A shocking diagnosis couldn’t keep coaching veteran Frank Welsh from doing what he loves
Frank Welsh figured his first year coaching at Coral Gables High would be challenging.
Racing back and forth from the practice field to the hospital every morning was not what he had in mind.
“For me it was a big shock, because in all the years I’ve been teaching and coaching, I had never taken a sick day,” Welsh said.
Welsh had no choice last year.
On Sept. 1, just a week into the season, Welsh was diagnosed with stage 3b colon cancer.
“We found out after a coach’s party at my house,” Welsh said. “I was having some really bad gas and kept getting worse. I went to the urgent care the next day and they did some tests. Eventually I was rushed to the hospital and that’s when they diagnosed me.”
After undergoing surgery to remove a tumor doctors found, Welsh would begin chemotherapy a week later. He’d undergo four hours of chemotherapy at the Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute in Kendall twice a month for the next six months. He would then wear a chemotherapy pump for two days following treatments.
Welsh could have stayed home during that time and rested.
But that wasn’t an option for a coaching veteran like Welsh, who will enter his 30th season on the sideline overall next week when the Cavaliers play their preseason classic against Coral Reef.
Welsh began treatment within a couple of weeks of his diagnosis, right around his 52nd birthday in mid-September.
Welsh would end up missing only two games during his treatment schedule. He also minimized how much time he’d be away from practices, often starting the day at the hospital either for treatment or to remove the pump and then rushing back to get to Coral Gables before the end of practices and later get work with his players and coaches done in the film room.
“You get a little tired here and there,” Welsh said with a laugh. “But I just had to keep busy. I had a sister pass away due to breast cancer. If you’re around it, you kinda understand, but until you really go through it, it doesn’t really hit you.
“Those quiet times when you’re alone is when it really hits you. I had to just get up and do something, stay busy. Get up, go to treatment, then go to work, come home, take a shower, go to bed. Then get up, repeat. You don’t really have that time to sit there and think about it. To this day, I don’t think I’ve really given myself much time to sit there and think about it.”
Welsh maintained his sense of humor even through the toughest of times.
A day after finding out his diagnosis, he posted a message on Facebook that read “Always trust your gut.” In the ensuing weeks and months, he often posted humorous photos of him smiling after treatments.
Welsh said the chance to continue to coach and make an impact in his players’ lives is what kept driving him.
During practices, you won’t hear Welsh screaming across the field or loudly scolding mistakes. He takes a more instructional approach, often keeping things light in a way his players can often relate.
“We’re really happy to see him back. Everything runs more smoothly when he’s here,” said Coral Gables senior linebacker/running back Lucas Paez, who has a 4.0 GPA. “It’s like when an offense is missing its starting QB. He’s our starting QB (among the coaches). He takes a different approach with us. He’s serious when he needs to be. But he has fun with us.”
Welsh’s absence last year early on was not an ideal for a team that had more than 20 players transfer to other schools and was implementing a new offensive scheme on an inexperienced Cavaliers’ squad with only five seniors.
Gables, which had two games canceled early in the season, struggled to a 1-6 season.
The Cavaliers, who moved into a challenging district that includes Columbus and South Dade, are still young this year with only six seniors. But their numbers have grown with 45-50 players overall on the roster and with more experience learning the team’s offensive and defensive schemes with Welsh able to be back in the fold full-time this offseason.
“Just being able to have Coach back at the helm and his guidance and his perspective on things has been key,” Coral Gables running backs coach Twin Bryant said.
Bryant and offensive coordinator Alton Strachan, who has coached with Welsh since 1996, coached the two games that he was forced to sit out last season.
Bryant knows full well how dedicated Welsh is to his craft.
Bryant saw it in high school when he played at South Miami when Welsh, at age 22, returned to his high school alma mater as a quarterbacks coach for the junior varsity team following his college days at Troy University.
“He’s always been a player’s coach. He has a heart for the players,” Bryant said. “His players are able to genuinely respond to him. Being a role model for those kids is something I learned from him and instilling in them the moral standard that will go beyond their high school years and help them become outstanding young men.”
Welsh would move up the coaching ladder and learn from one of the county’s all-time winningest coaches when he became the offensive coordinator at Miami Beach under Jim Kroll.
Welsh’s first head coaching job came in the late 2000s at Miami High where he coached for six seasons, leading the Stingarees to the playoffs in 2010.
Before he was hired by Gables in 2021, Welsh spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach at Miami Palmetto where he helped the Panthers reach the state semifinals in 2020.
“He was really helpful for us and our kids and shared a lot of great ideas that helped us get better,” Palmetto coach Mike Manasco said. “He’s very relatable to the kids, but he’s also old school so he makes sure things get done a certain way. It’s great to see him back because we were all worried about him.”
The only after effect Welsh still feels is some numbness in his hands and feet, but said his endurance is back when he’s out at practice these days.
Welsh said he will find out the first week of October whether he is in full remission from the cancer.
It is the week when Coral Gables will take on longtime rival Miami High.
He hopes that Saturday will be an end to a tough journey and a time to party both on and off the field.
“Monday, Tuesday and Thursday (that week) I’ll have tests done and then we play Miami High, my favorite school,” Welsh said with a laugh. “Hopefully, we’ll have something to celebrate that weekend if I’m in remission and if we beat them, that’ll be a fun week.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
