Ed Thomas Coach of the week: Donna Fiscus from BCLUW

CONRAD, Iowa — In high school, Donna Fiscus would never have seen herself as a cross country coach: “I hated every second of it… I did run, but I became a track manager.”

That changed when Donna’s daughter Jill wanted to join the BCLUW cross country team as an 8th grader. “She came home and said, ‘Mom, I want to try cross country. And you have to coach.’ I had never been to a cross country meet, so I bought a book, Running for Dummies. I want to go into it so blind, but I did it for my daughter because she wanted to try running.

But not long into Jill’s second season, unusual behavior led to a parent’s worst nightmare. “She wants to play basketball and we got a call from the coach saying Jill was breaking down a lot. They did an x-ray and the doctor said she had a tumor in her brain stem. We were in shock. were sent by ambulance to Mayo Clinic. They did a biopsy to see if it was cancer, and it was. So for 14 months we really had to help her. She made it 14 months, was the strongest person I ever knew died 14 months later”.

Jill Fiscus died in January 2003. She was 17. As her family and community struggled with a life lost to cancer, Donna knew she had to remain the school’s cross country coach because of a promise she made to her daughter. “The night before she went into a coma, she said, ‘You have to keep coaching. These kids need to know that God gave them these bodies. And they need to use them. Don’t let them forget that.’ and don’t let them forget me… you promise me you can’t stop’.

That has been Donna’s drive for 26 years. But not just hers. Every runner who participates under Donna has done their own part to keep Jill’s memory alive. Donna recalls, “She had a saying that I discovered after she passed away: ‘Once your head and heart are turned in the right direction, you’ll never forget your feet.’ So the kids started putting an H in a heart.” .

BCLUW senior Jacob Castell says, “It feels like every time we run it’s an extra support system. Whether it’s in practice or during a game, it’s one more person looking down and saying, ‘Hey, you gets it’.”

Fellow senior Abby Kemp added, “We have the gift of being able to run at all. It really motivates us, and it’s inspiring to know how much she’s been through and how hard she’s still fought.”

This year, Donna’s coaching journey has taken an ironic turn. She is now the one helping guide two of her runners, whose mothers are fighting their own battles with cancer. One of those seniors is Abby Kemp, who says, “I’m really going to try to use it to push and motivate myself.”

Donna says, “These two girls, what they’ve been through… I feel for them and I wish I could do more than pray for them and remind them that I’m there for them. I had a coach He was there for me in difficult times, and I always want to be that coach.”

26 years in the making. In a way, this is the moment Donna Fiscus was built for. And it’s exactly how she hopes to be remembered. “There’s no reason why I should have to coach cross country. I’ve always said it was part of God’s plan to get my daughter to love running – to have my daughter take me to cross country. I truly believe it was meant to be that I was like that.” My mission in life.”