Retired Bridgeport High School educator and boys basketball Coach Gene Randolph was never one to shy away from a battle, particularly if it came on the hardwoods. In fact, he loved the entire concept of how to beat the opponent at hand.

 

For 38 years, starting at Flemington and ending here in Bridgeport, Randolph faced the battle with his own smarts. He faced the battle leaning on his assistants. In the end, however, he faced those battles knowing it would ultimately be up to the players to decide the fate.

 

Today, a few years removed from retiring from the teaching and coaching field in 2013, Randolph is facing another battle – it’s a battle that he’s facing with the same enthusiasm that he displayed for decades on the sidelines. It’s also a battle he has all plans on winning.

 

Right now, Gene Randolph is battling adenocarcinoma of the lesser curvature of the stomach. In layman’s terms, it’s a form of stomach cancer.

 

Since diagnosis to right now, Randolph has already completed four rounds of chemotherapy (each round being 21 straight days), a surgery to remove the tumor, and is now on the second four rounds of chemotherapy (again 21 straight for each day) and he moves forward treating each day as a gift. He seems almost giddy when talking about battling back the ordeal and what the next day, the upcoming weekend, or a trip with his wife Claudia, and his best friends – Otis and Dudley, his two coon hound dogs – will bring.

 

Like those basketball games, Randolph isn’t just battling alone. He’s leaning on doctors. He’s leaning on his wife and friends. He’s leaning heaviest on the thing he said he should have leaned on with much more fervor through his life - his Faith.

 

Ultimately, Gene Randolph’s ongoing story is partially about cancer. It’s partially about love. It’s ultimately about Faith, about messages, about redemption. If Faith isn’t your thing, then read no further. If Faith is your thing, or if you’re curious about the amazing transformation cancer has brought to Gene Randolph on a physical and spiritual front, proceed.

 

It was on Jan. 18 of 2016 when Gene Randolph began to have issues that led him to the discovery of his cancer. Yet, he said he was probably given a sign the year before. Something, he said, that left him a bit shaken.

 

While those who know Randolph know of his faith, he readily admitted that he was flawed. He was flawed in the past and as he aged, he knew he was flawed a particular evening back in 2015.

 

“I probably was given a warning in the summer of 2015; when Claudia was gone visiting her daughter. In the middle of the night I remember waking up and heard these three words ‘It is I.’ It shook me a good bit and I sat up in bed,” said Randolph.

 

Considering that it was night and he was in bed, it must have been a dream, right?

 

“I was awake and I know it was more than a dream; it was tangible. It was a clear, audible voice that even though I took it to heart I didn’t take it to heart strong enough,” said Randolph. “It didn’t have the resounding impact it probably should have because I assumed it was the good Lord trying to get my attention.”

 

In January of 2016 is when Gene Randolph’s attention was grabbed. Ironically, it came after Randolph went in after his doctor – knowing his family’s history of colon cancer – said he wouldn’t see him if he didn’t get a colonoscopy. Randolph, no friend of medical procedures outside only recent visits to a family doctor, relented.

 

“Everything came back well,” said Randolph who was treated for the procedure at United Hospital Center by Dr. Jeff Madden.

 

Ten days later, however, things changed. The journey he’s currently on was about to kick into high gear.

 

“I was with Claudia up in the mountains and I told her I just didn’t feel right,” said Randolph. “Something wasn’t right, but I just wasn’t sure.”

 

Initially, the thought was massive drainage was the cause for her discomfort. Then the gall bladder along with a host of other issues were examined and ruled out. Eventually, his son-in-law, Dr. Christopher Edwards, brought him to Mon General in Morgantown and they opted to do a scope of his upper body.

 

“When I came out of recovery, I could see Claudia was crying so I knew it wasn’t good. The doctors told me they had located the reason for my discomfort,” said Randolph. “It was a tumor that turned out to be the adenocarcinoma in my stomach.”

 

The day was May 6. Ironically, the discovery came as the result of the earlier colonoscopy looking for any traces of colon cancer.

