SZVETITZ COLUMN: Faith keeps Quick afloat in cancer battle

The news spread fast and hit hard.

Really hard.

Just days before Christmas, Auburn’s head swimming coach Richard Quick found out he has an inoperable cancerous brain tumor.

Just days after, Brett Hawke, the assistant men’s coach, had to break the news to the team.

“It was tough,” said Hawke, who is now the interim head men’s coach while Quick battles the disease. Dorsey Tierney-Walker has taken over the women’s program in the interim, as well. “I gathered them all together on the first day of our Christmas training,” Hawke continued, “which is supposed to be an invigorating day where you get them all pumped up to train, and told them the news.”

Most already knew. But it still wasn’t any easier to take.

“When your leader goes down, everyone takes it hard,” Hawke said.

Everyone, it seems, except for Quick.

“I feel great,” he said Thursday on the pool deck during Auburn’s home meet against Texas — a dual meet in which both the Texas men’s and women’s teams won.

“If I didn’t know something was the matter, I wouldn’t know something’s the matter.”

Positive. Upbeat.

“It’s been tough on everybody,” Auburn swimmer and Australian Olympic medalist Matt Targett said. “The strongest person in all of this has been Richard.”

That’s just the way Quick is. The way he’s always been.

Strong. Very strong.

Even when he found out — which was at a doctor’s visit he originally scheduled to get tested for Alzheimer’s disease after he got lost on his way home one evening, which was the final straw in six weeks of what he calls “a fog.”

Even when he was tested. Even with that 2-inch gash on the right side of his head — a lasting scar from a biopsy. Even through the fog. Even through the short-term memory loss. Even through the revamped eating schedule in which he has to consume something every two hours to keep his strength. Even through the possibility of death.

“It’s one of those challenges in life that the best thing to do is to take it head on and win it,” Quick said. “And that’s what I intend to do.”

A winner.

“God didn’t make me a competitor to sit on the sidelines.”

Amen.

God also didn’t make him a pessimist. Or a loser.

Quick, 65, who came back to Auburn after a five-year stint from 1978-82 to take over for David Marsh in 2007, has conquered the world of collegiate swimming.

His contributions and leadership in and to the sport has been felt at almost any place you can smell chlorine. The veteran coach, who has won 12 NCAA Championships — five at Texas and seven at Stanford — is a legend across the globe.

Even in Guam.

Marsh answered his cell phone just after 4 a.m. in a hotel room on the other side of the world Thursday — well, actually Friday — where he’s attending the Junior Pan Pacific Championships.

When asked about what Quick means to the swimming world, Marsh, voice still drowsy from struggling with the time change (and it being 4 a.m.) couldn’t say enough.

“The swimming world is devastated,” said Marsh, who is now the head of the Mecklenburg (Charlotte, N.C.) Aquatic Club. “While I’ve been here, I’ve had two coaches from Australia come up to me and ask about Richard and for his number.

“He’s touched so many lives and has been a great inspiration to so many swimmers and coaches throughout his career.”

And that was before he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Since, Quick’s been even more of a motivator.

“The way he’s handling this is really a life lesson for some of these kids,” said Hawke, who took the team over to Quick’s house on New Year’s Eve so they could spend some time with their head coach. “Richard is the rock of this program. Everyone looks at him as its leader.”

And Quick is still leading, even though it’s not actively on the pool deck.

A strong Christian, Quick has clung to his faith — and his family and friends — through this ordeal. “The best medicine,” as he calls it.

He knows that this is all part of God’s plan. A plan that he will see to its fruition … regardless of the outcome.

“My faith is the cornerstone of which I’m basing every decision, every thought, everything I’m doing,” Quick said. “What I said to myself is, ‘I’m going to put this in the hands of God.’

“His light is the light I’m sending in and the light I’m going toward.”

And people are following.

“I’m so proud of the way Richard’s dealt with everything,” Marsh said. “As a Christian, he’s living proof of how to hold on to your faith through even the most trying times.”

An inspiration.

“I said to myself, ‘If anybody can face this thing with the mental and physical fortitude, it’s Richard Quick,’” Tierney-Walker said.

And his swimmers have responded.

After breaking the news to the team, Hawke and Tierney-Walker asked them what they wanted to do.

First, they decided as a team to not go down to Florida, as is the yearly tradition during Christmas break, to train. They wanted to be around for Quick and his family. For support.

Then, after taking a morning session off, they returned to the pool

“They took that morning off to deal with everything,” Hawke said. “Then they came back in the evening and had the best practice of the year.

“They responded in such an incredible way. Just the respect that everyone has for him, they want to show that respect by training and competing hard.”

Just like winners.

Just like their head coach.

NOTE: A prayer pager has been set up for Richard Quick. Anytime someone says a prayer for him, they can call and a Quick will receive a page. The number is (334) 742-5224.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at or 737-2513.

Read Mike Szvetitz’s blog here.