Kyle Conrad: ‘I’m not going to stop living life’

Kyle Conrad wishes you weren’t reading this story.

He’d prefer not to be the focus of it. He’d rather remain on the sidelines, off center stage, the way he does during Gov. Mifflin basketball games.

He’d sooner ask how you’re doing, or about your mom, or your wife and kids, than have people ask him how he’s been dealing with esophageal cancer for the past three years.

The 38-year-old Mustangs coach would rather help raise money for someone else in need than to be the focus of a fund-raising event next month. It’s his nature to carry the load, not be helped along the way.

That’s the way he was as a 1,000-point scorer at Mifflin some 20 years ago; that’s the way he was as a college freshman in 2002, helped Elizabethtown College reach the NCAA Division III championship game.

Gritty. Determined. Head down and focused on the task at hand.

He has continued to do that for the past three basketball seasons, trying his best not to let his health issues take away from helping the Mustangs get better each day.

Many times that’s meant a morning trip to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for chemotherapy treatments, then back to Pennsylvania for a game or practice that evening.

Sixteen-hour days, some of them, the last few hours spent dealing with the likes of Stevie Mitchell or Ruben Rodriguez and Reading High’s state championship team.

Basketball season is a grind to begin with. Coaching in Division I of the Berks Conference against Reading High, Wilson, Exeter, Berks Catholic? It can seem unrelenting.

It will tax the soul of the strongest. Try running that gauntlet while undergoing cancer treatments.

“Pretty remarkable,” says Mifflin assistant coach Shawn Overley.

He and others tried to talk Conrad out of it last summer. They saw him coaching Mifflin’s team in the West Reading Summer League. Cancer treatment had taxed him physically; he looked drawn and tired. They couldn’t imagine how he could possibly make it through a full season come winter.

“Do you think you can do this?” they asked.

It took longer to ask the question than it did to receive the answer they knew was coming.

No matter how difficult it has become to manage, Conrad couldn’t, wouldn’t, entertain the thought of stepping away from basketball. The sport is his lifeblood. He’s been part of the Mifflin program since he was a ball boy 30 years ago. It’s part of the deep connection he shares with his late father, Curt, who also played at Mifflin, and with his sons, 9-year-old Logan and 5-year-old Carson.

Since he became ill early in 2019, basketball has been as much a part of his treatment as the fluids injected into his veins or the pills he swallows to combat the growth of the cancer attacking his core.

“Coaching invigorates me, and gives me energy and purpose,” Conrad said. “As long as I feel well enough to do it, I’m gonna do it. It’s something I love. Just because I have an illness, I don’t feel that should mean you stop doing things you enjoy or stop living life.”

Conrad was first diagnosed with esophageal cancer in March 2019, shortly after his first season as Mustangs head coach ended. He went through rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. In August he underwent surgery to have a cancerous mass removed. A couple months later he was back running basketball practice.

Conrad Family Fundraising Dinner

April 12: Wyomissing Restaurant & Bakery, 4-8 p.m.

Cost: $20 for buffet style dinner

Tickets: Contact Tom Minick: 484-794-1993

or Thomas.Minick@Alvernia.Edu

As the months passed and he began to feel better Conrad thought he had beaten this thing. For months and months, as regular scans came back clean, he thought he had recorded his biggest ‘W.’

“Everything looked good,” he said. “It was almost two years of smooth sailing. I felt like it was behind us.”

It wasn’t. Last year, late in the season, he began to feel abdominal pain. A CT scan in March 2021 revealed the cancer had returned. He resumed visits to Johns Hopkins. He took immunotherapy infusions and chemotherapy pills throughout the 2021-22 season.

He never missed a game. He never missed a practice. Not one.

Gov. Mifflin athletic director Pat Tulley, like others who know Conrad, is not surprised by that.

“That’s Kyle,” Tulley said. “He wants to be there, and he’s been there. He just continues to do what he does.”

The second round of treatments seemed to hold the cancer at bay throughout the 2021-22 season, but shortly after it ended a CT scan revealed it was spreading again. A new, more expansive approach is now planned. In addition to standard treatment approaches Conrad and his wife Lauren are considering other options not covered by medical insurance.

That’s where the fund-raiser, April 12 at the Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery, comes into play. Owner Hamid Chaudhry is donating all the food and covering all the costs. All proceeds will go toward Conrad’s medical expenses.

“We’re committed to doing whatever we have to do to eradicate it and live – that’s the goal,” said Conrad. “We’re not getting too down. We’re staying positive, staying determined and strong. It’s not easy every day, but I have a tremendous amount of support and love. That’s uplifting. It’s encouraging and humbling, and I really appreciate that support.”

Conrad prefers not to talk about his condition. He has informed his players, to keep them in the loop. They are part of his basketball family, after all. If anything, he hopes to teach them that a critical part of life is how you respond to challenges.

His determination and perseverance has not been lost on them.

Tyler Minick, a junior who has a baseball scholarship to the University of Connecticut, continues to play basketball at Mifflin even though it conflicts with his offseason baseball training. Like his coach, he is determined to stay the course.

“Coach Conrad is the reason I play (basketball),” Minick said. “One-thousand percent. He’s not only fighting for his life, but he’s fighting for us. It’s really inspiring to see a guy like that do what he does.”