Cancer linked to seizures

Southern Illinois football coach Jerry Kill said Tuesday he had a cancerous tumor removed from one of his kidneys last month, having opted to wait a couple of months to have the operation until after the Salukis' season was over.Kill, 44, said he expects a full recovery and that doctors have found no evidence the cancer had spread.

"I'm doing fine," said Kill, whose cancer was first reported Tuesday by the Southern Illinoisan newspaper in Carbondale, home of the Salukis. Cancer "is just an obstacle that's come up, and now I have to overcome it."Kill, who told the Salukis of the cancer last week, said doctors have been scrutinizing whether the cancer was linked to a series of seizures Kill weathered last fall, including one on the sidelines in the waning seconds of an Oct. 15 home loss to Illinois State.

"There's a possibility" the medical issues are related, Kill said.At that time, the university attributed the seizures to an unspecified condition that occasionally manifested itself with such episodes but was not considered life-threatening.But on Tuesday, Kill said that while undergoing tests after the seizures, doctors uncovered the kidney problem not long after the Salukis notched their biggest victory of last season, knocking off Western Kentucky -- then Division I-AA's top-ranked team -- on the road Oct. 27.After that, "I coached a good six games thinking I had cancer," Kill said, ultimately deciding to put off addressing it because "we were in the heat of battle, in the heat of a playoff run. It kept my mind off it."

Paul Kowalczyk, the Salukis' athletics director, said Tuesday that Kill apprised him of the diagnosis from the outset, adding, "It was not something he wanted to make public because it would become too much of a distraction.""He knew he had a window to work with," Kowalczyk said. "It's his body, his issue, and I've respected that. With anything else Jerry's taken on, I have all the confidence he'll win this, too."The Salukis' season ended Dec. 3 with a loss to Appalachian State in the quarterfinals of the Division I-AA playoffs.

Kill had the cancer surgery about a month later, spending a few days in the hospital before he resumed recruiting.About 102,000 people worldwide die from kidney cancer every year. In the U.S., about 32,000 people are diagnosed each year with the disease, which accounts for 3 percent of all adult cancers and occurs most often in people aged 50 to 70, twice as often in men than in women.On Tuesday, Kill was back in the office, arriving in time for 6 a.m. workouts and planning to head home 12 hours later.

"I really haven't had any recovery time," Kill said as he continued preparing for spring drills that begin March 29. "I'm still swelling and a little sore. But I'm not one to sit around. The busier you stay, the less your mind worries about something you can't control."While saying "I'm going to have to find a way to pace myself a little better," Kill said he plans to press on as the same gung-ho coach broadly credited with resurrecting a Saluki program that last season -- his sixth at Southern -- won its third-straight Gateway Conference title and Southern's first I-AA playoff game in 22 years.Medical issues have never slowed Kill.

A day after being released from the hospital after last October's sideline seizure, Kill was on the sidelines but largely an adviser when the Salukis beat Indiana State. Kill also had a seizure in November 2001 shortly after the Salukis lost to then-Southwest Missouri State, and he returned to coach the next week."I've been firmly committed to SIU, and I've given every ounce to SIU and its football program. I will continue to do that," he said.

"Am I a little slower and at a different pace right now? Yeah. But I can be right now."He expects to use the cancer as a motivator."When I tell the players, 'Hey, you've got to suck it up. Life's not always fair, and you've got to battle through adversity,' they can look at me and know," he said.