'We fight': How faith, family and track helped Peoria Manual coach in battle with cancer

PEORIA — Manual boys track and field coach Harvey Burnett has a team theme for the 2024 season.

"We fight," Burnett said.

That sounds simple, but really, it's personal. There's a great big life story behind those words and Burnett wants to tell it. It began with his trip to a doctor last fall and a stunning diagnosis.

"It was cancer," Burnett said. "I didn't want to be disruptive, so I never told the team. I've used my experience to tell them I expect them never to give up. Whether you lose, whether you win, I expect them to fight. I can see them doing it. The message is, if I'm not here, I expect them to fight, to continue."

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His family and his faith, and those kids and that track team provided Burnett with the driving force he needed to make his way back to coaching this spring.

'I'll never forget that day'

Burnett has been Manual's track coach since 2019. He also operates Peoria Inner City Track Club, coaching kids one-on-one. He is a pastor. An insurance agent. A husband to Geraldine, a father to Jeauvon, 26, Aaliyah, 21. A community strength. But last fall something felt wrong for him, physically.

"Some things I was attributing to old age," said Burnett, 59, laughing. "Going to the bathroom differently. I noticed some subtle changes."

Because he's an insurance agent, Burnett wrote a policy for himself, and part of that process was getting a physical. Already a diabetic, the coach discovered during testing he had an elevated prostate-specific antigen. Doctors first thought Burnett had an infection, but his PSA remained elevated after antibiotics.

After a biopsy, Burnett learned he had adenocarcinoma. It's a cancer that forms in the body's glandular tissue, which lines certain internal organs, often the lungs. It had invaded Burnett's prostate and surrounding areas, and was a threat to spread.

"It took a while to get my head around it," Burnett said. "But of all the varieties, it was the most treatable. So the Lord blessed me with that. It took weeks to see a radiation oncologist. Then we began treatment. The thing I remember asking is 'Can this be done before track season?' Here I am, no one has told me I'm going to be alive in six months, and I'm worried about track season."

Burnett declined surgery. Instead, he underwent 25 radiation treatments at City of Hope in Zion. Scans showed there was no further spread of the cancer.

"I had no idea what any of that radiation was about," Burnett said. "You just really don't know until you sit in that seat and go through it. I had dramatic weight loss. I could feel myself getting weaker. It took a physical toll on my body. God gave me the strength to make it."

He underwent Brachytherapy -— radioactive seeds planted inside the body to target specific cancer spots.

"It's the most grueling procedure I've ever been through," Burnett said. "I'll never forget those days."

A lifetime on track

Burnett took over as Manual track head coach in 2019. Before that, he was assistant coach from 2013-15. He's turned down multiple opportunities over the years for promotion into a school district administrative role, because doing so would make him ineligible to coach student-athletes one-on-one.

"I'm thankful at the end of the day," Burnett said. "I love the relationships I've formed."

The coach has a passion for track and field built over a lifetime. He played for Peoria High School, and as a junior ran the 100-meter dash in :10.7. He was running the 200 in the low :22s. Colleges pursued him, including Georgetown, Xavier, Yale, Northern Iowa and Louisiana State.

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Then in his senior year at Peoria High he suffered a serious hip flexor injury, and a hamstring strain, both on his left side. LSU went away.

"I learned about big-school athletics," Burnett said. "LSU was where I dreamed of going. They dropped me. Couldn't risk investing a scholarship in someone who was injured. If I'd had a brain I would have gone to Georgetown."

Instead, Burnett went to Valdosta State, which didn't have a track team. His plan was to compete as an independent athlete in the NCAA and pursue a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. "I was disappointed," Burnett said. "It just didn't work out for me."

How he fought cancer

Burnett has a deep, long-standing faith in God, and he says that was the first thing that fueled him after his cancer diagnosis, how he'd helped others with their faith and now it was his time to deal with that aspect.

"No. 1, I had to help my family cope and deal with the information, too," Burnett said. "And then my team. Being able to coach and help these guys and not let them feel like they've been abandoned.

"When I first became coach, we brought in some food, had a good lunch, and one of the kids said, 'A lot of people say they are going to do things for us, and they don't.' That hit me so hard. It made me determined to fulfill what I said I was going to do for them."

And right there emerged the driving force that pushed Burnett to push his way back to work.

"I said that was going to coach them, create a team to give them opportunities," Burnett said. "I told them it was not about me. It was about creating memories they will talk about 20 or 30 years from now.

"Those things are vitally important. Many of our students don't have that stability. I promised them, 'I will never curse you, never berate you, I will lift you up and coach you in athletics and life.' I make that promise to every team I've ever had. It's important to have that stability and those expectations and important to create that for these young men."

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So Burnett, weak and sick from radiation, gathered his captains from the 2023 team in the fall: Qawuan Filzen, Aaron White, Jerome Cranford, Jayshawn Adkins. He explained he had cancer. He explained the treatments and the chances for recovery and how things would be the same, but also different.

He asked for their help in preparing the team.

"They handled it their own way," Burnett said. "They stood up in unison and said, 'Coach, you are going to make it.' "

The captains encouraged the younger guys on the team. They made sure everyone got through practice sessions, which started in October and with Burnett unavailable in November because of his radiation treatments, 25 of them in 30 days.

In January Burnett tried to return to coaching. "Initially, it was a struggle. I had to cut off extra coaching opportunities," he said. "I needed so much rest. I've learned I can only do what I can do. Sometimes you have to do some things for yourself."

Manual went through a six-week indoor track season that opened in January. The team is heading into its outdoor season now.

'You think about your mortality'

Harvey Burnett looks at the indoor and outdoor track seasons as more than athletics. It's an opportunity to give experiences to his athletes. Life experiences.

"I want to expose them to different environments, see how other schools approach things," he said. "We have some kids who've never been out of Peoria. Manual is a four-year term in your life. After that, you're living life. Let's be ready to move forward from here."

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Burnett isn't angry. Isn't resentful. Instead, he feels urgency for the people and the sport he loves.

"How are you going to respond when life kicks you in your face?" Burnett said. "I know what it is to do your best and come up short. If you've done your best, you have nothing to hang your head about. I talk to them about my struggle, my fight, when we're on the bus. I know they are listening."

Burnett's next medical evaluation will be April 17. At the moment, he says he is cancer-free, and a stronger, better person and a man with a message.

"You think about your mortality," Burnett said. "You think about things as a man you should have done, could have done. And you move forward with no regrets and do the things you've left undone."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria Manual track coach, pastor inspired by team in cancer battle