Louisiana head softball coach Michael Lotief and head women's basketball coach Garry Brodhead recently finished a video that they did with the American Cancer Society, to help promote a golf tournament fundraiser.

Cancer has probably affected everyone reading this, in some way, and Lotief and Brodhead are no different.

Lotief, who has an .800 career winning percentage in 13 seasons at the helm of the UL softball program, the highest winning percentage among active head coaches, was diagnosed with cancer in 1983, when he was a freshman in college.

That certainly didn't stop Lotief, who has guided the Cajuns to 13 NCAA Regional appearances, along with seven NCAA Super Regional appearances, and three trips to the Women's College World Series.

Just recently, Lotief was announced as the winner of the 2016 Donna Newberry "Perseverance" Award, recognizing an NFCA member coach who has demonstrated extraordinary strength of will and character in the fight to overcome a physical, mental or social adversity that presented an additional challenge to the already demanding job of a coach. The award was created in honor of longtime Muskingum College coach and 2008 NFCA Hall of Fame inductee Donna Newberry, who died in November 2010 following a battle with breast cancer.

Lotief, despite severe throat infections over the last two years, which required him have numerous treatments, and forced him to wear a backpack in part of the 2015 season, so he could get his required nutrition, still helped guide the Cajuns to back-to-back Super Regional appearances, giving them 5-consecutive Super Regional appearances, including 6 in the last 7 seasons.

Brodhead, who helped turned the fortunes of the UL women's basketball program around, guiding them to back-to-back Women's Basketball Invitational National Championships, lost his wife of 38 years, Andrea, to cancer in September of last year.

Now, Andrea may not have any career college victories next to her name, and she may not have been named the LSWA Coach of the Year, like Garry, but she had a tremendous impact of the program herself, the driving force behind the scenes of the Acadiana Stars AAU basketball organization and Lafayette’s biddy basketball program, two programs that helped shape girls basketball in the state of Louisiana.

It's also two programs that helped produce so many outstanding college players, including Keke Veal, Kia Wilridge, and Jodi Quinn, who helped UL to those back-to-back national crowns.

The American Cancer Society's Fore A Cure gold event is scheduled for October 6-7 at Koasati Pines at Grand Casino Coushatta.

For more information, to register, or to donate, click here.

 

More From 103.3 The GOAT