A life too short, but Flood’s impact at UD seems everlasting
UPPER DARBY » As Larry Flood neared the end of his two-and-a-half year battle with cancer, he and his wife, Laura, broached one more in a long line of distressing conversations.
In time, funeral arrangements would be made, and Larry was adamant that he didn’t want his life remembered with solemn reminiscence. Enough tears have been shed, Larry said, and if the many people he’d touched in his life came together on his account, he wished it to be in celebration, not mourning.
As Laura pondered how to make that happen, she suggested the one thing, beside the family that had fought by his side, that brought him the most joy: In lieu of flowers, how about asking people to make donations to the Upper Darby boys soccer team?
“He said, ‘That’s perfect. That’s what I want,” Laura recalled. “He just wanted to give back to those kids one last time.”
For Upper Darby players past and present, Flood’s spiritual presence endures long after his death on Sept. 12 at the age of 47.
It’s reflected in the Royals seniors, who played three years with Flood as their varsity coach and for legions more who knew Flood as a JV coach and omnipresent assistant. And it’s revealed by a coaching staff that did as Flood did ... returning to their alma mater to tutor future generations.
Flood was diagnosed with cancer in April 2014, the spring after his first season in what everyone knew to be his dream job. A longtime assistant to Tom Farr, his high school coach in the mid-1980s, Flood took over upon Farr’s retirement.
Through the next two years, even as he underwent chemotherapy treatments, Flood rarely missed a game or practice, often wearing a fanny pack with a device that administered multi-day infusions of chemo drugs. He missed one game while hospitalized with a blood clot, despite what Laura called his best attempts to persuade doctors to discharge him.
After the diagnosis, Laura never broached the subject of Larry scaling back his coaching responsibilities, knowing the inevitable response.
“That’s where his heart was,” said Laura, who met Larry when they were classmates at Upper Darby. “That’s the only place he ever really wanted to coach.”
“He never gave up, and the glass was always half full and never half empty,” said West Chester East coach Charlie Dodds, who hired Flood as an assistant in his first stint at East in the late 1990s and preceded Flood as a player at Upper Darby by three years. “It’s a testament that he was still going through chemo and still on the sidelines.”
Flood’s players and coaches were kept apprised of his condition. But his lead-by-example dedication largely remained unspoken, even as the staff at Upper Darby to whom Laura remains immensely grateful doted over his care, ensuring he stayed hydrated and out of the sun during games.
Sometimes his players needed a reminder, current head coach Adam Edgar said, as Flood jumped into drills with a gusto perhaps ill-advised for someone whose body underwent several orthopedic surgeries before his illness. But there was no denying Flood in his element.
“His commitment was just unreal,” senior goalie Daniel Lista said. “He’d come to practice every day. He’d be here for us. He’d do anything for us.”
“He always said his kids saved his life,” Laura said. “They kept giving him the strength and the courage, along with his family, to do what he had to do and to fight.”
Flood gravitated back to the field after his playing days at Penn State-Delco. A former corrections officer and a trained chef, he volunteered for Farr’s soccer camps in his early 20s and leapt at the chance to come home when Farr offered a job.
Family and soccer have always been intertwined for the Floods. The couple’s three kids — Larry Jr., Andrew and Samantha — all played soccer at Upper Darby, Andrew with Larry Sr. as his JV coach.
Edgar, a contemporary of Andrew’s, and JV coach Rory Pitter followed Flood’s path from player to coach. Flood’s imprint is clear.
“It was a hard thing to watch because it was almost like we lost a father,” Pitter said. “He was a father to the program, so everybody was devastated. That’s part of the reason why I came back after graduating five years ago. I knew he was hurting, so I came to help him out. Him not being here, I figured I’d stay around, and hopefully he’s watching us. I’m working to be a better coach, inspired by him.”
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