San Angelo Elementary Student Fighting Cancer Again

Lucille Fullen will be in her regular seating area, when the Abilene High football game team plays Odessa Permian on Friday at Shotwell Stadium.

Her husband, Mike, will exist dorsum in his usual identify, too, prowling the habitation sidelines as the Eagles head passenger vehicle.

It will exist an emotional moment, nonetheless, for the charabanc.

Mike Fullen missed the commencement two games — both abode games — while recovering from surgery to remove a malignant mass in his colon. He continues to undergo chemotherapy, just he resumed his duties Oct. xv after a ii-month absence and coached the Eagles during last week's game in San Angelo.

"That's where he belongs," Lucille Fullen said near seeing her married man back on the sidelines. "He's passionate about the game. He loves the game."

Mike Fullen, too, is excited about his render to Shotwell, though he is approaching it more equally a coach than a guy battling cancer. He desperately wants his Eagles to win, after they lost their District ii-6A opener at San Angelo Central 53-32 to fall to 0-three overall.

"It'll be proficient. I'thousand looking forward to this game," Double-decker Fullen said. "Our squad is still a work in progress. Nosotros played well the other night. Nosotros just gave upward likewise many big plays in the secondary. When you lot go against Central, you lot tin can't do that."

Happy returns

Fullen was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his colon on July 18, simply he continued to coach the team until presently before his surgery Aug. 20. He hadn't been back with the team until he stopped by Oct. 14, after his surgeon gave him the get-ahead to come back.

"When I walked upwards, of course I was masked up, had my sunglasses on. They didn't fifty-fifty know who I was," Coach Fullen said. "The coaches didn't know either. They hadn't seen me in two months. They finally figured it out."

He returned to his usual duties the next twenty-four hours.

"It's been good," Motorcoach Fullen said. "Information technology wasn't like a large hurrah and bells and whistles, but information technology was definitely a good moment. Information technology was like, 'Good to have you dorsum charabanc.'"

That Friday he made the trip to San Angelo to coach in the district opener. Considering of COVID-19 concerns, his married woman collection him to and from the game.

"I really can't ride a bus, even though we're masked up and nosotros're socially distancing," Autobus Fullen said. "Then, my wife took me down there, and I met the team down there. Information technology was heady."

Even a loss couldn't have away just how big a moment it was the couple.

"It didn't plough out the manner we wanted it to," Double-decker Fullen said. "I mean, I wanted to win the game, only it was more exciting to be at the game and exist back. Being back on the sidelines was the biggest deal. I kind of got that out of the system. At present, it's business organization as usual. I simply have to lookout man my free energy level. That's the only thing. I become tired. I'thou supposed to take breaks. That can all exist monitored Those are the only restrictions I take."

Lucille Fullen was happy to see her husband dorsum doing what he loves.

"This terminal Friday nighttime in San Angelo, it was just skillful,"she said. "I felt proud of him, that he was able to exist there. I was just hoping and praying he held up for the entire game, and he did. This Friday, I'thou thinking the same affair. I'yard sure it will be joyful to see him down there again."

Worth the risks

Not that Lucille Fullen doesn't take her concerns, peculiarly during a pandemic. She is both thrilled and cautious almost his return to the sidelines.

"I've very worried about how he'due south going to agree up," she said. "I'm worried about his free energy. I'm worried most his immune system being practically nix. … You worry about whatever kind of affliction or infection. … I worry about him picking up annihilation correct now, specially COVID, because he won't have the force to fight it."

Coach Fullen must limit his fourth dimension indoors among large groups – something that tin be a challenge equally a football game coach. He spends little time in the locker room. The team did its pre-game and post-game meetings outside in the parking lot at last week'southward game. They stayed outside the locker room at halftime.

He said the team is well enlightened of its responsibility in keeping him protected.

"The kids have responded really well," he said. "They've got information technology down pat. All you've got to say is, 'Mask up,' and they do it. During a game, they either have a mask on or a helmet with a splash guard."

Then there's his lack of energy, thanks to the chemotherapy.

"That's the hardest thing," Coach Fullen said. "I ordinarily have this free energy, but sometimes your torso, you're asking for it, but it won't give it to you lot. At first, I was like, 'That'due south non existence mentally tough.' But if your body doesn't desire to do information technology, information technology's not going to do it. The last thing that's going to come back is my energy, just because I'grand still constantly healing."

Coach Fullen has chemotherapy iii days – Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays – every ii weeks. He did his third of 12 rounds last week. He said his free energy hits its lowest about a week after each therapy.

"Even though I do chemo every 14 days, it stays with me," he said. "Today (Tuesday) has probably been my hardest day, because my mouth, everything is really metally. My oral fissure is real dry. My lips are dry out. They told me the side effects would be more intense and last longer this third round. And then, the numbness in my hands will exist longer.

