The gym comes alive, buzzing with the energy and
expectations of postseason high school basketball, and Patrick Behan is ready. He looks strong and sturdy in his red St. John’s College High pullover with the collar up. His hair is gelled and combed, styled just right by his girlfriend. A Maryland Terrapins tumbler filled with ice water, also courtesy of his girlfriend, is between his seat and assistant coach Pat O’Connor’s.
Before tip-off, starters from Jackson-Reed, the night’s opponent in this DCSAA Class AA boys’ semifinal, are
introduced and jog onto the McDonough Arena court. Behan waits near the half-court line near the scorers’ table. He lifts his right hand around waist-high and, as much as he can, balls it into a fist.
This moment, on a Friday night in a deafening gymnasium, is all that matters. Not anything that comes next. Not his Cadets falling into a double-digit deficit or his players leaving the court with their shoulders slumped after a wrenching loss. Not his chest muscles deteriorating every month
he lives with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or his arms and legs weakening over the course of the season. And not this disease taking whatever it wants. Right now, all that’s on his mind is executing this next task: offering a fist bump because that’s what a coach does.
“He’s here, and he’s still fighting, and he’s still coaching,” Nataly Johanson, Behan’s longtime girlfriend, says as she watches the game from the second row behind the St. John’s bench. “And he will continue to do
so as long as he can...read more
