GRANTSVILLE, Utah — A local softball coach has been involved in plenty of comebacks, but this time, it was his own.
Tony Cloward, a former Coach of the Year for Grantsville High, spent weeks in the hospital after getting a devastating diagnosis, but he was able to fight his way back and help lead his team to their three-peat state title this past weekend.
"They had won three state championships before I was named the head coach, and we have won four since," Cloward said.
But he said the title that the Grantsville Cowboys won this past Saturday was the sweetest.
"This one is extra special because I didn’t think I was going to be there. I really didn’t," he said.
It was in January during open gym workouts when Cloward noticed his feet tingling, which is a typical symptom for the rare syndrome he eventually was diagnosed with, Guillain-Barré, affecting about one in 100,00 people. It hospitalized this husband, father of five and grandfather of seven for 81 days with bouts of total paralysis.
He watched all 16 games he missed from the hospital via their livestream, sending notes to his assistant coaches and players, and always thinking positively, he said, fighting to come back to his family and his softball team this season, and inspiring him to recover as quickly as he did.
"You tell your girls, 'Right, no matter what’s happening, stay positive. Focus on the good,'" he said.
He was supported by an entire community in Tooele County and beyond, who followed along with his progress as his wife Nicole posted on their Facebook page.
"I mean, hundreds and hundreds of people were reaching out and commenting and liking. A lot of people were involved," Nicole said.
Nicole Cloward said she started to post his updates on Facebook after she was bombarded by questions from people who were concerned about how he was doing, especially after he had to leave his job not only as softball coach at the high school but also as counselor at the junior high.
"I was just thinking, 'You know what? I’m just going to share this because I can’t answer 800 messages a day!" she said.
"If I helped anybody through my hardship, then I’m glad she made it so public," Tony added.
He said there was one game in particular that had parallels to his own journey.
"It was at the state tournament, and we found ourselves down by seven runs to Emery in the quarterfinal game," Tony recalled. "We fought back to get closer, but we were down four runs in the bottom of the 7th. And you want to talk about a team that’s resilient — we fought back and won that game 9-8, scoring five runs in the bottom of the 8th. It was that never-quit mentality."
It's a mentality that he says brought him back from what they believed was the brink of death.
"It got really overwhelming," Nicole said.
Tony added that at one point, he and his wife were planning his funeral.
But the coach has made a full recovery, working now on getting his strength back day by day.
He wanted to share this message with anyone going through something hard: "When you’re going through something tough, just keep on going. It really does get better. It. Really. Does."
