PHOENIX — If you walk by the old gymnasium at North High School in Phoenix any afternoon, you might hear Coach Lena Spotleson's voice echo off the old walls.
Spotleson just started her 18th season as head coach of the JV girls basketball team. The team and school are special to her as she once played point guard for the Mustangs in the 90s.
But for Spotleson, coaching is so much more than preparing her players for the next game. It’s also about preparing them for life.
“You are never going to quit. You are going to take every battle,” Spotleson said.
Sometimes that battle goes beyond the basketball court – something Spotleson knows very well
In July of 2002, at the age of 26, she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
“Ultimately I was given a 25% survival rate. The cancer that they found was on my uterus, my gall bladder, my appendix, my ovaries, my cervix and a bunch of lymph nodes down my left side,” said Spotleson.
Just months into treatment it got even tougher.
“I developed an infection. I went into septic shock, and I ended up on a ventilator in a drug induced coma,” said Spotleson.
She was In the battle for her life. She underwent chemotherapy, surgeries and anything medical that could help her. She also dug deep and used the lessons she learned when she was on the court.
Cancer was her opponent.
“I try to get my mental state squared away. That was a lot of prayer, talking myself up. Just like you would for a game,” said Spotleson. “Visualizing that shot going in. Visualizing making that zone. Visualizing playing defense well on your opponent. During treatment there was a lot of that. Visualizing myself getting better.”
Today, Spotleson is cancer free and she uses those same lessons of determination to empower the young women on her team.
“You’re not going to hit every shot. You’re not going to get every rebound. It’s how you stand back up. It’s how you persevere from that. I never want to be the coach that was super tough. I do want to be that coach that helps them survive later on in life,” said Spotleson.
She continues her fight against cancer as a member of the American Cancer Society.
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