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May 10, 2005 - Chris Foster /
L.A. Times
 Mike
Babcock responded to a question by bounding from behind his desk, pen in
hand. This was a display of the passion Mighty Duck players have grown
accustomed to in their coach.
Babcock assaulted the drawing board and began diagramming the
situation, scribbling words, arrows, lines and circles, literally
spelling out a specific goal that he wished could, no, that had to be,
achieved.
He wrapped up his presentation, having crammed a board-meeting's
worth of information into a few minutes, outlining an interactive
website created by Tim Hayden, a close friend, designed to help parents
whose children have cancer.
There is no hockey right now, not the NHL variety anyway. The Stanley
Cup playoffs should be underway, but the season was canceled in February
and the league's future is murky. Babcock coaches on, though, funneling
his energy into this project.
It's a personal journey that he is trying to make public.
Jeff Hayden, a 12-year-old, died of brain cancer in September. That
alone would have been enough to spur Babcock on this project. But seeing
someone close to him die of cancer has happened all too often.
Babcock lost his mother, Gail, to cancer when he was 28. A close
friend, former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien, lost his son to cancer. Ken
Brett, another close friend, died of cancer in 2003. Then Jeff Hayden,
who had been a playmate of Babcock's son in Cincinnati.
"This doesn't keep happening in your lifetime if you're not supposed
to do something about it," Babcock said. "When it keeps hitting you on
the head, pretty soon you're going to wake up and try to help."
So while NHL and union representatives squabble about how to divvy up
what was once a $2.1-billion business, Babcock has set about trying to
raise money for a website where parents and patients can seek help.
Babcock has worked with Tim Hayden, who runs a high-tech manufacturing
company in the Cincinnati area; Dr. Leonard Sender, the medical director
for Children's Hospital of Orange County's institute center; and the
American Cancer Society. Babcock says his job is the same as it is with
the Ducks:
"My role in this, I'm the coach. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm
doing cancer research. I get them together, point out what is in it for
all of them and why we're going to do it together. It's simple. It's
just like on a team. If we do it right, we're all going to succeed.
"So the gift of the lockout for me is the opportunity of time. The other
thing, I promised my mom I would try to make a difference."
Babcock stepped to the lectern at a church in West Chester Township,
Ohio, having flown overnight to be with the Haydens and speak at their
son's funeral.
He looked out at the rows of Jeff's grieving relatives and friends and
began talking. "We're gathered here today, in faith, to celebrate Jeff's
life and his new life with Christ," he said. "We have no answers to the
question, 'Why?"
Later, Tim Hayden said, "Mike did a great job. He really captured
Jeff, did him proud."
Jeff Hayden had been an active, sometimes wonderfully mischievous,
kid who lived next door, Babcock told the mourners. When Babcock had
coached Cincinnati, the Ducks' minor league team, the Haydens were
neighbors. Their sons played together, and the families remained close
after Babcock left for Anaheim.
So when Jeff was diagnosed with brain cancer in January 2003, it hit
two households hard. He died last September.
"Jeff was about jamming as much into a day as possible," Babcock
said.
Soon after the funeral, a maple tree was planted and dedicated to
Jeff at his school, Freedom Elementary, and balloons were launched
during the ceremony in remembrance.
That was just the beginning for Jeff's parents, and for Babcock.
"The bad thing would have been if I had done nothing," Tim Hayden said.
Tim and Cindy Hayden formed the Jeffrey Thomas Hayden Foundation, a
promise Tim had made to his son. Tim Hayden also had vision.
"When your friend loses a child, part of your friendship is, you talk
to the guy a lot," Babcock said. "He kept telling me about how difficult
it was, trying to find information to help his son.
"This is a guy with all the technology, all the money, all the
brainpower, and he couldn't make it happen. He saw this bigger
opportunity to help people, people who have that helpless feeling that
he and his wife had as parents."
Hayden had the idea for an interactive website with a database,
linked from the Jeffrey Thomas Hayden Foundation site — jthf.org— where
parents could go to get second opinions and seek treatment ideas from
top doctors.
It has evolved into a site with plans for a virtual hub, linking
doctors, and a tumor tracker, designed to provide alternative treatments
that other parents have tried.
Babcock had two things to offer: passion and time.
With his team locked out, this was a natural outlet for his
concentrated intensity. He approached Sender, Children's Hospital and
the American Cancer Society, explaining Hayden's idea.
"Mike has taken on this cause, and he is very passionate about it,"
Hayden said. "It's amazing, when he gets focused, how much can get done.
He has pushed me into areas in months that would have taken me a year or
two to reach. He has connections and has opened doors to meet people it
would have taken me a long time to get to."
For all the tragedy Babcock has seen, he has seen hope too.
Dylan Enos was diagnosed with leukemia in September 2003. His passion
for hockey had begun when he was 5 and there was little more important
to him than the Mighty Ducks.
A family friend had a friend who knew Babcock. That loose connection
turned into a telephone call.
"Dylan's eyes practically came out of his head," said Renee Enos, his
mother. "He was beaming from ear to ear. He hadn't smiled in weeks. Here
was this person my son idolized, calling. It's neat to see heroes, role
models you look up to, who know it's not about them."
Dylan, 13, is now in maintenance, the step before remission. He
returned to school in November and is planning to play hockey again,
once his strength returns.
Babcock has been there for Dylan. They talk on the telephone. Babcock
has had Dylan in to meet Duck players.
"He is very inspirational," Renee Enos said. "Some of the messages he
gives Dylan make me go, 'Wow!' And Dylan listens to every word.
"Mike told him to be good to his mother because, 'If you're good to
your mom, good things will come back to you.' There have been times I
can tell when Dylan felt, 'I can't do this anymore.' Mike would call and
the next thing it was, "OK, Mom, I can do this so I can go to the game.'
He'd get all excited and work that much harder. It's 'the world
according to Mike Babcock.' "
That world includes the virtual hub and tumor tracker and the time
and passion Babcock has devoted to raising money to keep the website
running.
They have raised $45,000 of the $50,000 needed to get the tumor
tracker up. Once that is in place, Babcock said, they will begin raising
the $350,000 necessary for the virtual hub.
Babcock has enlisted friends in sports and also set up a camp for
players, the $125 fee a donation to the Jeffrey Thomas Hayden
Foundation.
"He is 'the cure coach,' " Sender said. "Father Jack Henning, a
priest here [at Children's Hospital], came up with that, and it's true.
That's what Mike does. His whole idea is to have a website to coach
families through the process. He gets us to think outside the box. I'm
touched by his heart."
This, though, is not about Mike Babcock, something that he stresses
over and over.
"Losing young people, you can never answer the question, 'Why?' "
Babcock said.
"But if we can make a difference, that's important. This is about
doing the right thing. How can that be wrong?"
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