 

“The prep you take for the colonoscopy caused an ulceration of the tumor and irritated it to cause the discomfort I felt 10 days later,” said Randolph. “If the good Lord tried to get my attention in the middle of the night in 2015 I remember thinking ‘Lord, you’ve got my attention now.’ Now, we started the ball rolling on what to do.”

 

Randolph worked with surgeon Dr. Mark L. Johnson at Mon General and oncologist Dr. Miklos Auber at Ruby Memorial to get to work. The first order of business was to shrink the tumor in the upper part of Randolph’s stomach.

 

The tumor, he said, was a good sized one. “Not massive, but big,” Randolph said. The first stage was at hand as the aggressive chemotherapy began. After several months of treatment, Randolph had a PET scan to see the results.

 

“The tumor shrunk dramatically; and the doctor said more than normal. I thought let’s just keep this thing going. The doctors told me it didn’t work like that; that they needed a window of opportunity to remove the tumor and this was it,” said Randolph.

 

After a month off treatment to build his body back up, Randolph went in for surgery with Dr. Johnson on Sept. 13. The results, Randolph said, were good as the tumor, and surrounding tissue were removed.

 

And now, Randolph is on the next phase of chemotherapy – four more rounds and he’s on round four at the moment. He’s bubbly, and when talking to him, he’s his usual animated self and there doesn’t appear to be a chair on this planet that can contain him for any serious duration of time.

 

“I don’t feel too bad other than I can’t do all the things I did before and can’t eat all the things I did before,” said Randolph.

 

You can notice it if you know Gene Randolph. Always fit, Randolph still remains that way at 71 years of age. There is, however, noticeable weight loss. The once robust Randolph who carried 180-plus pounds on his frame has dropped 50 of it.

 

That’s okay with Randolph. It’s okay if you ask him about it. The reason for that is that his story doesn’t end here. It’s a long story that, if you keep faith in me, I’ll do my best to deliver correctly to, as Randolph put it, “hopefully inspire one person to get closer to the Lord.”

 

During his ordeal, Randolph never received any additional clearer, audible messages that he insists in a matter-of-fact tone that he received back in 2015. Yet he says there were others – in other ways. In prayer one day, Randolph said he asked the Lord to find him an inspirational book that had meaning to him. As an avid reader, finding books wouldn’t be a problem. Finding the right one with what was on his mind, however, left him stumped.

 

“Where I was looking, and you know how books are placed on their ends, that day there was one book sitting out and facing me,” said Randolph. “The book was titled Sun Stand Still.”

 

The book by Steven Furtick has the subtitle that let Gene Randolph knew he was being shown what to get. The subtitle was “What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible.”

 

Randolph dove in. The thing that stood out over and over was that Furtick said to approach religion in an audacious manner. And he did.

 

“The method wasn’t asking the Lord to heal you if be Thy will, but rather to ask the Lord to heal me and heal me now … I do that now, although at the end I get a little bit soft and add a ‘please lord’ to it,” Randolph said with a chuckle.

 

Ironically, the messages and what Randolph called “non-coincidences” continued. This time, on June 8, he got a message that he needed to touch 50 religious items He, to this day, has no idea why or for what purpose it served. He did it anyway.

 

“I just believe He was testing my faith when this message came in a very subtle voice to me. It was nothing like the first time, but it was there,” he said.

 

The always organized Randolph had a list with him as we talked in my office this past week. Not surprising to anyone that knows him, he had every item he touched numbered and every item described. Turns out number 50 on the list required some work and was done in the quiet confines of the Immaculate Conception Church in Clarksburg.

 

“We were at mass one day and Claudia looks up at the crucifix above the side door and said, ‘Gene, I think the Lord would be impressed if you touched that.’ I looked and it is 15 feet high, but I told her not only was I going to touch it, but it would be my 50^th item,” said Randolph.

 

On a rainy Sunday, as the rain poured, Randolph grabbed an extension ladder and decided that the rain was a good enough reason to put it back. Besides, if he was meant to touch it a method to touch the crucifix would be provided.

