RANDLEMAN, N.C. —
The Randleman Tigers are undefeated five weeks into the football season. When it all began, Head Coach Shane Timmons thought his only concern would be winning football games this season.
That all changed in late August when Timmons found out his nearly 2-year-old daughter, Ophie, has brain cancer.
"Your world shatters, your heart breaks," said Timmons. "I think I hung onto my mom, my wife, I don’t know who I hung onto, but God puts your heart back together and gives you peace. I just got really calm and I understood it was one day at a time and this is gonna be a really long journey."
For the past few weeks, Timmons has continued to coach the Tigers while also being there for his family.
"It’s taught you some perspective," said Timmons. "It's taught you that every single moment of your life, every single capacity of your life, you have an opportunity to comfort others and be excellent and that’s what we’re called to do. We’re called to give our best. It’s how you compartmentalize this whole thing and it's how you deal with the stress and the uncertainty."
There is a lot of uncertainty for the Timmons family as they navigate the next steps. Coach Timmons, his wife Ashley, his oldest daughter Georgia, who is 7 years old, and Ophie, recently moved to Memphis to be at St. Jude's Children's Hospital, to get the best care.
"I certainly have fear," said Timmons. "I certainly have stress. I certainly wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and have a panic, but I’m just leaning on my faith. I’m leaning on the understanding that to get comfort, you give comfort. There are so many families out there that people need to know about. You just don’t think about the Ronald McDonald house. You don’t think about the 6th floor of Brenner's. You don’t think about those things. You just go on with your day and you just have such an opportunity to bless other people that no matter what’s going on, you know that they have people and that the people are good. We can be so good if we just choose to be."
Randleman Assistant Coach, and Timmons' best friend, Brain Hughes will take over the football program in his absence.
