At the end of last August, I had my yearly physical. After a battery of tests, my doctor pronounced me to be in excellent shape for a 50-year old man. One thing he asked me to do, though, was to get a stress test. Little did I know what was to follow.

The form for the test was promptly stuck on my fridge and forgotten about. Practice was underway with the U.S.A. Under-17 Team in Ann Arbor and I was too “busy” to take time for any test. After about six weeks of practice, though, I was still getting winded while skating in the warm-ups. I just chalked it up to age, but my wife, thank God for Lindy, kept after me to go get the stress test done.

The test showed some irregularities and my doctor sent me to a cardiologist. He advised me that I might have had a couple of blockages and that I should get a catheterization. This is a test where they shoot a dye into your heart so that they can locate any blockages. Sure enough, I had two of them. The cardiologist then sent me to the heart surgeon. He advised immediate open-heart surgery. My response was, “Are you *$#^ing me?” There was no pain, no numbness, no tightness in chest, no fainting, no nausea. This couldn’t be true. Well it was, and the next day I had surgery.

The point of all this is to tell you to be sure and take care of yourself, first. If you don’t take care of yourself, it’s awfully hard to take care of your family and your team. I’m one of the lucky ones. Yeah, I had surgery but there was no heart attack and I’m well on the way to recovery. We all think we are invincible and far too busy to take care of our bodies. However, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to get yearly checkups. Be thorough and ask your doctor questions. Don’t be afraid to talk about the “little things” that might be bothering you.

This was a huge wake-up call to me regarding diet, exercise, and overall health. I just felt that if it could happen to me, it could happen to any coach, male or female, especially if you are over 40. So, take care of yourselves and good luck with the rest of the season.

Buddy Powers, a native of Boston and a former Boston University Terrier, was a successful heaed coach at RIT, Rensselaer, and Bowling Green. He is now assisting the USA Hockey Development Program in Ann Arbor, MI.