Latest news with #LoyolaHigh
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Coaching with cancer diagnosis, Michael Boehle turns to family, players and colleagues for support
On the day before volleyball practice began in January, Hall of Fame coach Michael Boehle spoke to his players at Loyola High to let them know about expectations for the coming season. 'One of the things we talk about is cancer within a team and how there are times when cancer can really affect a lot of things and it's not curable and it spreads,' he said. 'We use that analogy talking about bad teammates.' Advertisement Players had no idea what was about to come out of their coach's mouth. 'Unfortunately, today, I'm here to tell you your coach has cancer.' As if that wasn't shocking enough, then came a warning. 'You have to stay patient with me. I don't know if I'm going to be missing practices, games or be gone for a month,' he said. 'All I can ask you to do is say an extra prayer for me. Coach is a fighter. That's all I got. See you tomorrow.' Boehle grabbed his water bottle and put his head down. There was silence. When he finally looked up, he saw players lined up in a single file offering hugs and telling him, 'We're going to win this battle together.' Advertisement Boehle, 58, found out he had prostate cancer after a routine physical and blood test last October alerted his doctors to investigate further. An MRI scan just before Christmas revealed a spot on the prostate. Then came a biopsy in January to confirm a cancer diagnosis. Since it was discovered early, the prognosis is good. Surgery is scheduled for July after Boehle is finished coaching club volleyball. As the Southern Section playoffs begin Wednesday and the Mission League-champion Cubs seek their eighth Division 1 title under Boehle, he agreed to discuss the emotions he went through and to encourage others to be checked for a disease that is second only to skin cancer in affecting men. He remembers the day after his cancer confirmation coming to school, shutting the door to his office and just crying. Advertisement 'I was scared to death of spread,' he said. 'I went down the rabbit hole and started looking up all the different cancers.' In February he underwent a scan that uses radioactive tracers to see if it had spread. He'll never forget the day his doctor interrupted his practice with a phone call to reveal the results. 'I'm not supposed to know for about a week,' Boehle said. 'And it's my doctor. I ran out to the pool deck. He says, 'Michael your report is back and, as we suspected, there's no metastatic disease.' I literally dropped the phone on the pool deck. I ran back in and my son, Davis, was there and must have seen what I looked like because he asked, 'Did you get bad news?' I said 'Don't have a spread. It's just in the prostate' and gave him a big hug. 'I was so relieved. That was the biggest news out of my cancer diagnosis, hearing it had not spread. That's what I needed to hear. I was in a bad place. I needed to hear that.' Advertisement With support from his family, players, friends and coaching colleagues, Boehle has been able to move forward and accept the judgment of his doctors that everything will be OK. He's eating better and working out to be in the best shape possible for his surgery. He wants to make sure others understand that even though there's been no cancer in his family, having a routine blood test is a must to help discover problems before they become worse. 'The support and love I got from the volleyball community has been outstanding,' he said. 'My message was I was in great health. Just because you don't have that in your family doesn't mean you shouldn't get tested. A lot of people aren't doing physicals. It's a real easy test.' Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
27-04-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Coaching with cancer diagnosis, Michael Boehle turns to family, players and colleagues for support
On the day before volleyball practice began in January, Hall of Fame coach Michael Boehle spoke to his players at Loyola High to let them know about expectations for the coming season. 'One of the things we talk about is cancer within a team and how there are times when cancer can really affect a lot of things and it's not curable and it spreads,' he said. 'We use that analogy talking about bad teammates.' Players had no idea what was about to come out of their coach's mouth. 'Unfortunately, today, I'm here to tell you your coach has cancer.' As if that wasn't shocking enough, then came a warning. 'You have to stay patient with me. I don't know if I'm going to be missing practices, games or be gone for a month,' he said. 'All I can ask you to do is say an extra prayer for me. Coach is a fighter. That's all I got. See you tomorrow.' Boehle grabbed his water bottle and put his head down. There was silence. When he finally looked up, he saw players lined up in a single file offering hugs and telling him, 'We're going to win this battle together.' Boehle, 58, found out he had prostate cancer after a routine physical and blood test last October alerted his doctors to investigate further. An MRI scan just before Christmas revealed a spot on the prostate. Then came a biopsy in January to confirm a cancer diagnosis. Since it was discovered early, the prognosis is good. Surgery is scheduled for July after Boehle is finished coaching club volleyball. As the Southern Section playoffs begin Wednesday and the Mission League-champion Cubs seek their eighth Division 1 title under Boehle, he agreed to discuss the emotions he went through and to encourage others to be checked for a disease that is second only to skin cancer in affecting men. He remembers the day after his cancer confirmation coming to school, shutting the door to his office and just crying. 'I was scared to death of spread,' he said. 'I went down the rabbit hole and started looking up all the different cancers.' In February he underwent a scan that uses radioactive tracers to see if it had spread. He'll never forget the day his doctor interrupted his practice with a phone call to reveal the results. 'I'm not supposed to know for about a week,' Boehle said. 'And it's my doctor. I ran out to the pool deck. He says, 'Michael your report is back and, as we suspected, there's no metastatic disease.' I literally dropped the phone on the pool deck. I ran back in and my son, Davis, was there and must have seen what I looked like because he asked, 'Did you get bad news?' I said 'Don't have a spread. It's just in the prostate' and gave him a big hug. 'I was so relieved. That was the biggest news out of my cancer diagnosis, hearing it had not spread. That's what I needed to hear. I was in a bad place. I needed to hear that.' With support from his family, players, friends and coaching colleagues, Boehle has been able to move forward and accept the judgment of his doctors that everything will be OK. He's eating better and working out to be in the best shape possible for his surgery. He wants to make sure others understand that even though there's been no cancer in his family, having a routine blood test is a must to help discover problems before they become worse. 'The support and love I got from the volleyball community has been outstanding,' he said. 'My message was I was in great health. Just because you don't have that in your family doesn't mean you shouldn't get tested. A lot of people aren't doing physicals. It's a real easy test.'
