Edison’s Coach ‘Mac’ is staying strong through breast cancer battle

A sign posted on the fence greeted those who came to the Edison High turf soccer field on Saturday morning.

“Some people are strong,” the sign read. “Very few are #MacStrong.”

When Kerry “Mac” Crooks walked through that gate just after 10 a.m., it surprised some in attendance. The longtime Chargers coach had just undergone another day of chemotherapy on Friday, but she felt good enough to show up.

Yes, Feb. 7, 2017 will be a day that Crooks won’t forget. That night was certainly memorable, as Edison scored a golden goal late in overtime to beat Los Alamitos for the outright Sunset League title.

Earlier that day, however, Crooks was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. She had noticed a lump in January, and it didn’t go away, so she decided to get a mammogram. Then came the diagnosis, hours before Edison would finish its regular season in spectacular fashion.

“Talk about going from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs,” said Crooks, 45. “It was just very emotional, an emotional day. It would be hard not to be. The game, obviously it was more like a made-for-TV movie, like a Lifetime movie. It was very special, but at the same time, that was the day that I was diagnosed.”

The news hit the program hard. Assistant coach Missy Douglas told the players of Crooks’ cancer a couple of days later, and it made for an emotional banquet as well after the season. The banquet included a speech from Crooks’ former player and assistant coach Kaitlin Thulin, who has flown in from out of state twice since the breast cancer diagnosis to help out “Mac” and her family.

Everyone around Edison knows Crooks. She’s been the varsity girls’ soccer coach at her alma mater since 1991, after taking over the position when she was just 19 years old. She remains very athletic, and she completed her first triathlon last year.

The Chargers as a team this year were close, with a 12-player senior class. How could they support their coach, her husband Matthew and their three children?

Edison senior goalie Jessica Neighbors found one way. On Saturday she organized a soccer fundraiser, with members of the Edison boys’ and girls’ teams participating. There was a donations box near that front gate, as well as “#MacStrong” stickers.

“I decided, basically, a month ago that I was going to have it,” Neighbors said. “It’s been a little rough patch, trying to get insurance and the field and everything, but it’s definitely something I’ve been wanting to do since the news came ... ‘Mac’ is a really strong person, and she never really shows how she’s feeling. It’s always just happy. Having [the banquet] was like a realization of how much we needed to support and help her.”

The Chargers have rallied around that hashtag, #MacStrong. Even with Saturday’s fundraiser coming at the end of Edison’s spring break week, many members of the varsity girls team participated, including seniors Zoe Clevely, Cassidy Helenihi, Kyra Casey and Mikayla Edwards and junior Michael Guptill.

They played in two six-on-six games on short fields before playing a variety of different soccer drills and games as well.

Some wore special shirts that have been made, with the #MacStrong slogan on the back in pink. The color choice made Edwards, a midfielder headed to Kansas State, smile.

“She doesn’t even like pink,” Edwards said. “She’s super-strong, mentally and physically. She doesn’t shy away from anything, and she always has a positive outlook on everything, too. She keeps saying she’s just going to climb the mountain. At times it’s going to be harder, but she just has to keep on going.”

Crooks is about two months into her chemotherapy, with three more months to go. After that, she said, will come surgery and radiation. But she has stayed active, still running when she gets the chance.

Her three kids all still have games to get to as well. On Saturday morning, Crooks’ daughter Riley, 10, participated in some of the soccer festivities. Riley is a talented player who plays club for the SoCal Blues.

“We’re all in battle mode,” Kerry Crooks said. “We’ve been doing good. It was rough right at the beginning, especially because my husband’s sister died of breast cancer. But he’s been amazing. Between him and Kaitlin, they have been amazing. She’s been with me a few times since I was diagnosed. She and her sister played here, and her mom was an assistant coach here too. I’ve known Kaitlin since she was little ... she’s a part of my family too. She’s my little sister.”

That family atmosphere rings true at Edison. Thulin said Saturday in a phone interview that Crooks is a mentor to her, and one of her best friends. She said those who want to donate, or to purchase a “#MacStrong” shirt, can email her at kthulin05@gmail.com. Alternately, donations can be sent to Kaitlin Thulin, 21182 Greenboro Lane, Huntington Beach, CA, 92646.

“She’s the strongest woman I know in my life, but she’s still going to need support,” Thulin said. “She’s given 26 years of her life to coaching young women and mentoring them, whether that be on the field or off the field. She’s given 26 years to Edison and the program, and I think it’s extremely important that our community gives back to her after everything she’s done for us.

“There’s not a doubt in my mind that she’s going to be OK, that’s she’s going to win this battle. But also, we need to wrap our arms around each other as a community and as a program, to lift her spirits up and give her strength and courage through this process. I can’t tell you enough what a selfless mother and sister and daughter and coach and woman that ‘Mac’ is. I look up to her in so many different ways.”

So do the players on her 2016-17 team, if Saturday’s soccer fundraiser was any indication.

On that day of her diagnosis, Feb. 7, Crooks truly did experience some of the lowest lows and some of the highest highs. But she did it all with her soccer family. In a sense, that would be just who she would want by her side. And those players are not leaving it now just because the season is now over.

“Maybe we all knew but we didn’t, that sort of thing,” said Clevely, a goalie bound for Pepperdine. “That was just the most amazing game ever. There was so much meaning to it. Not only was it Senior Night, but ‘Mac’ needed us, and we didn’t even know that she needed us. Just crazy.”

Crooks tends to be a private person, but everyone knows now. And though her attendance at Saturday’s fundraiser wasn’t a given, nobody was really surprised that she showed up.

The hashtag still fits.

The Edison girls’ soccer program is going to stay #MacStrong.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo