FIU softball team rallies around Coach Mike Larabee as it opens 2025 season

Everyone was crying.

It was Jan. 18, and FIU softball coach Mike Larabee had just finished conducting practice. He gathered his team on the grass in right field and told them he was going to miss the 2025 season due to myelofibrosis, a rare and chronic blood cancer that scars the bone marrow.

The 22 young women who play softball for FIU immediately broke out into tears.

But it wasn’t just the players.

Mike Meyers, FIU’s associate head coach, took it especially hard. He has known Larabee since they played men’s fast-pitch softball together in Seattle, starting in 1989.

“I don’t know if there was a dry eye,” Meyers said of the scene on Jan. 18. “(Larabee) brings so much to this program.

“He’s one of my best friends.”

Meyers, who will be the acting coach until Larabee returns, got choked up several times during a 17-minute interview with The Miami Herald.

“These are big shoes to fill,” Meyers said of Larabee. “I know I can’t fill them.”

However, FIU’s softball players, who open their season at home on Feb. 6 against the Indiana Hoosiers, are confident in Meyers as well as pitching coach Danielle Casara and graduate assistant Amelia Varela.

They are also confident that Larabee will return to health for the 2026 season.

Larabee, 63, said there’s an 80-percent survival rate on bone-marrow transplants.

“Those are good odds,” Larabee said.

Still, Larabee said it was a “shock” when he was diagnosed with cancer in July. There is no history of cancer in his family, Larabee said.

Larabee’s problems began in April when he started complaining about a pain in his ribs.

The pain got so intense that Larabee finally went to a doctor, who told him he had broken ribs. And, since Larabee had not been hit in that area, doctors ran more tests, which ultimately led to the cancer diagnosis.

A bone-marrow transplant is the only cure for myelofibrosis, and a full (and anonymous) match has been found.

Before a transplant, however, Larabee has to undergo radiation and chemotherapy to kill the cancerous cells.

Larabee knows that this will take a toll on his body and also weaken his immune system during this process, making him extremely vulnerable.

“My job is to stay alive,” Larabee said. “I have to stay away from any illness that my body can’t fight.”

Larabee, a married father of two grown children, said he has been to the emergency room twice in recent weeks due to his legs becoming extremely swollen.

“When I get out of bed, my first five or six steps are a 9.5 out of 10 in terms of pain,” Larabee said. “But then I walk around and get loosened up.”

Fortunately, Larabee has Dawn, his wife since 1991. Dawn, who is a nurse, goes to all his medical appointments, keeps track of his blood levels and takes meticulous notes on everything.

“She’s been phenomenal,” Larabee said.

Larabee told his team in August that he had cancer, but he kept coaching through fall ball and into January.

But he soon realized that, in his words, he would be “cheating the team” due to all the practice time he would miss in order to get the treatment he requires.

Due to his illness, Larabee – who is 5-foot-8 – has lost weight and strength. He has gone from 190 pounds to 165.

Still, despite his battle against cancer, it has been difficult for Larabee to separate himself from a team he has been building since he arrived at FIU in the summer of 2021.

“When I got hired, I was FIU’s fourth head coach in five years,” Larabee said. “I wanted to bring stability to the program.

“I love to coach. I wanted to be there, especially for the seniors who will have their last hurrah this year.

“I think the girls will have a magical season. I want us to rise above the level of mediocrity and get to the NCAA Tournament – whatever it takes.”

Indeed, FIU went 14-26 in the season before Larabee arrived. Since then, the Panthers have gone 19-31 in 2022; 24-27 in 2023; and 21-29 last season.

Junior catcher Isabella Perez agrees with her coach about a breakout in 2025.

“I think we’re going to be super strong and shock a lot of people,” Perez said. “We have a lot of drive this year.”

Senior outfielder Bailey Grossenbacher said her coach’s illness meant that the Panthers this year will be playing for something bigger than just themselves.

Indeed, two days after Larabee broke the news regarding his condition, senior outfielder Lindsey Burroughs gathered all her teammates, and they proceeded to make red-and-orange bracelets in honor of their coach.

The bracelets say “PFB”, which stands for Play For Bee (short for Larabee).

FIU’s players will wear the bracelets on game days, and Larabee – who hopes to watch the games online and perhaps even in the stands if he is able – will surely notice.

“It makes me feel really good,” Larabee said of his players’ sentiments. “Sometimes when you are the head coach, you’ve got to make tough decisions on playing time.

“You’re not always very popular. You have to have some tough conversations.”

Of course, there were no tougher conversations than the one on Jan. 18, and FIU’s players certainly feel Larabee’s absence.

“Coach ‘Bee’ has been such a positive influence on my game,” Grossenbacher said. “He takes a lot of pride in the outfielders.

“He’s an asset to the team. It’s a huge loss. We’re all praying for him.

“But he’s a strong man, and he will come back in the fall. I have all the confidence in the world that he will be fine.”