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At eight years old, Larry Krystkowiak couldn't belt home runs over the fence, but he got them anyway through hustle. Against admittedly subpar fielding, he figured if he ran hard enough, he could get around the bags.
Many times in those days, he did. But the best part of his home runs were at the very end — and that wasn't home plate.
"I would touch home, keep running around the bleachers," he said, "around the backstop and into the stands and high-five my mom."
His mom, Helen Krystkowiak, was dying of cancer. She had already been told she had months to live. She spent much of that time driving her son to baseball games, basketball games and football games. The Utah men's basketball coach has retained piercing memories of those days, even though they were over 40 years ago.
He remembers lying in bed together in the back room of their mobile home close to the end. He asked his mom what he should be when he grew up: a pro basketball player or a pro football player?
"She told me it didn't matter as long as I was happy — I remember that clearly," he said. "To her, it was probably one of those little fleeting questions, but as I look back on all those memories, I'm 100 percent convinced that she's been an angel in the whole process."
To Larry Krystkowiak, his love of sports and his love for his mother have been inseparable; his passion to become an NBA was driven by making Helen proud, even after she was gone.
That's also the motive for why Krystkowiak has committed so fully to battling cancer, the disease that took her life.
Like many coaching staffs last month, the Utah coaches wore sneakers to raise awareness for Coaches vs. Cancer. The team has run in the Huntsman 5K twice in the last three years to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and Krystkowiak has donated personally and from his foundation each of the last five years, a spokeswoman from the institute confirmed. On Monday, Krystkowiak — like the four other in-state basketball coaches — was in the sandwich line at Subway, making lunch to raise donations for cancer causes. He's been involved since his Montana days, when he and his coaches and players donated hair to Locks of Love.
But those close to Krystkowiak say the true measure of his resolve is how he treats people away from the spotlight: giving cancer patients his time and money, going the extra mile to help those afflicted as he was. Fighting cancer is a cause that Krystkowiak is never too busy to address.
"People talk about how character is who you are when no one is looking," deputy athletic director Kyle Brennan said. "He's helped a lot of people who are having a tough time with cancer. To me, that says more about who he is as a person."
Brennan has first-hand experience on how the Runnin' Utes can change a cancer patient's outlook: His son, Mac, has been battling leukemia since 2013. When he was first diagnosed at age eight, Krystkowiak brought him in for team meetings and practices, making him feel included in the culture of the team.
He still occasionally opens the court at the Huntsman Center or the basketball facility to let Mac shoot on his own.
"That first year Mac was sick, he felt like a coach on the team," Brennan said. "Mac couldn't go to school and couldn't do much. He really gave Mac a purpose, a reason to wake up in the morning."
Last year when one of his former players, Cory Reiser, was dying of cancer, Krystkowiak flew the family out to the Pac-12 Tournament, and brought Reiser's son Isaiah into the locker room. He and his wife Jan Krystkowiak are believed to be helping financially support Isaiah since Cory's death last May.
Krystkowiak doesn't talk much about these gestures, but they're seen. Jack Bickmore, who worked alongside the coach during the Subway fundraiser and helps coach his sons at Brighton, said he's seen Krystkowiak approach children at the high school afflicted with illnesses of all kinds, and strike up conversations.
"It's kind of amazing the time he spends doing that stuff," Bickmore said. "He's willing to come up to anybody."
When those on his staff have been affected, Krystkowiak has been similarly supportive. When team trainer Trevor Jameson contracted multiple myeloma, he raised money to help send his family on a vacation. When assistant Andy Hill's father Rick Hill, who had only recently retired, contracted a rare form of brain cancer, the team dedicated the 2014-15 season to him, wearing "RH" patches on their jerseys.
"Everything about that was remarkable," Andy Hill said. "The team, the coaches, and Larry. He's a compassionate and thoughtful guy, and really was instrumental in helping us get through it."
It's always been a personal issue for Krystkowiak, but it became even more personal last year when he learned he had cancer in his thyroid.
As far as cancers go, Krystkowiak said he would hit the "deal button" on thyroid cancer every time. It's highly treatable, and relatively easy to remove. While it was known only to a close circle in the athletic department — no players were informed — those who knew still worried.
"When you hear that word, 'cancer,' you worry and think about how you can be supportive," Brennan said. "I don't care if you have the easiest form of cancer to beat. Even though he had a really good type to work with, our look at it was, 'Our friend isn't feeling well.' We were just concerned for how he was doing."
Krystkowiak doesn't make much of it, though he has mentioned that he's had to ride out fluxuations in his energy and weight — two areas regulated in part by the thyroid. He missed some practices last year, and Hill said at times this season, it's still been "a roller coaster" for Krystkowiak physically.
But his own personal journey against cancer pales, Krystkowiak said, compared to what others have gone through. Even this year, as he became a survivor, his thoughts were still centered on his mother. Her memory has continued to guide his passion.
He thinks about her before games. He thinks about her as he makes sandwiches. He thinks about her when he reaches out to those afflicted by cancer.
"When it comes to this week," he said, "I think about my mom a lot."
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Washington State at Utah
P Thursday, 7 p.m.
TV • Pac-12 Network Coaches vs. Cancer
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About Coaches vs. Cancer
The Runnin' Utes are participating in several events and fundraisers for Coaches vs. Cancer this month. Ways to help:
• Donate to the American Cancer Society/Coaches vs. Cancer online at donate3.cancer.org
• Donate at a local Subway restaurant at the check-out counter (through Feb. 11)
• Set up a fundraising event or team (learn more online at http://coaches.acsevents.org/)