Chapter One : The Game

     My name is Richard Dale Lewis, Jr., born on January 11, 1960 at the hospital at Travis A.F.B. in California to Richard and Katherine Lewis. I grew up in numerous placed as my father was transferred during his Air Force career. I have one sister and three brothers. I graduated from Glasgow High School in 1978, worked a year, and went to college. I walked on at Carroll College in 1979, and survived a year of football with several injuries. I reported for camp my sophomore year and did not last the week with a concussion. By now my parents lived in Great Falls, Montana, so I returned home and decided to go to school at the College of Great Falls. 

     I studied the usual for someone that decided they wanted to coach sports; history and physical education. I also participated in the school's music program. Since I wanted to coach, and eat, I also became a teacher. The profession was originally chosen so that I could coach sports, but eventually the realization that teaching was the what I would do; on and off the athletic field. I graduated with low honors in 1983 with a B.S. in Physical Education,  and in 1985 with a B.S. in History. I also had a minor in Psychology.

     More importantly during my college experience, I met Carol Ann Anderson. We sang together in the choir, began to hang out, became friends, and two months after we started dating we decided we were going to get married, which we did in 1984. I know I would not be here today if not for all the love and support she has given me.

     After college I taught. We had a son in 1986, Richard III. In 1989 we had a daughter, Jessica Rose. Both healthy kids who grew like weeds. During the summer of 1990 I was hired and accepted a teaching position in Jordan, Montana, at Garfield County High School. Carol was also hired as a half time Chapter 1 Math teacher. On top of it, I was the head coach for football, boys basketball, and track. In those early years the first words my children learned was "bye-bye daddy".

     To say the school year started out stressful would be an understatement. The football program had only recently been restarted after many years of inactivity. The school had not won a game in a year or two. There was a lot of work to be done.

     Add to the fact that I was an emotional, enthusiastic, workaholic football coach. I was used to winning. I had played and worked in winning programs and only felt it natural that this would carry over. It didn't.

     Looking back, in September and October, I know I did not perform at my best. I was always on edge, questioning everything that was happening, trying to find the answer to why we could not win a football game. It ate at me. There were times the players and I did not see eye to eye on things, and some parents. It was not the greatest situation. I was extremely stressed. 

     In early November, the winless football season was coming to an end. I felt burnt out like never before. I was struggling to keep up with my teaching and upset with the way the season had gone, and not happy with my performance as a coach.

  There are many studies that talk about the huge effect stress has on cancer. If that was the case, that could have been the cause. Looking back I wonder how much the cancer was causing the stress, and I did not even know it. or was the stress casing the cancer... 

     There was one point at the end of the season when I should have known something was wrong. We were in the last days of football practice, and trying to make things fun, having a scrimmage. We only had 14 or so players, so I was playing quarterback. The flea flicker was on, and the center was to hike the back directly to the back, between my legs. The center hiked the ball up instead, hitting me in the testicle. I remember thinking "that was a hard shot", yet it didn't hurt that much. I was nauseous and dizzy, but there was not a lot of pain. It just did not seem right, but it did not really register consciously. In another two weeks, all would be explained.