FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher is telling the story about how he almost quit coaching after his son’s diagnosis with a life-threatening disease.
After the 2010 season, the Florida State Seminoles were enjoying how things were better under first year head coach Jimbo Fisher. The team had won 10 games, was back in the ACC Championship game and beat rivals Miami and Florida in the same season for the first time since 1999.
All the good things that happened on the field were taken away, however, when Fisher’s family got a heartbreaking diagnosis for their second son, Ethan, shortly before his sixth birthday. The youngster was told he had Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disorder that causes bone marrow failure and makes the patient more likely to get cancers such as leukemia, with a life expectancy at the time of only 35.
Now, Jimbo Fisher is telling the story to Palm Beach Post writer Tom D’Angelo (in a must read piece) about how he almost decided to hang up his whistle on the spot:
"I didn’t know what (Ethan’s condition) required, what it meant. Should I coach? Should I not coach?I don’t know if we ever got to that point where we thought about it seriously but it crossed my mind to think about that because I didn’t know until we found out everything."
Fisher admitted in the article to being “distracted” during the spring practice schedule that followed, taking extra time away to be with his family and research the disease and possible locations of treatment with his former wife, Candi.
Ethan, who still receives yearly checkups at a hospital in Minnesota that specializes in the illness, has been on the sideline for some of Jimbo Fisher’s best moments with FSU football, including their win in the final BCS National Championship Game following a comeback victory over Auburn.
Jimbo Fisher and his now ex-wife started the Kidz1stFund to raise money to help fight the disease. So far, they have raised nearly $3.5 million and, according to doctors, helped substantially in the race for a cure and increase the quality of life and life expectancy for patients across the country.
Fisher and the Seminoles will prepare for year seven of his coaching tenure in Tallahassee this fall, as they open the 2016 season on September 5th when they take on the Ole Miss Rebels in Orlando.
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