Crunch time for Daly City basketball coach Corey Cafferata

He hopes for the best, but expects the worst.

“It’s getting close to overtime with my kidneys,” Cafferata said, in keeping with a basketball theme. “It’s a challenge. I look at it as a game. Right now, I’m playing full-court (basketball) against Carmelo (Anthony, future NBA hall of famer and one of Cafferata’s favorite players). I’m down 10 and have to score twice on him. Possible? Sure. Should I get my hopes up? Nah.”

Cafferata still has the swag and confidence he had as a teenager. The same attitude and fashion that made him a hall of famer at both Jefferson and Oceana is what made him one of the most hated coaches in the Peninsula Athletic League when he coached the Westmoor girls’ team to 49-straight PAL wins. The same loud suits and flower bud in the lapel that led him to take over a Mission College team that had lost 76 in row from 2005-06 to 2007-08 and were just 2-102 before Cafferata took over. Using his up-tempo style, the Saints won seven games in Cafferata’s first season of 2009-10. The following season, he took the Saints to the playoff for the first time since the 2004-05 season. In 11 seasons, including this year’s 12-16 mark, Cafferata has an all-time record of 181-134.

He’s using the confidence gained from his basketball success in his fight against diabetes. He still works out like a fiend, trying to hold off the inevitable — going on a bike ride in a sauna suit in 110-plus degree heat in during a visit to his dad in Palm Springs. He still has a love of the game and a love of coaching that has carried him through the ups and downs of life.

“I still have enough to push myself, but when the body shuts down, it shuts down,” Cafferata said. “It’s just a challenge. Even (Wednesday night), I’ll probably go for a 2-mile jog. I know eventually, one day, I can’t.

“You can only ride so long with an engine that has a burned-out head gasket.”

During his senior year at Oceana, Cafferata was, at one point, leading the Central Coast Section in scoring at just over 26 points per game. But something was off. He said he was thirsty all the time and he couldn’t keep weight on. He eventually wore down on the court and it wasn’t until he went off to college that he found out why he was having so many physical problems.

“Here’s what I regret more than anything, my senior year in high school. Something is a little wrong,” Cafferata said. “I just wonder — if I was healthy my senior year (what I could have accomplished). That’s what I regret. Not going to the doctor (in high school).”

He didn’t let the eventual diagnosis deter him, however. He bounced around to several colleges, wrapping up his collegiate career at New College, a defunct NAIA school in San Francisco. He went on to form and serve as player-coach for a professional exhibition team, Race Express, that played exhibition games against college programs. When his playing days were over, Cafferata got his teaching credential and master’s degree and got into coaching full time. This season was his 11th at Mission — a season that saw him start with 10 players, was whittled down to five and featured 10 games in which the Saints finished with less than five players on the court.

But Cafferata doesn’t want your pity — not on the basketball court and certainly not in his current health situation. So with dialysis looming in the not too distant future, Cafferata is simply coming to terms with what his future looks like.

“I’m not an NBA player or famous person with a ton of money. You go on a list for a kidney (transplant) and that list is long,” Cafferata said. “[Dialysis] could stop me from coaching.”

But Cafferata will fight to get back on the court. But first is his battle with his body. He’s had six diabetes-related surgeries over the last four years and has an appointment with a kidney specialist next week to set up a plan of attack.

And best believe that Cafferata will attack the treatment with everything he has, mainly because of his ego.

“I don’t want to look bad. I don’t want people to see me fail,” Cafferata said. “But it’s coming.”

Until it does, look for Cafferata at a Daly City park or stair set or hill, getting in a workout, trying everything in his power to hold off the inevitable as long as possible.

“I’m just trying to hold on to what I have. To have had diabetes for three decades, I’m fortunate to have made it this long.”