THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, February 12, 2015

Leave it to an educator to take a potential life-altering moment and turn it into a teaching moment.

Lakeland High assistant girls basketball coach Deana Lange went in for a routine mammogram last fall.

In early December, she received the jolting news - breast cancer.

"It was a shock; you don't really know what to think," Lange said the other day. "And then, not knowing how much it was going to affect things (coaching)."

She said the plan is to first treat it with chemotherapy - her fourth round of chemo is this week. That will be followed by 12 more weeks, lasting into May, followed by surgery sometime in June.

"Minus my hair falling out, I've been lucky and haven't been too affected by it," Lange said. "Basketball wise, I missed a couple of things in December."

LAKELAND's SEASON ended Monday with a loss to Moscow at the 4A Region 1 tournament. Lange has been Lakeland girls assistant coach, the past 21 seasons - the last 20 assisting Steve Seymour, the head coach.

Rather than hide from it, Lange talked to the Lakeland players about her situation.

"She's definitely brave, and the kids know it's OK to be scared, and nervous," Seymour said. "But ... she's obviously going to beat this.

"Now, these kids know that it's important to take care of yourself, and important to know that we know somebody that took care of this, and beat this.

"You don't want to diminish it; it's a scary, horrible thing. Prognosis is good ... she doesn't want anyone's sympathy."

Lange remembers the early doctors appointments, and the recommendations - you can't do this, you're going to be sick, you probably shouldn't teach, you probably shouldn't be around your basketball team.

"I don't want to sit home, and I don't want to instantly take three months off of work," said Lange, a 1988 graduate of Timberline High in Weippe. "I take a day off on my chemo day, just because of the amount of time it takes. But other than that, the sitting around feeling sorry for yourself is not good for me to do.

"And being around the kids, that helps, because you forget about your crap because you're dealing with their crap."

LAST MONTH, Lakeland played a game at Timberlake. One of the referees was Bill Bopp, one of the top refs in the state, but also known as someone who can diffuse a situation with a smile and/or a wisecrack.

"It was funny because I hadn't seen anybody in a while - what kind of comment is he going to make," Lange recalled. "We see him at Timberlake, and I knew he was going to come over and say something about me wearing this dorky hat.

"I told him it's not because I'm trying to be trendy, and look fashionable tonight, it's because I don't have any $%$#@#$ hair.

"It was probably the only time I've been around Billy that he didn't say much," Lange remembered. "I guess if there's a positive to this, it was I didn't have to listen to one of Billy's bad jokes."

Lange said she has no desire to take over as head coach when Seymour leaves.

"No. No, no, no," she said. "When he's done, I'm done."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.