Collierville rallies behind ailing coach Mike O'Neill

Austin Kelley said it was "going from highest high I've ever been at to the lowest low" in the span of just two sentences.

Kelley's Collierville football team had just defeated arch-rival Houston, 35-33, stopping the Mustangs at the goal line in the final minute of the Oct. 20 game. Now everyone was in the locker room celebrating when coach Mike O'Neill delivered the news no one dreamed they'd be hearing.

"Everybody was high, full of emotion and he was pumped and feeding off that," said offensive coordinator and interim head coach Tommy Miller. "Then all of a sudden he said, 'I have something to tell you. I have cancer.'

"He dropped a bomb on us. The room just deflated. Everybody was pretty much in shock."

O'Neill — who has been Collierville's head coach since 2012 — went on to explain that he was moving to Houston to begin treatments in an effort to combat squamous cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of throat cancer. The regular-season finale against Arlington on Oct. 27 was his final game.

But his team is still playing. And playing with a purpose.

Third-seeded Collierville (6-4) visits second-seeded Whitehaven (8-2) Friday in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs. It's the most important game of the season, win or go home. And O'Neill's situation only adds to the significance.

"It just took our breath away," said senior linebacker Wyatt Raines. "But we have a chip on our shoulder to play for him."

Said Miller, "It's their head coach ... obviously he's the leader of the football team. He's heavily invested in the kids and if you know about coach O'Neill you know he cares a lot. It had a great deal of impact, especially when you're dealing with something as serious as cancer.

"It's a tough situation to deal with, especially when it's someone you care about."

Miller said he and the rest of the coaching staff knew only that O'Neill hadn't been feeling good and was undergoing testing. And — as O'Neill himself told The Commercial Appeal — he didn't get the diagnosis until two days before the Houston game.

From a purely football standpoint, the timing wasn't ideal. But cancer doesn't care about timing.

"This means a lot more to us now," said Kelley. "Not that it didn't mean a lot to us before but this has put a lot on us and given us something to work for and work towards. To try and win for him."

Added senior defensive back Virgil Pryor, "We're more concentrated now, more disciplined."

O'Neill's battle has galvanized not just the football team but the entire community. The Kroger store on Byhalia is selling t-shirts bearing the hashtag "Dragons Don't Back Down." A GoFundMe page has been created called "Coach O'Neill's Battle."

"Everybody's praying," said Raines.

Miller said O'Neill told him it's helping.

"He's strong in his faith," he said. "That's one thing he said before he left, how great a place Collierville was, how great the school is. Everybody is rallying around to support him. The show of support ... I know he just felt very touched.

"That's what I told them; he's going to be keeping track of us Friday and we have to be prepared to go out honor him."

O'Neill didn't leave empty handed. The players and cheerleaders organized a tribute for their coach and presented him with a helmet and a pair of framed pictures.

"And we had a jar (filled) with thoughts and prayers or maybe something to make him laugh," said Kelley. "We wanted to give him some things to remember us with. So that maybe when he's there fighting — having a hard time over there — he can know that we're right behind him at all times."

Reach John Varlas at john.varlas@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @johnvarlas.