It’s been a year of learning for a young St. Pius X High School softball team, whose three seniors are Ellie Lang, Abigail Rohe and Jillian Taylor.
It’s been a year of discovery, uncertainty and recovery for the Lancers head coach.
When St. Pius hosted St. Charles West High on Monday all of their players had Halley on the back of their jerseys in honor of Kevin Halley. St. Pius fell to 2-17 on the season after the Warriors won 5-2. The Lancers were tied 2-2 with West after two innings, but senior Zorea Shaw’s RBI double in the third off Lancer freshman pitcher Taylor Bean turned out to be the game-winning run. The Warriors had 10 hits off Bean, who pitched a complete game, didn’t walk any batters and struck out four.
“This was probably one of the best games we’ve played all year, especially defensively,” said Halley, who is recovering from a cancer diagnosis, surgery and treatment. “Offensively we had some bad luck with hard-hit balls hit right at players. Two liners to their center fielder who was positioned correctly. A hard lineout to the first baseman that ended up being a double play. The last play of the game was a hard hit ball up the middle that could have scored a run.”
West had its own freshman in the circle in Evelyn Denison, and she pitched a complete game, allowing seven hits and fanning five. Gracie Drinen, Michaela Quick and Taylor each had two hits for St. Pius; Quick added a double and a steal.
“I don’t believe in throwing kids a whole lot,” Halley said. “(Bean) will throw back-to-back games but then we’ll piece together the other games. We need her to get more confidence so she can grow.”
St. Pius played St. Clair High on Tuesday after the Leader deadline and hosts Cape Girardeau Central High on Monday before beginning play in the Class 2 District 1 tournament in Chaffee.
“It’s a rebuilding year for us and we’ve got kids who are learning and we’ve certainly gotten better as the year went on,” Halley said.
You can say the same thing about Halley.
He was diagnosed with colon cancer in March and had surgery in May. Doctors found a polyp and he had eight inches of his colon removed. Four weeks of surgery recovery followed and he started chemo in July. He took chemo for three months. Halley weighed 240 pounds before he had surgery and now weighs 208.
“It was rough starting off,” Halley said of the treatment. “My body didn’t handle it very well. The doctors were fantastic about making sure they were adjusting dosages.”
During chemo, Halley experienced the normal side effects, nausea, digestive issues, fatigue. The lingering effect is neuropathy in his fingertips. He’s not sure how long that will last.
“I get mixed answers. Sometimes they say it’s permanent, sometimes they say it goes away.”
Halley said he had five incisions in his abdomen for the surgery and he couldn’t move much.
“I probably tried to do too much too soon but my wife and kids were awesome making sure I was doing what I needed to do in recovery.”
Halley is an assistant coach on the St. Pius girls soccer team. They play in the spring.
“The worst part was missing the final two girls soccer games of the year. Not being there for the seniors for their last game hurt the most.”
Softball assistants Ed Moreno and Jerry Payne have helped Halley when he’s missed a couple of practices for infusions and a couple because he wasn’t feeling well.
Halley, 45, said he doesn’t have a family history of colon cancer. His got to stage 3.
“Never saw it coming. Thankfully, I caught it early. If I had waited until I was 50, I was told I probably would have had stage 4 cancer. Then it’s more about staying alive, than just having cancer.
“I’ve tried having a sense of humor. My main goal is to teach these young people who will have this affect their life at some point a good way to handle this. Try to stay who you are and take care of yourself.”