 

“I was back at the church, at the rotunda, and behind it I find one of the biggest step ladders you could imagine. We unfolded it inside the church and there wasn’t a soul there,” said Randolph. “I was going to embrace the crucifix, but I could only touch the Lord’s feet. I said a Hail Mary and came down … I got all 50.”

 

Randolph said it doesn’t matter if there was a reason to do it. He said he felt fulfilled by doing it. And at the same time, as he did things through messages he said he received and grew spiritually, he said there were some regrets as well.

 

“When I came down from that ladder I felt that I knew my Lord and Savior strongly, yet I regretted that I didn’t rely on Him for the major decisions in my life. That’s a mistake I made over and over and one I won’t make now,” said Randolph. “I have a stronger faith, a more audacious faith now. I realize that Gene Randolph is on a bit of a time crunch and I’m going to get this right.”

 

There were other messages and other signs, before and after surgery, and all along the journey to this point. Each time, Randolph said, he was certain of what he heard even if he wasn’t always certain of the meaning behind the message. And if you want to talk to him about any of it, by all means he’ll be more than happy and honored to fill your ear.

 

He has time to tell you, too. He believes he has plenty of time.

 

As mentioned he’s on his second set of four rounds of chemotherapy that started again Dec. 2. He’ll finish that up March 23, which ironically is just a week after the annual state boys’ basketball tournament where he became a household name.

 

Randolph could end the chemotherapy there. However, instead of radiation he’s opting for more chemotherapy and hopes to be finished with his treatment completely by May 4.

 

“They’ll do another PET scan after everything is finished,” said Randolph. “I’m pretty upbeat, because of my faith, about whatever the future holds.”

 

The only thing Randolph knows about the future are appointments with doctors or trips to medical facilities. They’ve replaced the basketball game and practice schedule that consumed decades of his life. Outside of that, he only knows he wants to spend time with his wife, his dogs, his family and plenty of time in the mountains. The rest, he said, is up to the Lord.

 

“I’m curious about the future and I’m trying to get the doctors to tell me, longevity wise, what to expect. They won’t give me an answer, but Dr. Johnson tells me I should live normally,” said Randolph. “If it’s the Lord’s will for me to spend a lot of time in those mountains, then I’ll be there. No matter what, though, this has changed me and changed me in the best ways possible.”

 

Randolph’s fervor in his Faith led me to ask a question. And it was one that caused him to pause, smile and get a little misty eyed.

 

Would he change what has happened if he could?

 

“If you said ‘Gene, you have a chance to get your stomach and activity levels back to normal, run some 5Ks and not worry about streamlining your diet. What do you have to say to that proposal?’ If given that option, I don’t think I would say yes,” he said. “It’s not about cancer. It’s about my Faith now and being able to have the opportunities now to live a better life the way I should have lived life all along. Maybe that’s hard to understand, but I mean that. I hope others understand.”

 

They do. All they have to do to understand it is have a little bit of faith.

 

Get well, Coach. We’ll keep the faith with you.

 

Editor’s Note: Gene Randolph wanted to thank his wife Claudia, Father Tim Grassi and Father Casey Mahone, and the Sisters at Immaculate Conception Church, his caregivers at Ruby Memorial and Mary Babb, UHC, and Mon General and others, especially his primary care provider Dr. Casey Fryer. Top photo shows Gene Randolph today, while bottom photos are of Randolph during his time coaching the Indians. In the photos, at the top is Gene Randolph today as he battles cancer back, while he's shown as his animated self on the BHS sidelines. In the third photo, he addresses one of his favorite players, Tyler Sprouse, during a break in the action, while he breaks down during the press conference after his final game as a coach in the state tournament. In the fifth photo, Randolph takes in the action from a familiar perspective and is joined by his assistant and current head coach Mike Robey, left, and RCB Coach Bill Bennett prior to a game in 2012. In the sixth photo, Randolph is shown being honored by the WVSSAC for his many years of service. And in the bottom photo, Randolph is in his comfort zone among his players working and "strategerizing" as he would say, with Robey. Action photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.