|
The big picture
Brad Huse knows there is more to life than wins and losses
by Bill Lamberty |
Page 1 of 2 |
|
His whistle pierces the exuberant din of a late-afternoon basketball practice, and team members gravitate to Brad Huse.
But this scene is much different from the one that has played out hundreds of times since Huse came to Bozeman to take over the Montana State men's basketball program in 2006. On this afternoon, Huse towers over the fifth and sixth grade Bozeman Troop, a traveling youth basketball team that includes his sons, Adam and Drew.
"I've tried to take as low a profile as possible," Huse said of working with his sons. "I'm not out there trying to out-coach anybody. For me, it's a lot of fun to be on the sideline with those kids and talk to them and huddle them up and work with them. It's fun to see them have fun."
Coaching his sons -- Adam is in fifth grade, Drew in third, and 4-year-old Ty is never far from the court, either -- fuses Huse's two great loves, his family and basketball.
Time with his sons also links Huse with decisions made during a difficult episode in his life that began in the winter of 2001. Two days after his Jamestown College team's season had ended with a loss in the Dakota Athletic Conference playoffs, Huse was diagnosed with stage one B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph nodes.
(Cancer) shows you what really counts...when you don't have your health...nothing else takes on the same meaning in terms of your day-to-day struggles or challenges.
--Brad Huse |
"It was a scary feeling," Kelly Huse remembers of Brad's diagnosis at the age of 34. "He had a good prognosis from the beginning because they caught it early, but cancer is still cancer."
After rigorous chemotherapy treatments, Huse survived and reached the critical three-year mark cancer free. He has had no problems since.
"(Cancer) shows you what really counts," Huse recalls. "We've all heard over and over againÉwhen you don't have your health, when you're fighting against an illness, nothing else takes on the same meaning in terms of your day-to-day struggles or challenges. Your family takes on a greater meaning, and the things that are most important to you matter a little bit more."
After capping a highly successful eight-year run at Jamestown with a 30-3 season in 2003-04, Huse returned to his hometown of Missoula in 2004-05 as an assistant coach on the University of Montana staff of Larry Krystkowiak, a former high school teammate.
Like most things in Huse's life, the path to Missoula also led back to family, bringing him closer geographically to one of the Treasure State's most active and accomplished sporting clans. Brad's father, Dick, played football at the University of Montana and recently retired from a legendary Montana high school officiating career. One of his brothers, Thad, played football at Montana (1988-91), and another, Shawn, is currently Montana State-Northern's men's head basketball coach.
> Spring 2008 Contents
|
Email this article
