Cafferata is down again, still not out

Cafferata may be down, but he’s not out. Not yet. Anyone who knows Cafferata knows, as long as he is physically able, he will continue to fight.

He recently completed another brutal round in the ring of life, as he is recovering from open heart surgery following a heart attack in late December. The last thing he remembered was going for a morning run and he started wheezing — a new symptom for the rabid workout warrior, who chalked it to the cold weather.

“It wasn’t (the weather),” said Cafferata, a 1986 Oceana graduate who is the school’s all-time leading scorer and a member of the Pacifica Hall of Fame.

“It was my heart valve that was freaking failing. I wake up and there is a heart monitor on me and I’m at Seton Medical Center. They’re talking about helicoptering me to Stanford. For heart surgery. I wasn’t sure what was going on.”

Turns out Mills Peninsula was able to deal with the surgery and he went under the knife on Christmas Eve.

The years of dealing with diabetes, after years of going undiagnosed and years of battling the disease on his own, all conspired to destroy his heart — the muscle, but not the soul of the man, who is also a member of the Daly City Sports Hall of Fame.

After a 12-day hospital stay, Cafferata went home to Daly City to recover, with the help of his parents, for whom he has a new appreciation.

“What I found out through this is just how fortunate I am to have both my parents alive,” Cafferata said. “They were teenage parents who were very straight (laced). And look at who comes out. Holy Cow!

“I grew up living with my dad, going to my mom’s house, going to my grandma’s house and my uncle’s. It was like a circle.

“They live far away (dad is in Palm Springs, mom in Hawaii). I don’t see them as much as I wish, but they helped me. My dad stayed two weeks with me (as I recovered). Mom stayed the entire time I was in the hospital. And that made it better.”

And now Cafferata fights. A little more than a month removed from open-heart surgery, he was headed out for a mile-and-a-half walk after our phone call. He survived and now it’s time to go back to work.

It’s also time for him to admit that sometimes you need help to fight your battles and his refusal to do so might end up costing him the war. On the medical side of things, he now realizes he could have taken better care of his health — both physical and mental. He was so intent on beating diabetes mostly in private, that it may cost him the thing he might actually love more than life itself — basketball.

“I pushed myself through it. … I went the wrong route,” said Cafferata, who was not diagnosed with diabetes until his freshman year at University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

“Now maybe people can listen to me. Go get checked out.”

Not only did his health issues affect his private life, it impacted his professional life. Cafferata’s first high school coach job was the Westmoor girls’ team, whose swagger matched that of their coach, who showed up to game days in a three-piece suit, usually in a garish color, with a flower bud in the lapel.

And then he be on the sideline with a wry smile as he watched the Runnin’ Rams dominated the Peninsula Athletic League’s North Division. His teams won a record 49 straight PAL North games, culminating with an appearance in the 2006 Central Coast Section Division II championship game and the second round of the Northern California Division II bracket.

All the while battling diabetes and the damage it was doing to his kidneys.

In 2009, he took over the women’s program at Mission College, one that was mired in an 76-game losing streak. He took the Saints to the playoffs in his second season.

But health forced him to step away from the position after the 2022 season. He admits he didn’t fully communicate the extent of his illness to the school administration, however.

“My kidneys were failing,” Cafferata said.

But he immediately jumped at the next opportunity, taking over a Foothill College women’s program that was built into a state power by former coach Jody Craig, but one that was shuttered prior to Cafferata reviving it in for the 2023-24 season, when the Owls won 10 games — including the 200th college win of his coach career.

Always on the lookout for the next opportunity, he was set to join the women’s staff at Hawaii Pacific University. But four days after his arrival in Honolulu, Cafferata left — his health too poor to continue coaching.

“I was scared to tell (anyone about my health),” said Cafferata, who feared he would simply be fired, not only from his coaching position but as his role as an adjunct physical education professor.

“Boom! I was done. I was physically unable to coach. I would say I wasn’t straight up with everybody until I was unable to perform.”

But Cafferata still eyes a return to a school’s basketball sideline. He would prefer the community college level, but would take a high school job, as well.

Unfortunately, despite the love Cafferata has for the game, right now, it doesn’t appear to be loving him back. He said he has applied to several community college jobs, with no luck. But the real pain was being shunned by the three schools where he left his mark. He said he applied for positions at Jefferson, Oceana and Westmoor and was passed over for all three.

“That really hurt,” Cafferata said.

He said he can’t even get a middle school coaching job. But that doesn’t mean Cafferata will stop fighting for a spot in basketball.

“There is nothing more than I want to do (than coach). I want to be the only college basketball coach who played college ball as an insulin-dependent diabetic, who beat kidney failure and open-heart surgery,” Cafferata said. “I do wish someone would believe in me. … Someone who is not conservative has to give me a chance.

“If anyone wants me to coach right now, it would take me about a week to get it together, but I would go. I just hope for the best. … But just a month ago I laid helpless (in a hospital bed).”

Down, but not out.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.