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Prep talk: Sophomore Andrew Goldman steps forward for Loyola lacrosse
Loyola High's freshman class last season in lacrosse was judged one of its best, and now with a year of high school experience under their belt, the players are showing off their talent. On Thursday, sophomore Andrew Goldman had a 66% average in faceoffs with 10 ground balls to earn MVP honors in Loyola's 14-11 win over San Francisco St. Ignatius, the No. 1 lacrosse team in the state. FINAL | Loyola 14, St. Ignatius 11@LoyolaLX gets a huge win at home, taking down the No. 1-ranked team in California, St. Ignatius Prep from San Francisco. Great game by both squads!#LoyolaLax | #GoCubs | #AMDG — Loyola High Athletics (@LoyolaAthletics) March 14, 2025 Another sophomore, Matt Fine, had three goals and another sophomore, Tripp King, added two goals and one assist. … The Boras Classic is set to begin on March 25, with No. 1-seeded Corona and No. 2-seeded Huntington Beach among the top baseball teams competing. Here's the link to the schedule. TV schedule — eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) March 14, 2025 This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
15-03-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Prep talk: Sophomore Andrew Goldman steps forward for Loyola lacrosse
Loyola High's freshman class last season in lacrosse was judged one of its best, and now with a year of high school experience under their belt, the players are showing off their talent. On Thursday, sophomore Andrew Goldman had a 66% average in faceoffs with 10 ground balls to earn MVP honors in Loyola's 14-11 win over San Francisco St. Ignatius, the No. 1 lacrosse team in the state. Another sophomore, Matt Fine, had three goals and another sophomore, Tripp King, added two goals and one assist. … The Boras Classic is set to begin on March 25, with No. 1-seeded Corona and No. 2-seeded Huntington Beach among the top baseball teams competing. Here's the link to the schedule. This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email
Los Angeles Times
12-02-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Column: Anyone cut from a sports team will salute the perseverance of Loyola's Diego Ayala-Martinez
When Diego Ayala-Martinez was a 14-year-old at Loyola High, he tried out for the freshman soccer team. He'll never forget the day he found out he got cut after looking at the roster taped to a window in the locker room. 'I remember going over at lunch with my friends,' he said. 'I walk over and don't see my name. I'm confused and shocked. Afterward, I went to talk to coach [Chris] Walter. He said there were a lot of kids who tried out and I was on the border. Every year coaches have to make some tough decisions.' So what did Ayala-Martinez do next? Did he get his parents to make a phone call to complain? Did he go home and throw a soccer ball against his bed? Did he punch a wall? Did he decide to transfer? 'I stayed confident in my ability,' he said. 'I knew for sure I was going to work hard and come out better. My mentality was don't give coach a reason to cut me again.' What he did was prepare for another opportunity his sophomore year. He made the junior varsity team and became a starter. Then he made the varsity team as a junior and hardly played. He didn't quit. He came back last summer determined to earn a starting role in his senior year. 'I basically went every day to the field for two or three hours with my friend,' he said. 'We'd run and do drills.' Ayala-Martinez is the starting center back for the unbeaten Cubs (17-0-3), who are seeded No. 7 in the Southern Section Open Division soccer playoffs. 'He's one of the reasons we've had a lot of success defensively,' Walter said. There are nine senior starters. 'They're a very close group,' Walter said. 'They work extremely hard together.' At 6 feet 2, Ayala-Martinez became one of the best defenders in the Mission League as Loyola went 10-0. The Cubs start the playoffs Wednesday with a home game against No. 2-seeded Mater Dei, last season's Division 1 champion. Looking back, Ayala-Martinez chuckles that he made the football team as a freshman but not the fútbol team. Of course, everyone who goes out for freshman football at Loyola makes the team. Getting cut from soccer, though, was his early reality check in high school life. It was his bout with adversity and his challenge to see how he would respond. With a 4.2 grade-point average and having been accepted to USC, Ayala-Martinez already has learned lessons that will help him as an adult. Getting cut from the freshman team and getting back up to try even harder is certainly one. 'Just don't give up,' he said. 'Stay positive and true to yourself. The biggest thing for me is don't feel sorry for yourself. Keep working and you'll get there.' Ayala-Martinez and his family live in Altadena, where the Eaton fire caused destruction. They escaped disaster with only a burned backyard fence, but neighbors' homes are in ashes and the family was displaced. His mother said soccer and school have helped her son. 'We're very proud of him — his work ethic, resilience and kind heart,' Adriana Martinez said. Ayala-Martinez said his soccer experience won't be forgotten. 'That's one of my biggest things, the connection with soccer and life on and off field,' he said.
