ST. LOUIS — We spend a lot of time in this business talking about base hits, touchdowns and goals. But right now, we are talking about life, death and maybe a miracle.
Dan Rolfes' father at 72, his grandfather at 45 and his uncle at 52 all died of heart attacks. Perhaps the Hall of Fame Incarnate Word coach could have also, but maybe God had other plans.
"Not screaming in pain but just more talking about how he was in pain and then next thing you know," Kate Rolfes said. "It just gets silent and then I look over and he is actually collapsed on me."
"The loudest scream from Kate. Just yelling, 'Dad, dad,'" Lisa Rolfes said.
"Just didn't seem real," Katie said. "I was like, 'Is this real? Like, just pinch me. Like, this isn't real.'
"It's a scream I never want to hear again. It was awful," Lisa said.
For 30 minutes, in a parking lot very close to the Mizzou Arena, Dan's wife, Lisa, a nurse for 30 years, and paramedics performed CPR on Dan.
"It's the weirdest thing, like never once did I think, 'Oh my gosh, I'm doing CPR on Dan,' I just immediately, I don't know, my body just kicked in," Lisa said.
"Lisa saved my life in more ways than you can imagine. You know, from first giving me CPR immediately, which, you know, saved my life," Dan said.
Rolfes, 52, is perhaps the most successful high school basetkball coach in Missouri history—13 state titles, 131 wins in a row and his career record is a staggering 702-86.
Nearly every big-time college coach has come to recruit his players, including Geno Auriemma from the University of Connecticut.
Rolfes' preseason speech is usually the same: "All I ask you to do is to come here and get after every day, every day."
And his midseason speech is also usually the same: "I just think we're hovering that good right now. You guys feel me a little bit, all right? And I think we have so much more potential to be great."
That statement was made when Incarnate Word was riding a 116-game winning streak. And shortly afterward, the team beat St. Joseph's Academy by 43 points.
On March 15, his team just beat Columbia Rockbridge by 24 in the state semifinal game.
"I don't remember anything that day. I barely remember anything that Friday night. And I barely remember anything Thursday," Dan said.
Dan's family remembers every detail.
His daughter, Kate, 21, was there to see, and Grace and Jake, 23 and 26 respectively, were driving to Columbia, where things looked bleak at University Hospital.
Dan went through another 50 minutes of CPR, where he was shocked more than 30 times, which produced only an occasional 20 seconds worth of a pulse.
"One of the nurses came out and said, 'OK, it's been 15 minutes, would you like to come in and see him and see that we're doing everything we can (and) that we're exhausting every effort?'" Lisa said.
"Of course, I believe that they were doing everything and she said, 'We're running out of options. What do you want to do?' And I think I looked at my daughter Kate and said, 'Go back in there and work on him.'"
Dr. Amanda Verma is a Washington University cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She is Dan's doctor now and explained exactly what happened during his cardiac arrest while pointing to X-rays on a screen.
"So this is the left anterior descending artery, also called the Widowmaker. So it supplies the majority of blood to the heart muscle," Verma said. "There should be a nice long vessel with branches that are coming here ... so that's his major blockage that's causing the heart attack."
"But they kept reminding us over and over again that he's the sickest person in the hospital. He's one of the sickest people we've ever seen. And they kept telling us that over and over again, and we're just holding on to any hope. ... Is there anything positive we can hold on to? And they would just say, 'No, right now, it really, really looks bad,'" Lisa said.
Dan also suffered kidney failure and an injury to his liver from the CPR.
"Somebody has a cardiac arrest, and they do not have a heartbeat for more than 15 minutes or so. We see that the oxygen in their brain decreases and that can cause permanent ... defects," Verma said.
At Incarnate Word, prayer vigils were happening. Coach Dan woke up with his mind intact, and fittingly, it was a basketball-related moment.
"He was still talking a little bit, and I just wanted to talk to him forever about everything. And I could tell he was still really out of it. But I'm like, 'All right, March Madness is around the corner, and like, let's just make a women's bracket.' So we legit started making a women's basketball March Madness bracket. And then that's when I knew, OK, dad, like dad is still a miracle and still with us, which is incredible," Kate said.
"This is the outcome that we want to see for all of our patients, but we hardly get to see. And so it's very rewarding to see this, and it's a miracle," Verma said.
After 28 days in two different hospitals, Dan is back home now. He's allowed to walk and knows he has a long road ahead. And he will do it with a different outlook on life.
"When something like this happens, like the real meanings in your life, come out of your family, your friends (and) the people who you know are going to reach out and take care of you. Those things come to light," Dan said.
"It's the weirdest thing ... you go through the why, you know first you're like, 'Why us, why does he have a heart attack?' You see all these people who smoke and drink who may be overweight, unhealthy people. And, you know, here's Dan, who's active and dedicates his whole life to coach and basketball and youth and kids," Lisa said.
"And you get so angry, and we were so angry at times, like, 'How does this happen to us?' And then now it's the other way around we're like, 'Why us? How are we so lucky that we still have him here and other people aren't so lucky?'"
Dan and his family rewatched the state championship game, a game he had never seen until that day. And a few weeks ago, he went back to Incarnate Word to finally visit with his team.
Although there is still much work to be done as he recovers, he has his family life back.
And in terms of his career? Does he think he'll be on the sidelines next year?
"Absolutely. No hesitation. I mean, as long as the doctors are going to allow me to coach and feel like it's safe and it's what I do," Dan said.
Dan Rolfes' career has been amazing and his life story is now miraculous.
"I wonder like, 'Why?' and, 'Why me?' and like, 'OK, I'm back. What am I supposed to do? Like why? What's the purpose for him having me around?' So I'm just kind of searching for that purpose. And I know it's early on, but I just feel like there's got to be a reason that God let me live that day," Dan said.
Dan had to be hospitalized last Tuesday for chest pains. He stayed for a day and went home. He's also undergoing dialysis two times a week, and he will have a procedure this Tuesday to correct another blockage.
Want more local sports delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the 5 On Your Side Sports Plus newsletter.