MOUNT VERNON — Looking at Mount Vernon High School girls’ softball coach Ryan Pentz or hearing his rich baritone voice booming across Legacy Field would not reveal a problem.
His cancer isn’t overt to the naked eye.
“The lung cancer I have is very small, slow growing and has not involved any lymph nodes according to the PET (positron emission tomography) scan,” Pentz explained.
The 48–year-old coach, who is sergeant in the detective bureau in the Powell Police Department, said the disease was located “by the Grace of God.”
After attending the wedding of his daughter and returning from Florida, Pentz sensed something was amiss.
“I told my wife that I thought I was having a heart attack and needed to go to the hospital,” he said.
This is where the “ good news/bad news” comes in. Doctors found nothing wrong with the heart, but the test revealed a small mass in one lung.
“The doctors told me I was lucky. I don’t feel very lucky,” Pentz said. “I was told that because it is small and slow growing; there might not have been symptoms for a couple of years, and then it might have been too late.”
It’s no surprise that when Pentz received the news, he was in the press box at Legacy Field.
“They were laying all this new sod out here. I had just gotten out of the hospital and Keely (Keely Pollard, a senior on the team) was here when I learned I had cancer. She was one of the first to find out,” the coach said.
That day is etched in Pollard’s memory.
“When he walked back in we (Jocelyn Scarbury was there as well) knew something was wrong because he was just acting differently,” Pollard said.
Gabby Beck, another senior on the team, said she knows Pentz will continue with the team.
“I was thinking about him and softball, and there is no way he’s not going to coach,” Beck said.
Pollard added another lesson learned from Penze: “He has taught us to fight.”
Pentz is scheduled to meet with a surgeon from Ohio Health on Aug. 10.
“Right now, I do not know what my treatment options are going to be,” he said. “I told the team I may not be around as much, but they know what I expect them to do.”
The coach made one thing very clear during this week’s team meeting.
“We are in for a little bit of a tough road, but I am not going anywhere,” Pentz said. “I’m going to be here to coach next year.”
The coach appreciates the support of the community and the Mount Vernon Schools.
Pentz had one more life lesson to impart to his team.
“It brings into perspective the life lessons that we teach out here,” he said. “When we talk about fighting and legacy and winning, this is what we mean.”