MANSFIELD, Ohio — Life is all about give and take, and as coach Lyle Dodd has come to learn, you never know when things will turn—but his story is one that has shown the beauty in positivity and the support of one's community.
Lyle Dodd is a coach to the core.
"Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, all of them," Lyle smiled, naming the sports he coaches.
It's a busy life, but one that has more than fulfilled him, getting to coach his three children and other children in his family as they've grown. He fits in coaching with family time as well as his job as a physical therapist assistant, working with children that have special needs at an elementary school in Mansfield.
"It's not just that I love the sports and I'm obsessed with sports, it's touching the kids' lives and and helping them gain that trust and smiling and laughing," Lyle said. "I believe sports teach you, it gives you that commitment. It's that drive. It's those life lessons. It's that brotherhood that sisterhood."
Lyle's dedication to his kids was shown in full force this past football season. A child on his youth team was having some foot pain and his parents had Lyle look at it at a game the child was unable to play in due to the pain.
"He wasn't going to play so we had him come into our football game so I could look at his foot. Unfortunately, there was a huge mass on the bottom of his foot and I told his mom immediately like, 'Get him to Children's, he needs to go to the doctor,'" Lyle recalled. "The next day they went to the doctor and he got diagnosed with a rare form of stage four tissue cancer. And unfortunately, it was all over his body. So immediately I was devastated. Right then I knew, just being the person I am, we had to do something."
Learning this news about the boy named Micah, Lyle began organizing efforts to help the family out. A GoFundMe was started, which ended up raising more than $11,000, and Lyle helped to plan a spaghetti dinner benefit.
"He got working on a benefit right off the bat. And that was just—our high school cafeteria was full," said Susan Winegarden, a member of the Mansfield community.
Just a few months later, and as the support for Micah continued, things took a turn. One day in February, Lyle had dropped his children off at school and was on the way to work at the elementary school. As he made his way there, he felt something was wrong.
"I was on my way to my school and I started getting this really bad headache and I felt funny, different almost. I was really dizzy. I actually hit the curb on the way to school and bounced off the road, I'm like 'Something's not right,'" Lyle said.
He made it to the school, but after hallucinating and having increasingly severe symptoms, his colleagues called 911.
"I started kind of going in and out of consciousness. What ended up happening is I had a brain bleed. That caused a mini stroke," Lyle explained.
At the hospital with more questions than answers, the Dodd family waiting for testing to come back. After some MRI scanning, doctors found something.
"That next day when they did an MRI and said there was a spot they went through the MRI with us slice by slice, and they showed us there was definitely something there. It just hit hard like thinking, What could this be?" Lyle's wife Tara said.
"They found three tumors," Lyle said.
More testing gave the Dodds a diagnosis, but not one they ever wanted to hear. It was glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. After leading the charge to help one of his young players in his fight with cancer, Lyle was about to enter a battle of his own.
Lyle underwent brain surgery to remove the three tumors, the first step in treating the cancer. An extended hospital stay would keep anyone busy enough on its own, but Lyle, being a dedicated coach, never wavered in his efforts to lead his kids.
From his hospital bed, Lyle coached his teams using an iPad. He checked in on things, talked with his players and during games made sure to call and check game plans and mid-game adjustments.
"I actually got in trouble by my nurses because my blood pressure went through the roof and then they shut the door one time because I was yelling," Lyle laughed. "So I had to watch it, but these other guys that I've coached with are awesome."
While Lyle continued to give back to his community through coaching, his community decided it was time to give back to him. In the same way Lyle organized things for Micah jut months prior, the community began doing the same for him, starting with a GoFundMe that has raised more than $33,000.
"Goodness, the in the first couple of days I think we reached our goal," Winegarden said. "That's just been rolling in since then."
Winegarden has helped with the GoFundMe and a spaghetti dinner benefit that will take place on March 26 in the Lexington High School cafeteria at 12 p.m. The community has aided support with a gun raffle, a live and silent auction, a baked goods sale and a liquor, beer and wine raffle. The Dodds' friends have stepped in and paid for their living expenses for the forseeable future.
Tara Dodd sees this outpouring of support as a testament to how much her husband has been involved in the community, and showcases the power of prayer, which the Dodds have embraced.
"What you put out into the world will come back to some way or another, and we've we found that out firsthand. Not the way we wanted, but it's it's helping us get through this really hard time," Tara said.
Lyle has a journey ahead of him. He won't need another surgery, he's learned, but he will continue taking oral chemotherapy medication. His outcome on the situation has remained positive and as he and the Mansfield community share support with each other, Lyle's coaching days aren't stopping down anytime soon.
"They said I'll be back on the softball and baseball fields…. So I'm excited. That's why I'm breaking in this softball glove for my niece right now," Lyle said.
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