The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
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Hurley returns to UConn sidelines after recovering from surgery
“Mentally, this was one of the toughest summers I’ve had in a long time. I’m constantly on the go. I create this persona of myself of strength, highintensity, highenergy, kind of a bulletproof mentality. I’m never sick, I’m always ready to go, I take no days off.” — UConn coach Dan Hurley
Dan Hurley is the first to admit he’s led a pretty blessed life, particularly over the past decade, when he’s risen from high school basketball coach to head man at UConn.
His health has always been good, and that’s not all luck. Hurley loves to hit the weight room and the gym with high intensity, and he’s careful about his diet, his sleep and how he takes care of himself.
So when some health issues cropped up this summer — first an issue with his esophagus and stomach, followed by neck and upperback issues that necessitated surgery — it hit him hard.
“Mentally, this was one of the toughest summers I’ve had in a long time,” the secondyear coach said on Wednesday afternoon. “I’m constantly on the go. I create this persona of myself of strength, highintensity, highenergy, kind of a bulletproof mentality. I’m never sick, I’m always ready to go, I take no days off.
“That whole persona kind of got turned on its head.”
It started with a hereditary condition he began dealing with late last season, as Hurley began experiencing chest pains due to the narrowing of his esophagus. He had that taken care of with a procedure at Hartford Hospital shortly after the Peach Jam tournament in midJuly, but there was still a tingling down his neck, into his left shoulder and left bicep, that reminded Hurley that he still wasn’t
right
An MRI a couple of weeks later revealed a herniated disc and bone spurs were causing compression and degenerative changes in his spinal cord — part of it hereditary, part of it the result of a life on the move (playing sports, coaching sports).
Surgery was necessary. In typical fashion, Hurley hoped to put it off so that it wouldn’t interfere too much with the recruiting calendar, team workouts, etc.
No, he was told, he needed to undergo surgery as soon as possible. Any hard fall, minor car accident or jolt of any kind could put him in at great risk of permanent spinal damage.
Hurley continued to run team workouts throughout the summer, but was ever mindful of his condition. He let his players and managers know they couldn’t run into him, effectively creating a bubble around himself. Any time he got into a car, whether as a driver or passenger, he was “supersensitive” to brake lights, the rearview mirror, oncoming traffic.
But that wasn’t what worried him the most.
“The scariest part of it was the surgery,” Hurley recalled. “Anytime you go to a doctor or neurosurgeon or an orthopedic spine specialist and they start talking about going in through the front of your neck, moving your esophagus over so they can get at your spine, it’s a scary thing. The surgery, for me, was the scary part.”
While there was extremely minimal risk of any longterm problems resulting from surgery, Hurley isn’t the type of personality to simply brush that off.
“I’m driven so much by a fear of failure and a desire to achieve,” he said. “When you have a wife (Andrea) that means everything in the world you, my sons Danny and Andrew, the fear of not being there for them, as low as the chances would have been in surgery, it weighs on your mind.”
On Sept. 6, Hurley underwent surgery, performed by Dr. Roger Hartl at the Center for Comprehensive Spine Care in New York City. As soon as he woke up from the procedure, Hurley knew he was better.
“I was so grateful, so joyful in the recovery room,” he recalled.
Hurley was back home a few days later. He was better, but still not totally himself.
“I was forced to be still for the first time in a long time,” Hurley noted. “It wasn’t the most pleasant experience. I started to have a lot of anxiety about my health and my ability to get back to being myself. Playing worstcase scenarios in your head, if you haven’t had any health adversity.”
Hurley says his prognosis is “great.” Through his six weeks of postoperation, he won’t be able to lift weights or exercise with high intensity. He won’t be as active on court during practice, the way he typically likes to interact with players, until sometime next month (while workouts continue, UConn’s official practices begin on Sept. 28).
He’s restricted from flying right now, but believes he’ll be able to get back on a plane “relatively soon” to see prospective recruits. Hurley doesn’t believe the program’s recruiting prowess has been hurt at all over the past few weeks.
“We work so hard to develop relationships and put ourselves in a position with these recruits that we’re intimately involved with, that they understood my situation,” he said.
And, of course, the rest of his staff — Tom Moore, Kimani Young and Kenya Hunter — have been out on the recruiting trail.
By Wednesday of last week, Hurley started bugging Andrea about when she could drive him to watch a practice.
“She couldn’t wait to oblige and get me out of the house,” he said, with typical selfeffacing humor. “I wore her out, just being around so much. Any coach’s wife isn’t used to having you around. My wife couldn’t wait to get me back in the hands of UConn.”
Hurley finally got to a practice last Friday, unannounced to his players and staff, and got a nice reception upon walking into the Werth Family Champions Center. He was back in his office earlier this week, and ran his first practice since surgery on Wednesday.
“(The players) know I’m back now,” he said. “Any of that feeling sorry for me or goodwill for a coach returning from injury went out the door when I got on the guys for their lack of defensive prowess.”
Dan Hurley may be back, but he’s armed with a fresh new perspective on life.
“I’ve had a pretty great run,” he said. “I haven’t had a lot of adversity. My toughest adversity was bouncing back from a tough loss, which pales in comparison to feeling like your health is failing and surgery you’re fearful about.
“My mindset (now) is I feel like I’m gonna have so much of a better perspective on my purpose, the essence of my purpose on life on this earth. How important my faith is to me was reinforced, how important my family is to me was reinforced, and how important I am to my players, not just to help them excel and succeed in their career, but my true sense of purpose as a coach came into focus for me.”