A 23-year battle with brain cancer has brought him to the edge of life and back. But it’s never stopped him from coaching the game he loves.
By Kyle Jorrey
Sports Editor
On a cloudless spring day in Malibu — one of those days where the vivid blueness of the Pacific Ocean can almost be too much to bear — Tari Frahm Rokus Field resembles something from a painter’s canvas. Undoubtedly, if Kevin Costner could have had his own choice of location — either the cornfields of Iowa or here — then this is surely where he would have built his “Field of Dreams.”
It’s not uncommon on days like this to catch students taking a break from their busy schedules to watch the men’s baseball team practice. One can imagine them stopping just to observe what kind of talent it takes to be allowed to play baseball everyday in a setting like this.
For the past seven seasons these students have been watching Coach Frank Sanchez coaching some of the country’s most skilled athletes. They have watched him lead the team with passion, enthusiasm and the kind of knowledge a person only gets after coaching the game for 28 years. But chances are they haven’t heard him much.
Nowadays, Sanchez rarely raises his voice and chooses his words carefully. He knows their importance. That’s because five years ago he was unable to speak at all.
For nearly as long as he has battled opponents on the baseball field, Frank Sanchez has battled with health problems.
“I have a brain tumor, benign, nonmalignant, that I can’t ever get off,” he said. “(Doctors) can remove it, but it happens to grow back way faster than they thought it would.”
Sanchez was first diagnosed in 1983 when he returned home to California after spending the previous four months coaching summer league baseball in Alaska. He was a successful assistant coach at USC for 10 years before coming to Pepperdine in 1996, carrying his condition with him ever since.
Over the past 20 years Sanchez has had seven surgeries, three to directly address the tumor, four to correct other complications, all of them possibly life-threatening. His most recent was in 1998 at USC Medical Center; it was also his most severe.
“After my surgery in 1998 I was hurting bad,” Sanchez remembered. “I lost the ability to speak, and I lost the ability to swallow.”
Following the initial procedure, Sanchez had to have corrective surgery on his eyelid and on his throat. He spent days afterwards in the hospital recovering, driven by a desire to get better for his family and for his team.
“They had to teach me how to walk again, I couldn’t throw a ball … it was a very trying time to be sure,” Sanchez said.
While in the hospital, the coach received frequent visits from the Pepperdine family, including Athletic Director Dr. John Watson.
Sanchez says these visits are what kept him strong throughout the recovery process, as well as his faith in God.
“I really believe I could not have made the recovery I’ve made without the grace of God and my family’s involvement,” Sanchez said. “Especially my wife and members of the university.”
Assistant Coach Steve Rodriguez, a former Pepperdine baseball standout, came to the team in 1999, a year after Sanchez’s surgery.
“When I first came here I had concerns for his safety, considering his health and all he’d been through,” Rodriguez said. “But it seems as the years go on and he gets better and better. I don’t even recognize that he’s sick anymore.”
And that’s just what Sanchez is hoping for. After so many years of dealing with the life-threatening illness, the coach isn’t looking for sympathy and rarely discusses his condition, unless to correct misinformation.
“I tend to downplay the severity of it,” Sanchez said. “It’s a part of my life and now I just have to move on from it. Time keeps marching on … I can’t waste all my time talking about it.”
Just a few months after leaving his last surgery, Sanchez was back on the diamond, back doing what he loves. Even through all his medical hardships, the determined coach has never missed a season coaching because of health complications.
Despite recovering his voice, Sanchez still suffers from a speech impairment that doesn’t allow him to yell or scream. One might think this would make his job as a head baseball coach difficult. It doesn’t.
“I’ve adapted, I’m OK. When I need a player that’s across the field players know that I might grab them and say ‘Hey, go get so-and-so for me,’ and they do. They understand,” Sanchez said. He joked about the funny misconception that this inability to speak loud has created.
“My wife said to me, ‘Oh, Frank that team just thinks so much about you, look how the team all crowds around you whenever you speak,’ ” he said. “I almost didn’t have the heart to tell her it’s only because they can’t hear me.”
Freshman pitcher Paul Coleman said his coach was upfront with him about his condition when he was first recruited as a senior out of Temescal Canyon. And since then, it has made little difference.
“He told me over the phone when we first talked,” Coleman said. “It was never a big deal. I knew his reputation as a good guy and a smart coach, so knowing that never put a damper on anything.”
In his seven years at Pepperdine, Sanchez has continued to maintain the university’s tradition of baseball success. This is something he finds very important, but something he takes little credit for.
“I suppose I’m no different than anyone who is passionate about their work,” he said. “If you’re passionate about something naturally you are going to be the very best, and to be the best you have to be able to make adjustments.
“Our assistant coaches are fabulous,” Sanchez continued. “They’re young and eager, and they do a lot for the team. The players really respect them.”
Assistant Coach Rodriguez said Sanchez has a lot of knowledge to offer players about baseball and about life.
“The guy has faced death right in the face, I mean, he couldn’t even swallow an ice chip,” Rodriguez said. “It would have been very easy for him to say, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ Instead he chooses to go with what his passion is.
“He shows players that life is going to throw you a curveball,” he continued. “And that you have to be overcome it and still function. He chose to do it head on and he won, period.”
Sanchez said he mainly just hopes his players take from him a passion for life, and the determination to persevere.
“No one plans on getting sick, a lot of people think they’re invincible, but I can tell you it is something that happens,” Sanchez said. “So through faith in God, I’ve made the best of it. When times get hard, you’ve got to just keep going … I just hope those traits rub off on my players.”
After more than 20 years of facing all life has to offer and coming out on top, Sanchez isn’t afraid to admit that the journey has taken its toll.
But each morning he continues to make that 40-minute drive from his hometown of Valenica where he still resides with his wife, April, and his two teenage children, Tanner and Lacey, to manage the Pepperedine team.
“There’s no argument that I’m tired … the grind of the years going by has been a tiring ordeal, but I’m still doing it,” Sanchez said.
“It’s still so exciting for me,” he said. “I love the college game, I love being around the kids and the coaches, I love developing the student athlete . . . I believe God has a plan for all of us, and mine was to be at Pepperdine, doing what I do best.”
As for any plans for retirement … Coach Sanchez doesn’t want to hear them.
“I hope I can do this for many, many more years,” Sanchez said. “I love to represent Pepperdine University and I love this game.”
February 20, 2003