For IU volleyball coach Steve Aird, the fight against breast cancer is personal

BLOOMINGTON – It's obvious Indiana volleyball coach Steve Aird is grateful for the life he has.

He’ll remind you to live every day like it’s your last. He’ll remind you to be grateful for what you have. He’ll encourage you to go on that trip that has been on your bucket list for years.

He says that’s just how he’s wired, but it comes from a life that’s reminded him on various occasions that tomorrow isn’t promised.

That's why Indiana's volleyball team wore pink this past weekend. The battle against cancer — and breast cancer, in particular — is personal for Aird.

When he was in high school, his father David was diagnosed with colon cancer. It came at a time in Aird's life when he was just getting into playing volleyball, and it left him wondering what would happen next.

“It’s different when you’re a kid in high school, the concept of not having a mom or a dad,” Steve Aird said. “Putting it in perspective, that probably — early in my high school career — was some of the planting the seeds of being grateful.”

When Steve Aird’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer less than five years ago, it served as a wake-up call to live life to its fullest.

It was hard and scary, but Steve Aird had the right mentality and his mom had the toughness to encourage him all would be well.

His mother Julia is one of seven children. Two of her sisters were lost at birth, so she grew up with four Irish brothers that Steve Aird says were “always into something.”

“Her level of toughness to me was never really questioned,” Aird said. “Sometimes when the person has it, it gives you a lot of strength because they feel like they’re gonna beat it.”

As a first-born child, Aird feels his relationship with his mom is special. Now with three kids of his own, he strives to make sure both his parents can see their grandchildren as much as possible — even if they still live in the Toronto area.

“I want Mother’s Day to be every day,” he said. “Especially when you think you might lose her.”

Aird speaks very fondly of the health care system in Canada and the care his momreceived, whether it was from doctors, the support staff, people driving her to and from clinics or the care provided from a mental health perspective.

Both of his parents were able to battle through, and he praises his mom for being able to catch the cancer early on.

She continues to be an advocate for frequent screenings and making sure other women are aware of ease of taking such a crucial test.

“If you can catch stuff early enough, there’s a shot,” Steve Aird said. “It’s a quick enough procedure, and it can be life or death. It’s something that my mom made it a point.”

Julia Aird's diagnosis wasn't Steve Aird's first brush with breast cancer.

He spent his playing days at Penn State where he also began his coaching career with the women’s program. After being on staff for the 2007 championship season, Aird and his wife, Brandy, moved to California.

Eventually Penn State head coach Russ Rose asked Steve to come back as an assistant while Rose's wife, Lori, battled with breast cancer.

“Many, many years of my life were spent there around that family and that program,” Aird said. “It was formative.”

Aird praises Rose, who has been coaching at Penn State fore more than 40 years, as a mentor and, at times, a second father.

“Russ is the best professional I’ve ever been around in my life in terms of how hard he works,” Aird said. “He’s a model of how they dealt with it.”

Now after having dealt with the disease in his own life, Aird hopes to use his platform to raise awareness.

“Cancer in general is such a miserable disease, and so many people are affected by it in so many ways,” he said.

Whether it's through charities like the Jimmy V Foundation or the Side-Out Foundation, Aird said it’s important to start a conversation because it could lead to someone like his mother or one of his players getting a screening and catching it early.

“Because you have people who will pay to be entertained, sport has a really unique way of bridging the gap between the athlete, the coach, the whatever it might be, and the humanity of it,” Aird said.  

While he coached at Maryland and now at Indiana, Aird’s teams have hosted Dig Pink night — a piece of the Side-Out Foundation that encourages schools to host events that raise awareness of breast cancer.

Aird takes special meaning in the event not simply because of those close to him that have battled through the cancer, but also because he feels he has a role to speak up as a male coach of a female team.

“It’s a uniting thing for female sports,” he said. “It’s not just the players that you care deeply for, but their families and their moms.”

Indiana held Dig Pink night last Saturday against Northwestern. Players wore pink socks, pink warm-up shirts and the scoreboards in Wilkinson Hall were glowing pink.

“It’s not just another day where we can wear pink,” junior outside hitter Kamryn Malloy said. “We’ve truly all understood the meaning and we really want to play our hearts for the people who don’t have the opportunity to be playing anymore.”

Indiana came away with a four-set win — the team’s first Big Ten win of the season — and it gave Aird the opportunity to give his mom a treat.

“It’s a cool present to send home to mom as a tribute,” he said.