Canada's men's soccer coach Jesse Marsch will work with the Canadian Cancer Society to encourage people to undergo testing for early detection of cancer. The cause resonates with the coach, as his wife, Kim, was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago this coming May.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
As every sports fan in this country can attest, this summer’s World Cup will obviously be an important milestone in the life of Jesse Marsch the soccer coach.
Less well known is that it will arguably be an even bigger one in the life of Jesse Marsch the husband and father.
When the planet’s biggest sporting jamboree kicks off in this country on June 12 – with the Canadian men looking for their first-ever win at a World Cup – their coach will already have celebrated a big victory in his personal life.
This coming May marks the fifth anniversary of his wife, Kim, being diagnosed with breast cancer, with that five-year mark representing a crucial milestone for patients remaining cancer-free. For many cancers, if the disease hasn’t returned within five years, the likelihood of it returning later is small.
“The funny thing about my wife’s situation is, she has no family history, she doesn’t drink, she’s a vegan. She’s very healthy,” Marsch said recently. “So [cancer] can hit anybody at any time.”
With 100 days to go until the FIFA World Cup, the countdown begins for Toronto and Vancouver
In Kim’s case, she had undergone a routine check-up shortly before turning 50 while Jesse was head coach at RB Leipzig in Germany’s Bundesliga. After undergoing a mammogram, an ultrasound and a biopsy, her doctor informed her she had cancer. An agonizing wait to see if the disease had spread proved unfounded and Kim had nine Stage 1 breast tumours and five lymph nodes removed from her left armpit in late June, 2021.
“I think the way that we were lucky is that she did early testing and followed her protocols, and we found it early, which meant that it was very treatable,” Marsch said.
In an effort to get more people to go and get tested, and to hopefully get the same kind of positive outcome that the Marsch family ultimately did, the 52-year-old Racine, Wis., native has become an ambassador for the Canadian Cancer Society, the largest cancer charity in Canada.
Given what his wife has been through, Marsch knows the importance of regular check-ups – for both men and women – something he will be following through on in the run-up to the World Cup.
“Next month I’m getting a colonoscopy,” he said. “So we’re trying to practise what we preach, and we know how important it is to identify things early.”
In a year when soccer will be very much front and centre in this country, the Canadian men’s national team head coach will lend his story and his growing visibility to the CCS.
Just like in other partnerships, such as working with the NHL to organize Hockey Fights Cancer fundraisers, the charity is working with Marsch – and Mégane Sauvé of the Northern Super League’s Montreal Roses as a French-language ambassador – to organize Soccer for Cancer.
The hope is that participants will sign up and play host to their own soccer-themed fundraising events, with the possibility of winning a virtual chalk talk with Marsch dangled as an incentive for those who sign up early.
“Basically what we’re trying to do is you create a community that’s united in soccer, but also united in the pursuit of better quality of life and better research and better prevention for a dreadful disease,” said Doug Kane, the director of independent fundraising and sports alliances at CCS.
The CCS invested almost $51-million in cancer research last year, and is relying on programs like Soccer for Cancer to help galvanize support and raise more funds. The CCS approached Marsch a couple of months ago through his management team and after a short meeting, the American coach didn’t hesitate to add his name to the cause, even in the midst of what will be a career-defining year professionally.
“To have someone like Jesse coming on board is an absolute game-changer for this launch and for this program,” Kane said.
For Marsch, getting involved with an organization whose work hits so close to home felt long overdue. He wanted to do something similar while he was with Leeds United in the English Premier League, but with his team in a constant relegation battle while he was in Yorkshire, he just couldn’t carve out the time that something like this association demands.
But now, as the coach of a national team, the demands on his time are a little bit more sporadic.
“In a club job, I had a vision to build things out to be more impactful, but the challenges required so much of my time and energy …” he said. “So this is the good part about being a national team coach, is there’s time and energy to devote to more than just wins and losses.”