North Country winters are long enough, but retired OFA basketball coach Bill Merna might be a poster child for cabin fever.
He can’t go to Kiwanis meetings, he skipped the reenactment of the Battle of Ogdensburg, and stepped back from his duties as Section X basketball coordinator.
Such is life one month after undergoing a quadruple heart bypass at St. Joseph’s Health Hospital in Syracuse. The 76-year-old has been recovering at home with strict orders not to drive until six weeks have elapsed.
Merna prefers to call his recovery “reorientation.’’
“I had a friend whose father went though this and he said his dad went through depression,’’ Merna said. “I’m not depressed, but I have been at loose ends. Usually, you get up and you have things to do everyday. Then one day you wake up and you have nothing. It makes you examine your purpose.’’
Merna’s life always has been busy, and dominated by basketball. During his senior high school season, his Utica Notre Dame team went undefeated. He played four seasons under coaches Lou LaGrand and Jerry Welsh at Potsdam State as a 6-foot-2, 170-pound forward and team captain, earning induction into the Bears Hall of Fame in 1987. With brief stints at Hermon-DeKalb and Hammond, he compiled a 574-259 record over 37 high school seasons. His OFA teams won 16 Section X championships and eight overall Section X titles with four trips to the state’s Final Four and one state championship game appearance.
Off the court, he started the Section X Boys All-Northern Academic Awards, has been a member of the Basketball Coaches Association of New York (BCANY) for 30 years, and was inducted into the NYS Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
When he wasn’t working summer basketball camps, he taught history at OFA and raised four children with Dawn, his wife of 46 years.
Merna’s ordeal began when his doctor, Tracy LaFlair, diagnosed calcification around his heart arteries. The doctor was keeping a close watch on his condition before she retired.
During a visit with physician’s assistant Allison Felt, she suggested a stress test, but Merna didn’t want to impose on her time and endure the commotion.
Before he left the examination room, Felt returned. She told Merna “at your age, you probably should have a stress test. I tried to walk out of the room, but she returned and said, ‘You should have a stress test.’ ’’
“I had noticed nothing,’’ Merna said. “I had no symptoms.’’
He endured some delays, but by Feb. 6 was at St. Joseph’s preparing for a heart catheterization. During a four-hour, open heart surgery, a closer examination by his surgeon meant Merna would require three bypasses. Then a fourth site was discovered. The surgeon wrapped his descending aorta in a protective sheath to prevent an aneurysm. The first thing Merna recalled after coming out of the anesthesia was the pain in his legs; the surgeon harvested two veins for transplants.
Four days later, he was back in Ogdensburg. His best therapy came from a swell of cards, letters and Facebook messages from former players and friends. Merna heard from former Tupper Lake basketball coach Steve Skiff who greeted him with “welcome to the zipper club.’’ He was contacted by OFA Hall of Fame member Tom Lightfoot. He reveled in a home visit from two old friends, former SUNY Canton business instructor and proprietor of the Hoot Owl, Dan Fay, and longtime friend and coaching rival Jerry Hourihan of Canton.
During his recovery, Merna is reaping the blessings of nine grandchildren.
“It’s great to have the kids come up and have the kids bring their babies,’’ Merna said. “The silver lining of this whole thing is having extra time with the kids.’’
He has savored visits with his son, Colin, from suburban Rochester, who stopped for a few days on his way to a business appointment in Plattsburgh. His son Brendan just welcomed another child. Daughter Caitlin visited from Buffalo with her newborn, her fourth child. And Mairin and her daughter live in Ogdensburg.
“I think that when you go through something like this,’’ said Colin, “you start to hear from other people who share support by explaining how they or loved ones have gone through similar events. Sometimes you won’t learn how many people go through the same things until you do so yourself. It’s a good reminder that most people you know have passed through tough times.’’
Merna is itching to resume his routines, but feels fortunate.
“If I put off that stress test, who knows what might have happened. Maybe I wouldn’t be here. I am very thankful.’’
Morristown native Jim Holleran is a retired teacher and sports editor from Rochester. Reach him at jimholleran29@gmail.com or view past columns under “Reflections of River Rat’’ at https://hollerangetsitwrite.com/blog/
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