Thinking it through

The players, already ornery because of the hour (7 a.m.), the season (summer), and the duty (weights), became even gloomier when they heard the word.

Cancer.

Chris Collins remembers that June day. Boston College's assistant strength and conditioning coach, Russ DeRosa, brought Collins and the other Eagles working out on campus together to tell them that their coach had prostate cancer.

The next day, Collins saw Jerry York at Conte Forum. Earlier that month, when Dr. Stephen Ranere, York's physician, spotted an abnormal blood count and detected the cancer early, the coach was overcome with worry. But York's always had this idea: Heaven is a nice place but Chestnut Hill is, too, and he was determined to remember that truth.

''He's jumping around, running around, and saying hi to everyone," Collins recalled. ''He was the same guy he always was."

York's condition, like a Hockey East opponent, was just another thing to beat. Although this season has presented York with more challenges than just cancer, and tomorrow, when BC clashes with North Dakota in the semifinals of the Frozen Four, it will be one of the bigger obstacles he's met this year.

Last week, assistant coach Mike Cavanaugh kidded that fellow assistant Greg Brown was angling for a pay raise and a promotion had York given up his spot behind the BC bench. But York's condition, despite the cancer's early detection, wasn't always a laughing matter.

''Like everybody else, I was nervous about it," said Los Angeles Kings general manager Dave Taylor, who played for York at Clarkson and became one of his close friends. ''But he was very positive and optimistic he'd overcome it."

York considered surgery. He studied the benefits of radiation. He read the articles that Cavanaugh printed from the Internet. He weighed his options and settled on surgery.

''A great thing about Jerry is that he'll sit and listen," Cavanaugh said. ''He's a terrific listener. He'll listen to what you have to say. He'll take a day or two to think about it. He never really makes rash decisions. Sometimes he takes your point and sometimes he doesn't. But when he had to decide, I remember him having information on radiation and surgery, doing his homework, and talking to different people about different treatments. He then made his decision. He's very thorough."

On July 29, Dr. Frank McGovern removed York's prostate at Massachusetts General Hospital. McGovern then prescribed rest, a foreign subject to York in late summer. After his annual offseason vacation and his return to the tees of Watertown's Oakley Country Club, York returns to work each July and August, traveling the country to visit recruits.

This past summer, York found himself in a strange spot: at home in Watertown. York left the traveling to Cavanaugh and Brown. His activity was limited to short walks around the neighborhood, forcing him to ponder his team. That spring, he lost 10 seniors to graduation. In mid-August, as he expected, York said goodbye a year early to Patrick Eaves, leaving him with a fresh-faced squad that resembled the club he led in 2001-02 after the Eagles won the NCAA championship. That team, which lost underclassmen Chuck Kobasew, Krys Kolanos, and Brooks Orpik, went 18-18-2 and failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

For 2005-06, York was encouraged by a small group of upperclassmen -- Collins, captain Peter Harrold, Stephen Gionta, Brian Boyle, and Joe Rooney -- plus goalie Cory Schneider, who would earn nearly every start. But he wouldn't have Eaves's 19 goals and 29 assists. He lost Shannon's 45 points and fiery leadership. He no longer had the thumping defenseman in Andrew Alberts. Instead, York had questions.

When he first scanned the locker room, York could hardly put faces with names. He called goalie Adam Reasoner, one of 10 freshmen, by his older brother Marty's name. He addressed freshman forward Andrew Orpik as Brooks.

So York leaned on his seniors to familiarize the new players with the program. He relied on Harrold, who was elevated to captain once Eaves signed with Ottawa. He depended on Gionta, the gritty winger. And he looked to Collins, a two-way player who could lift his offense if he could shake his bad luck.

Fluky bounces, however, weren't all that limited Collins's game. In his first three years, Collins hurried his chances and shot pucks into defensemen or goalies' chests. This past summer, York and his assistants assembled a video for Collins, showing him how jittery he was with the puck. York told him that with patience, lanes and holes would open.

Collins scored in BC's season opener. He had two more goals the following night. Tomorrow, Collins will enter the semifinal with 60 points, 1 more than he scored in his first three years combined.

Despite the emergence of Collins and linemate Boyle (22-30--52), opponents learned that the sometimes toothless Eagles lacked up-front depth. In BC's four losses to Boston University, in which coach Jack Parker matched his No. 1 trio against Boyle's line, neither the BC center nor the left wing scored. On the other end of the ice, during a 3-5 streak capped by a second straight loss to Maine Feb. 18, BC's young defense was breaking down.

''You can't hide in front of your net," said Brown, a former BC defenseman. ''You've got to be there and be ready. Freshmen realize how strong they have to play, how ready you have to be on your edges for guys crashing the goal hard. They're coming in with a lot of hunger to score. You have to match that hunger to keep the puck out of the net or you're going to lose that battle."

York used much of practice to run net-front drills to clean up the bad habits. Up front, after the second consecutive loss to Maine, York mixed up his lines in pursuit of better balance. He promoted Brock Bradford to the No. 1 line and dropped right wing Gionta to the third line, creating a high-energy trio with blazers Matt Greene and Nathan Gerbe. He put Rooney together with Benn Ferriero and Dan Bertram for a No. 2 line.

The moves paid off. In the next game, a 6-0 blanking of UMass-Lowell, BC got goals from all three lines. The Eagles went 1-2-1 in their last four games, but York was pleased with his team's turnaround. In the Hockey East playoffs, BC swept Vermont in the quarterfinals, beat Maine in the semifinals, then lost to BU in the league championship. But York used that last loss as motivation, reminding his players that if they beat Miami in the first round of the Northeast Regional, they'd get the rematch they sought against the Terriers.

York didn't show game film. He didn't talk about a game plan. His boys knew they'd beat BU and advance to Milwaukee.

Last week, York saw his good friend, George Mason basketball coach Jim Larranaga, a colleague at Bowling Green when they both coached at the Ohio school, lose in the Final Four semifinal. Tomorrow, York has his chance to advance to the title game.

''It's been an interesting year," said the 60-year-old York. ''We started slow, came on real hard, stumbled at the end, then came back. It's been rewarding as far as coaching, for sure."

Six months ago, York passed his test to check his prostate-specific antigen numbers. Since then, cancer's been a bygone word for York. His players, however, haven't forgotten.

''His attitude about it has just been incredible," Collins said. ''That's another thing that propelled our team this year. He battled through that and made it through great. All of us respected him greatly as it was, but after that, it showed what kind of person he is and how proud we are to play for him."