Mick Cronin has no closer confidant than his father, Hep. Hep, a legendary high school coach, sits behind the UC bench home or away. He attends practice.
So Mick’s health scare hit him hard.
“It was tough,” Hep said. “With the head, you just don’t know. You hear the the word aneurysm. Then they change to another word, but it really was a small aneurysm. It’s just scary. People drop dead on golf courses, in their driveways and they’re 35-year-olds. It’s just scary.
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“Both doctors said it was going to work out. If he does what we tell him to do for three months, he’ll be all right. I never heard it of it. I said, 'What about when he starts acting the same way, doing the same things?’ They said that has nothing to do with it.”
With that Hep shows he hasn’t lost his sense of humor. He can laugh now about a meeting with the doctors.
“The good part and the bad part of the whole thing was I was sitting over in that chair and Mick said: ‘Why did it happen?’” Hep said. “They both turned, both great surgeons and pointed at me. They both went: “'DNA.' They threw me right under the bus.”
As a former coach, Hep knows the value of having a team than brings less stress, i.e., a good team.
“He’s doing fine,” Hep said. “It helps to have a good team. It helps to have veterans back and good kids, too. We don’t have anyone moaning and groaning about their playing time.”
