The videos from Central Michigan’s weekend at the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl played in Derrick Nash’s hospital room. The machines he was hooked up to prevented him from talking.

Stefon Armstead, one of Derrick’s closest friends on the team, showed him the six-month-old videos on his cell phone. He held Derrick’s hand and cracked jokes, but Derrick could only communicate by pointing.

“You’re going to make it through it,” Armstead said his last words to Derrick were, “and I can’t wait to be on the field with you again.”

Three or four days later, Derrick died during his second bout with leukemia.

Just 11 days prior to Derrick’s death, Central Michigan head coach John Bonamego — whom Derrick met but never played under — was diagnosed with tonsil cancer. He had first pulled seniors into a team meeting room and then told the rest of the team, Armstead said.

CMU’s offseason wasn’t exactly an offseason, more a season of grieving, healing and fighting. Since the 49-48 loss to Western Kentucky at the Bahamas Bowl on Dec. 24, former head coach Dan Enos resigned and Bonamego was hired in February, Derrick passed away in June and Bonamego is recovering from radiation treatment.

“It kind of put a little fuel up under our season,” Armstead said of Bonamego’s diagnosis. “It helped us push along, it helped us come out every day with the mindset of we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do for the team, for Coach Bonamego, because we’re a family.”

The team is still healing from losing Derrick. Although he didn’t play a down, Derrick made his impact off the field. It was as simple as cracking the first joke in the morning to get his teammates going.

After beating leukemia once, Derrick played during the 2014 spring season. Switching from running back to cornerback brought him closer to Armstead, who would meet him on the practice field during the summer to settle Derrick in at his new position. Armstead misses spending the extra time at the field with Derrick most of all.

“I think about him everyday,” Armstead said. “Everything I do is with Derrick in mind.”

Derrick’s locker is still set up for home games. CMU has honored Derrick over the last year with helmet stickers, wristbands and Armstead has a shirt in his memory. Every player who forces a turnover has his own number put on a wall inside the locker room that has footballs tracing out Derrick’s No. 21 next to his picture.

His No. 21 jersey is passed around each game to the defensive back that played the best in the previous week. Derrick’s mom, Decolia Monroe, requested Armstead wear the jersey first. Josh Cox will wear the jersey against Syracuse.

 

While Derrick’s memory is honored by a teammate each game, Bonamego’s on-field presence is another reminder to keep fighting. When the new head coach was at his son’s high school graduation in Florida on May 25, he and his wife noticed a lump in the left side of his neck.

“It was big and it was painful,” Bonamego said.

A battery of tests and doctors followed: a blood test on May 27, fine-needle biopsy on May 28, a visit to the ears, nose and throat doctor on June 1, a CAT scan June 3 and then an open-neck biopsy on June 5.

Doctors removed some tissue from the lump and determined it was cancerous, delivering his diagnosis on June 11. The next day, doctors used a PET scan, a test that uses a tracer to find where the cancer started, and discovered the cancer had come from Bonamego’s left tonsil.

At that time, Derrick had been in the hospital, but Bonamego was frank with his team and posed his cancer as a challenge, another opponent.

“I’ve always said there’s two things I’ve never done;” Bonamego said, “run from the truth or back down from a challenge.”

The coach took the 7 a.m. radiation slot in Ann Arbor, Michigan and would drive two hours to Mount Pleasant. In the months before training camp, Bonamego worked until 3 or 4 p.m, went home, napped, got up for dinner and stayed up with his wife until 11 p.m.

During training camp, a plane was volunteered and replaced Bonamego’s commute. Instead of working until 3 or 4 p.m., Bonamego worked more strenuous hours. Football kept his mind off the treatments as much as possible — one of the few normal activities on days started by radiation.

“They want you to stay active, they want you to try and keep as normal a schedule as you can,” Bonamego said. “So it was a blessing to have the team.”

Four weeks removed from treatment, Bonamego’s body is returning to normal. His skin rashes have healed, the mouth sores are mostly gone, and he’s able to swallow. Radiation no longer suppresses his energy level.

Yet, his taste buds aren’t back, it hurts to swallow and he has to use a feeding tube.

Central Michigan is still recovering — its head coach from radiation treatment and the team from losing Derrick. The pain of both struggles is still present in the football facilities, on the sideline and on the field.

But the team thinks of the fight as an extra opponent on its schedule, one that’s unified them more than any team they’ll face on the field.

“It’s been something I think has galvanized us,” Bonamego said. “… It’s brought a tight group of guys that were already close even closer.”

Published on September 17, 2015 at 9:28 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati