselves in practice which we've been doing, seems like, forever," he said.
The first opportunity to line up against somebody else comes on Thursday, Sept. 3, at Kelly/Shorts Stadium against Oklahoma State, which finished 7-6 last season and is ranked just outside in the preseason USA Today Coaches poll.
"They're an excellent team, it's a great challenge for us," Bonamego said. "It's one that we take on with great enthusiasm. We're going to be the type of program that we want to be able to compete and play well in these types of games.
"Clearly they're a top 25 team for a reason, but fortunately we get them at home, I'm expecting an energized crowd, we'll get a true homefield advantage here.
"We're going to have to play very well against them, but you have to do that every week. Football's the type of game, I really believe, that on any given Saturday anybody can beat anybody, or any given Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night, anybody can beat anybody.
The Cowboys were picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 preseason poll.
"They have the same number of scholarships that we do," Bonamego said. "Our guys are going to be excited to play them and we'll play them tough.
"It comes down to taking care of the football, minimizing your mental mistakes and not hurting yourself with untimely penalties. Well-coached teams, well-disciplined teams are able to do that consistently."
