Pat Dettman’s Battle with ALS

Pat Dettman was at a football long snapping camp in Las Vegas with his son, Brock, in January when he first experienced the symptoms.

“I got up to get a ball, and my right knee kind of buckled, and I fell,” he recalled. “Of course, my wife and daughters were there and had a good chuckle as their dad looked uncoordinated and fell. We just chalked it up to being old and clumsy.”

He fell a few more times in the following months, but it wasn’t until April that Pat began to suspect something was wrong.He set a doctor’s appointment for himself – which, his wife Lorraine joked, “never happens.”

“I don’t know what (it is indeed) about men, but men don’t want to go to the doctor,” she laughed.

That doctor’s visit led to a follow-up with a neurologist. And in late August, Pat was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

ALS destroys motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord,which communicate with the body’s muscles to control movement. There is no known cure. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,most people with ALS die from respiratory failure within three to five years after first symptoms,and about one in 10 people survives for over a decade.

Casey Lewis, Pat’s friend of 12 years, remembered the heyday of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014. Lewis, Pat and some other friends and family members participated, recording a video of themselves dumping ice and frigid water on their heads as part of the viral trend to spread awareness about the degenerative neurological disease.

“Nobody even knew what it was, but it was kind of the thing to do,” Lewis said. “When he was diagnosed, we knew exactly what it was. It’s the most ruthless, thieving, unfortunate disease there is out there, that just robs you of everything.”

but that hasn’t stopped Pat from continuing his passion for assistant coaching football at Wasatch High School. Pat has driven a golf cart around the field all season, offering advice to players, repairing helmets and setting up equipment with the other equipment managers.

“He thought about how he can make everything better for the boys … from equipment to events to celebrations.”