"When I handclapping, information technology hurts right at present. It'due south not anything I can't bargain with. When yous're out at that place coaching, you don't think almost it. You simply kind of motion on."

A medicine called football

There are risks, but ultimately both Mike and Lucille Fullen believe the mental heave in returning to the game he loves outweighs the COVID-nineteen concerns.

"The excitement of him existence able to come back and be in his chemical element, that's a medicine in of itself," Lucille Fullen said. "You lot have to counterbalance that concrete versus mental and endeavour to balance the ii. Getting released to come back to coach was a huge motivation for him."

It was a pretty large boost for Lucille, likewise. She continued to go to the Eagles games, while her hubby stayed abode. She hated not seeing him on the sidelines.

"That was emotional for me, not to see him out there," she said.

Abilene Potent

It's been an emotional roller-coaster for the Fullen clan. Equally difficult as it was to not see him on the sidelines those first two games, the support they've received from the community and beyond has been overwhelming.

"Information technology'due south been amazing for me," Coach Fullen said, the tears welling up in his eyes. "Yous don't realize sometimes … People are e'er talking about the result you have on players and even former coaches. Y'all don't realize it until you lot get into something like this. I mean, I've gotten players who I coached 20 years agone call and check on me and support anything our guys did. Some were people I hadn't heard from in a long time."

Coach Fullen too is on the board of directors for the Texas High School Coaches Association, and he's gotten to know a lot of coaches from around the country. His coaching brethren has been supportive.

"It took me probably iii days to answer all the texts subsequently my surgery," he said. "It makes y'all feel like you're in it for the right reason and you're doing good things.

"That's e'er been my deal. I've ever had kind of a perception to parents that I'm a crude and gruff guy, considering they only encounter me on Friday nights. Simply the kids know me differently. I brand personal deposits with them every day. A lot of fourth dimension, it's the players going home and defending me more than so than me having to defend myself.

"The things you teach those kids, y'all want to teach them to be mentally tough with all the struggles in life. I'm dealing with a big one hither. It's definitely put a dissimilar spin on things for me. I'm glad to be dorsum."

Lucille Fullen, the director of career and technical instruction for Abilene ISD, has appreciated the back up.

"Mike is a strong man, and we've both been looking at the positives," she said. "We talk nigh how blessed nosotros are. We have a customs backside u.s.. Our church has been very supportive. Our friends have been very supportive. Our work has been very supportive – players, parents. It'southward humbling to know how many people are battling with us. We've simply been blessed by all of that."

Fullen to a T

Both were surprised when the Fullen Potent T-shirts started popping upwardly around town and at the Eagles' games.

"It was sweet, very sweet," she said. "Fifty-fifty the outset time I saw the hashtag FullenStrong, it made me kind of teary, just to know from the very beginning he had so much support."

Since he was limiting his time in public while recuperating, Coach Fullen didn't see the T-shirts until his wife showed him a motion picture of one. Some of the first shirts had a picture of him talking to some players.

"That was cool," he said. "I like the shirt. I don't know that I'll wear i, because I don't want a shirt with my moving-picture show on information technology. If they practise it with just the Black Shirts on the front, I probably would."

Well, there are dissimilar versions at present, and he was wearing a Fullen Stiff shirt with the word Family on the front during Wednesday's practice.

His picture or not, the T-shirt and the outpouring from the customs and state accept been overwhelming. Even sometime Cooper football game coach Todd Moebes, at present coaching at Lockhart, posted a photo on Twitter of him wearing a Fullen Potent shirt during the Lions' practice.

It's all painted a powerful mosaic for Coach Fullen, who has been with AHS every yr since 1997, relieve one flavor at Georgetown in 2005.

"It'southward been pretty overwhelming for me and my wife to experience information technology," said Fullen, who took over every bit the Eagles' head coach last season. "She was able to live it, because she could go to work and go to games. She said, 'You won't believe this.' It was pretty emotional. We had a good talk, just nigh the impact you have and the bonds yous build over time, how lasting they are.

"Everything's been so crazy, then you have something like this. You discover out the world is still good. There'southward still good people – thoughtful, caring people in this world. When you go through something like this, y'all larn information technology commencement-manus. I'chiliad very beholden of information technology."

Fullen won't know until later on his chemotherapy treatments end whether he'due south cancer gratis, but he doesn't worry almost the possible outcomes. He and wife both remain positive. They believe the chemotherapy will practice its chore.

"We have our fiddling checklist going," Lucille Fullen said. "He's got 12 treatments, and three downwardly. So, every other week we get to marking another one off the list. At that place's progression, and when March rolls around, we're expecting the all-time news and he'll be completely cancer free and merely lucky that they caught it early enough to exist in that situation because then many aren't."

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Source: https://www.reporternews.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2020/10/22/abilene-highs-fullen-thrilled-back-despite-surgery-cancer/3724813001/

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