How Southside girls basketball, community support has uplifted Brett Yancey during cancer fight

Nothing was going to stop former Southside football coach Brett Yancey from making that 50-yard walk across the field on that fall night.

Not the cancer, not the brain swelling and definitely not the fact that he was already struggling to walk. No need to use the golf cart that most people thought was the plan. He was going to make that walk for his daughter, Sarakate.

Sarakate, a senior on the Lady Panthers girls basketball team that plays in the AHSAA regional final Wednesday at 9 a.m. CT in Jacksonville, was selected to the homecoming court in the fall and was up for homecoming queen. So, as is customary, her father was to walk her.

But this wouldn't be an ordinary walk.

Brett, now 47, has been fighting cancer for the past seven years. At the time, brain swelling was making it hard for him to walk. He had missed this event her sophomore year due to being in Houston for treatment.

Sarakate didn't know her dad was going to make the walk. She even told him that he could meet her on the other side. Brett credits his daughter with getting him through the 50-yard trek.

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"I wanted to do like every other parent could do," Brett said. "At the time, we didn't really know why I was having such a hard time walking. We found out later it was that I had swelling in the brain. I didn't want Sarakate to be the only one that didn't have a parent do exactly like everyone else did."

His daughter tried to talk him out of it.

"No, baby, we're going to do this like everybody else," he told her.

"She held on, and she got me across the field," Brett said. "I wanted her to have that experience. ... I want her to experience everything that everyone else experiences, because she's lost so much of her sixth- through 12th-grade years."

Sarakate's name was called as homecoming queen. It showed the Yanceys how much her fellow students cared for her. It made the whole ordeal worth it for Brett.

"It's overwhelming for her and me," Brett said. "Just to see her smile was worth the whole day, any pain I was going through, it was worth that smile.."

The whole moment, starting with the walk and ending with Sarakate being crowned homecoming queen is a microcosm of the last seven years for the Yancey family, including the support that the Southside community showed on that Friday night.

The years-long battle

Brett Yancey's cancer battle started when Sarakate was in sixth grade as Stage 3 esophageal cancer. Over seven years, it has spread to other parts of his body. Brett is a former Southside football and softball coach and also longtime Glencoe offensive coordinator. Carrie Yancey, Brett's wife and Sarakate's mother. was softball coach at Southside before moving into an administrative role and is now principal at Southside Elementary.

Over the years, Brett has been all over the South, mostly to Houston and Georgia, for treatment, taking him away Sarakate and her two older sisters, Savannah and Sydney. They have stayed in Southside while their parents traveled for Brett to take part in trials and experimental treatments.

Sarakate's parents missed her sophomore selection to homecoming court and some of the 2023 girls basketball playoff run. They were able to see her play in the regional.

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Yancey underwent Ivor Lewis surgery to replace a part of his esophagus when he was first diagnosed. He had a full year of clean scans before the cancer returned. That led to his full esophagus being replaced by a thoracic surgeon in Houston, but by then the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes around his neck area.

These days Brett goes to Georgia every two weeks for chemotherapy. The cancer is now around his carotid artery and some of the nerves in his shoulders. He also is being treated for radiation necrosis – permanent cell damage caused by radiation treatments – during his chemo sessions.

None of that has stopped him from being at almost every game cheering on Sarakate and the Lady Panthers basketball team. He moved his chemo treatment back a day to watch Wednesday's round-of-16 matchup, and if Southside advances the Final Four that week's chemo treatment will be rescheduled to allow him to see her play.

Community support gets them through it all

The support the Yanceys have received has come from all across the globe. Locally, it has extended throughout Etowah County and even to the Panthers' rivals. During the 2023 volleyball season, Alexandria hung banners that said "Yancey Strong" when Southside came to visit in what was a crucial area game.

"It keeps me going to be honest with you," Brett said. "It's an honor. It's like a torch that I need to carry and tell people how good people are around here, because sometimes you hear more about the bad than the good."

"There are good people in the world," Carrie said. "I think our community and surrounding communities are a prime example of what happens when you rally around a family and you support them in their darkest of times, and how much that means to us and our hearts."

There is also the support Sarakate has gotten from playing basketball and volleyball. She's been able to be around teammates and, for a few hours each day, be a regular girl who can joke, laugh and create memories with her friends.

"It definitely helps a lot," Sarakate said. "It takes my mind off the struggles that we go through at home, but my teammates – they are everything to me. They help me more than they realize. They are my safe place, my home away from home."

A bond between player and coach

Coach Justin Bowen knew of Sarakate and the Yancey family during his first year as a teacher and assistant football coach at Southside, in 2021. He taught her in a class that year before he was named basketball coach.

The bond between Sarakate, the Yanceys and Bowen has grown since he became her coach. Bowen understands better than most what Sarakate and the Yancey family have been going through.

When Bowen was in high school, his mother was battling chronic illnesses, and he had to help take care of her. She died at 42 while Bowen was in college. He believes that somehow he was put in this job to help Sarakate navigate this struggle.

"I genuinely believe Sarakate was one of the reasons that I ended up at this position in this school and getting this job," Bowen said.

When she was in his class, before he became Sarakate's coach, he sat down with her to share his experience.

"I know a lot people don't understand what you're going through and how you feel and that you're trying to put on this mask at school ... but I get it," he told her, "because I went through the same thing."

Bowen has been able to be sounding board and guide along with being Sarakate's coach.

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"I think he's taken her under his wing and really loved on her, because he knows what its like to see a parent sick. It's hard on kids. Kids are resilient, but its hard to see your parents when they are sick," Carrie said.

The Lady Panthers are only guaranteed one more game – Wednesday's regional final – and at most three if they are to make the state championship game. The program has made back-to-back runs to this, the Elite Eight round of the AHSAA state tournament, and Sarakate has been a major contributor.

Soon enough, that chapter will close for her. .

"When sports end, basketball is the last thing she's got," Bowen said. "When that's over with, it'll be tough for her. She won't have as much to keep her mind off of it."

Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports and Jacksonville State athletics for the Gadsden Times. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: How Southside athletics has uplifted Brett Yancey during cancer battle