Luis beats the odds

Coach Steve Luis watches JV action Friday night as his Warriors play Fortuna. Photos by The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

His eldest daughter had just wed and he vowed that he would live to see the birth of his first grandchild.

Today, after having the left side of his jaw removed last October, Luis is in remission and has beaten the odds so far.

And the head coach of Del Norte High’s junior varsity football team has seen the birth of not one but two grandchildren.

“My cup is full,” said Luis, 55. “It’s a good feeling to still be around.”

Today Luis celebrates another milestone, 31 years of marriage to his wife, Cherie. This is also the one-year anniversary of his jaw surgery.

Soon, he plans to go to health classes at the high school and warn kids about the dangers of chewing tobacco, something he did for about a decade when he was young.

He suspects that contributed to his cancer, and his doctors agree.

“Hopefully we can turn away a few of these young people from taking that first chew,” he said.

Luis is a well known figure in local sports, having been a youth wrestling coach for many years and for the past 10 years the head coach for JV football.

He is coaching again this fall and said the work has played a key part in his recovery by giving him something to focus on.

“It’s just been a lot of fun still being able to work with the kids,” Luis said. “I’m glad to be able to do this and that I’m still here ... When I wake up on the right side of the grass in the morning, it’s a good day.”

“It good to have him back after all that he has gone through,” Hadfield said. “We’re just proud of him. It takes a tough nut to overcome what he has.”

Back in 2004, Luis had some discomfort in his jaw but had no idea what was going on until a routine check-up.

That’s when the dentist discovered a little white spot. It was no bigger than an eraser, but the dentist knew it was cancerous.

“He told me it looked mean and aggressive,” Luis recalled.

“It was like the carpet was pulled from your feet,” Luis said. “It was about as low as you can go.”

After seeing a doctor in Eureka, he was sent to see specialists at the Stanford Cancer Center,   considered one of the best in the nation.

The doctors at Stanford told him they had hope. They said that many of those diagnosed  were in their 60s and 70s and with him being younger it would improve his chances of survival.

A short time later they went in and removed some of the cancer they saw, including a quarter-size tumor inside his cheek.

Things seemed fine until July 2008, when he started to have serious pain in his jaw area.

He went back to Stanford and was told the grim news. The cancer had returned and his left jawbone had to be removed.

It was a devastating blow for Luis.

“In the beginning I thought it was going to be all over, and that they would just try to make me comfortable,” he said. “You can never prepare yourself no matter how much you try. I thought it was my curtain call.”

But his doctors told him they  had done countless surgeries like this and believed they would be able to remove the cancer without any chemotherapy or radiation.

Originally, a titanium  rod was put into his jaw area. But a week later it was discovered it did not take and another option had to be taken. This involved taking a piece of tissue from his chest.

The doctors made a small tunnel from his chest to his jaw and moved the piece of tissue  that way, using it to reshape his jaw.

Luis spent three weeks in ICU in severe pain, then was moved to an apartment for more than a week before he was able to return to Crescent City.

Luis said it was difficult for him as the left side of his jaw drooped and he talked with a  lisp. He felt embarrassed about how he looked and talked and wondered what people would think.

But, Luis said he went to counseling sessions with fellow cancer survivors and saw people who had suffered much more than him, with more extreme changes to their speech and facial features.

“It put things in perspective,” he said

After his surgery, members of the JV team talked to Luis by phone, telling him they had won their game. Afterwards, Ray Rook, a member of his staff who took over as one of the co-head coaches in his absence, came down and presented Luis with a DVD of the game as well as two footballs full of the signatures of the players.

“It was a good feeling to know they cared so much,” he said.

Rook, a first cousin of Luis, said he has always been a selfless person who cares deeply about the community and his family and friends.

“Steve will give you the shirt off his back,” Rook said. “He’s always been there for our athletes and for me.”

Rook said it’s nice to see Luis back as JV head coach.

“He always been there for the kids,” Rook said. “It’s what he lives for. Family and football.”

Luis goes to the doctors at least every two months for cancer-related appointments. Next month he will go back to Stanford for a complete CAT Scan of his body.

“I’m excited that so far I’m cancer free,” he said. “You hope to hell it won’t come back.”

Luis said community support has played a huge difference in his recovery and said countless people have given him words of encouragement.

He recalled the first time he was diagnosed with cancer back in 2004 and he was heading to Stanford and stopped for gas in town.

 A woman he didn’t know, whose daughter was dating one of his former players, hugged him and wished him luck.

“There are a lot of people who have wished me luck,” he said. “People here really care.”