BLACKHAWK COACH INSPIRES GIRLS TEAM
Bob Amalia’s fight inspires Blackhawk girls basketball team
The chemotherapy would hit like a haymaker, so the doctors told Bob Amalia in October to forget about being an assistant girls basketball coach at Blackhawk High School this season, and he also might not be strong enough for his 20th year as Blackhawk’s head coach in baseball.
“They called it the Mike Tyson of chemo,” said Amalia. “They said it would knock me out.”
But it’s February and cancer’s knees are wobbling. Amalia punched back.
Amalia hasn’t missed a game with the Blackhawk girls team and has been absent for only a few practices. Then last week, he attended his first baseball workout and the coach with three WPIAL championships is anticipating another successful season with the Cougars in the spring.
Take that, cancer.
“I believe I’m going to be healed,” said Amalia. “I still have some question marks, but I’ve got some positive news recently. The cancer has regressed. That’s all I needed to hear. I’m ready to go. I still have cancer, but I believe the Lord is going to heal me. I really do.”
The WPIAL basketball playoffs are heating up with the quarterfinals being played this week and the bald, 63-year-old guy on the Blackhawk bench who lost his dark black hair because of the chemo treatments is providing a truly inspiring story. Adding to the story is one of Amalia’s daughters, who also happens to be a star junior guard on a strong Blackhawk girls team. The Cougars played in the WPIAL quarterfinals Thursday night. The team has dedicated its season to Amalia.
“It was pretty difficult at first when we found out,” said Mackenzie Amalia, who averages 19 points and 7 assists and has made 74 3-pointers in 22 games. Mackenzie already has decided to accept a scholarship to Robert Morris.
“I had some tough days at first, just thinking about him all
the time,” said Mackenzie. “But seeing him fight through this, staying so positive, staying so close to God has really helped me get through it.”
Mackenzie Amalia, whose older sister Madison was a Blackhawk basketball standout a few years ago, wears ribbons on her game sneakers to honor her father. She has the words “I Play For Him” on one shoe and “He Walks With Me” on the other. Other players wear ribbons on their shoes to honor Amalia. Amalia coached many of them as the junior high head coach.
Amalia has been walking through the Blackhawk School District in Beaver County for decades. He is a 1974 Blackhawk graduate who spent 16 years as a boys basketball assistant to legendary John Miller. Amalia coached Sean Miller, Archie Miler and Dante Calabria. He is in his sixth season as a girls assistant, but he has coached junior high girls for more than a decade. He has a 291-110 record in 19 baseball seasons and has taken a team to a WPIAL title game eight times.
“I played [basketball] for him when I was in high school,” said Steve Lodovico, the highly-successful Blackhawk girls coach. “He means a lot to this district. When you think about anybody who battles cancer, and to see what they go through, it takes a toll on their body. But he’s here every day. The coaching keeps him going. … He’s a huge part of what we do and he’s a huge inspiration to all of us.”
‘I was really scared’
Bob Amalia thought something was wrong last summer when he didn’t feel quite right. He remembers the day when his wife, Audrey, was running and her husband couldn’t keep up. Bob Amalia also had pain often in his back, even when he hugged someone. Amalia liked to work out and lift weights and a family doctor at first thought he might have Costochondritis, an inflammation of the ribs and breastbone. But Amalia noticed numerous black and blue marks on his body.
His wife pushed for more answers with another doctor. Eventually Amalia was diagnosed in late October with a rare form of prostate cancer that metastasizes to other parts of the body. The man who coached Brendan McKay, one of the all-time great pitchers in WPIAL baseball, was suddenly thrown a life curveball.
“Only 1 percent of people with prostate cancer have this,” said Amalia. “You know when it’s hard? When they first tell you they think you have cancer.”
Amalia started extensive chemotherapy treatments in November. There were four cycles of treatment for three consecutive days, every three weeks. But it only takes one hand to count the number of practices he missed.
Cancer can do strange things to a person’s emotions. Amalia found it hard to talk to certain people about the cancer. It took a few months before he would agree to be interviewed for this story. He had a list of people written on a piece of paper that he wanted to thank for their support.
“I just don’t want things to be so much about me,” said Amalia. “I would rather things be about Mackenzie and the team. You know how good she has been as a player this year? I would rather the story be about the people who have supported me so much. This community, my family, the coaches, the girls, my former players — and my wife. You have to emphasize in this story how unbelievable she has been.”
Amalia had to stop once during the interview for this story, just to cry.
“I was really scared before. That’s why I couldn’t talk to you. I just had trouble talking to some people,” said Amalia. “I would stand on the court and think, ‘Am I going to see Mackenzie play this year? What if the chemo doesn’t work?’ But my faith is so strong. I believed Jesus was going to heal me. I still worry some, but I’m OK.”
Good news
Amalia’s final chemotherapy was in late January. Shortly thereafter, he had medical scans and got good news. The cancer had regressed.
“Bones are healing,” said Amalia.
Once every three weeks, Amalia will go through immunotherapy (”a form of maintenance,” he said.) Amalia only has to get scans every three months. Doctors have not given him a long-term prognosis.
“The doctor has said the only one who knows is God,” said Amalia. “All I know is if I would not have had the chemo, I would’ve been gone in six to 12 months. But the chemo worked. Let’s pray the immunotherapy keeps working.
“I’m 63. Normally I wouldn’t tell you my age, but I do now because I want to make sure I get to 80.”
One other thing keeps playing a major role in Amalia’s battle with cancer. Coaching. A retired math teacher, Amalia has been either a basketball or baseball coach for almost 40 years. Coaching high school kids can drive and motivate. It can push one to battle cancer.
“For him, coaching is like a release,” said Mackenzie Amalia. “It has really helped through this.”
Coaching made Bob Amalia stand up to cancer.
“I don’t look at myself as inspiring. I just like to coach,” said Amalia. “I probably couldn’t have made it through this without coaching. I mean, I’m lying in an MRI on by brain recently, I have my eyes shut and I’m just thinking about basketball and ‘what can we do to get better? What can we do to win?’”
Bob Amalia already is a winner.