Pat Summitt

(tennessee.scout.com)

"I can't change it." After a pause, she adds, "But I can try to do something about it."  Pat Summitt, the legendary Tennessee women's basketball coach who has won more games than any other college coach ever, men's or women's, has just recently found out that she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 59.

This outstanding coach has  a Career Record of over 1017 wins and 199 loses, has been in the NCAA top four 31 times, has won the NCAA title 8 times, was the SEC Coach of the Year 8 times, NCAA Coach of the Year 7 times, and has been the Naismith Coach of the Century.  This woman has the power to  uphold any dream and to reach these goals with a great passion. Pat Summitt has been the Tennessee  girls basketball coach for 38 years. She knows what goes on the court and off. The thing about Pat Summitt is that she loves this game so much that nothing would stand in her way from being able to coach it. With a heart and passion like Pat's there's no stopping her. Which is one of the reasons I admire her so much.

(championshipcoachesnetwork.com)

Pat started having these weird symptoms of forgetting things that were important or just usual basic things. When she would be coaching, she would sometimes forget what play the team should run and that made her have second guesses about what to say and how the play was really supposed to work. Other times she would  forget where she would put her keys, like anybody would right? But she would forget where they were three times a day in instead of just once. It doesn't just happen like that all the time. Pat also would forget what time she needed to be at the office in the morning and would really have to think before actually going.  By now Pat had been very curious as to why these things were happening and why they were happening often. She finally decided that it would be a good idea just to go and make sure everything was okay.

She went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to check out this situation.  After some tests from the clinic they now just had to wait for the results. Pat kept blaming the symptoms on her medication she had been taking for  her arthritis.  Sometime later they finally got the results to a shocking  disappointment that she had early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Pat couldn't believe it. All the things she thought it might be, now she finally had an answer.  Many people thought that she should retire and one of her advisers when they had just found out said that she should retire right away so nothing bad would happen.  She wouldn't. She said that she was going to tell her team everything was okay and she would go back to work. other coaches would have to put on more responsibility.  Pat did not want to admit that this is what she really had:  a disease that usually only happens to people around the age of 65. Yet here she was at 59 having symptoms of Alzheimer's.

                 For the first few weeks, Summitt would barely even discuss the subject.  After some time of thinking it over she finally realized she would have to accept this.  She said what she feared the most was not knowing what was going on in the first place. You can't live your life trying to hide the fears, you have to face them. You have to  make them better to fit the needs of your life.  Pat, to this day, is still coaching and is letting the things from the past stay in the past. She does a crossword puzzle every day to keep her brain and mind working right and ready to tackle the next event.  Pat Summitt is a hero in many ways.  Many people tried to stop her yet she continued to fight to be able to stay and do what she loves-to coach  the sport of basketball. Pat Summitt is my hero not only  because  of the accomplishments she has made in her career but also because she really stuck with something despite the obstacles she is now  facing and showed how much she really cares for this sport, it inspires me in the same way.