It wasn’t bad news, necessarily, but Beard could not return to work until they analyzed the results. He went on disability leave and has not worked since. In the spring of 2009, Beard, then 51, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease or ALS, it is a progressive motor neuron disease. As time wears on, people with ALS lose muscle control. Some become paralyzed. Some can live three to five years after their diagnosis, but there is no cure.
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“I didn’t want anybody feeling sorry for me,” Beard says with a slight southern drawl on an early August afternoon. “I just kept living the best life I could.” So Beard kept coaching. McIntosh turned into a state power. The Chiefs won five area championships and were state runners-up in 2012 and 2013. “Mickey is a mastermind,” says Gwen Thibadeau, McIntosh’s head coach the last two seasons. “If he says something, you’ve got to listen to him because if you don’t, you’re going to screw up.” At halftime during one game, Beard pulled Caitlin O’Brien, who struggled with confidence, off to the side to tell her she would start the second half and he knew she would make something happen. “Mickey, I don’t know,” she replied. “I just don’t know that I’m going to be able to do that for you.” Moments into the second half, O’Brien assisted on a goal and then came out of the game. “That’s it,” Beard told her. “That’s all I wanted from you. That’s all you needed to do.” “That’s when I realized how much confidence he had in me and how much he believed in what I could do,” says O’Brien, who now plays at Piedmont College. Beard’s ALS has limited what he can do at McIntosh. He has gone from using a cane to riding in a golf cart to, now, a motorized scooter. He relies on other coaches or O’Brien’s dad to drive him to team functions. He’ll stay home if it’s too rainy or chilly. When he can attend, he’s parked on the sideline, watching, offering tips and telling the girls to stop gawking at the boys’ soccer team on the next field. He bundles up with coats when it gets cold and ties blankets around his feet. He needs help zipping his coat to his chin and putting on gloves. “It breaks your heart to see a man who can’t even put his glasses on by himself,” Thibadeau says. The Chiefs started a tradition of wearing a red shoelace or sock on their left foot, red being the color associated with ALS and the left foot being closer to the heart. In the last three years, they have raised nearly $30,000 for ALS with skate nights at a local rink and selling T-shirts, bracelets and cupcakes. In September 2012 at Shakerag Knoll at the Amphitheater in Peachtree City, the girls organized
50 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » october 2014 A Publication of US Lacrosse
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