Torbush defeats cancer

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD…

Carl Torbush, assistant head coach and linebackers coach for the Liberty Flames, said that he never imagined he would be coaching today. With his feet propped up on his desk, his body leaned back against his office chair and a smile on his face, he said that he thought he would be sitting in his home by the lake in Tennessee.

Instead of overlooking the water this fall, however, he has spent his time preparing the Flames for their quest for a Big South title.

Coming out of retirement to coach under Head Coach Turner Gill in his first year at Liberty, Torbush has conquered personal adversity to coach the Flames.

There were various factors contributing to his choice to coach in Lynchburg, Va., but one reason almost prevented him from ever stepping foot into Williams Stadium.

… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

In the middle of the 2010-11 season, while serving as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach under Gill at Kansas University, Torbush went to the campus doctors for a routine checkup.

An avid baseball player and runner, Torbush can serve as an example of how to stay in shape. During the interview, the 61-year-old said he was considering a jog in the brisk, post-Hurricane Sandy weather afterward.

Despite being in shape, when Torbush went to the University of Kansas doctors for a physical, they realized that he had above-average prostate-specific antigen levels.
After a second opinion, the doctors eventually told Torbush the one word that no one wants to hear — cancer.

“(The doctor) said, ‘I need to see you.’ When he said that, I knew something wasn’t right,” Torbush said. “I was very much at peace because I knew if it was the Lord’s will, it was the Lord’s will.”

Even though it was low-grade prostate cancer, action needed to be taken right away.

Torbush decided to retire from Kansas University and from coaching in general, electing to have a radical prostatectomy. He returned to East Tennessee with his wife, Janet, and son, Trey. The surgery was successful, and Torbush was back to playing baseball and jogging almost immediately.

Torbush said that he was happy in retirement, but he heard of Liberty’s opening for a new head coach. He thought Gill would be a perfect fit. Torbush made a few phone calls and, in December of 2011, Gill was hired as the head coach of the Flames. Soon after, Gill worked to hire Torbush as a member of his coaching staff.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

However, Torbush had some reservations, which he made clear to Gill, saying, “I will not come if my cancer’s not totally clean and cleared.”

“I went and got rechecked about two weeks later,” Torbush said. “I was scot-free, zero-zero-zero. So, I felt that that was the Lord’s way of telling me, ‘You need to go.’”

With a slight smile, Torbush said with his Southern drawl, “So, here I am.”

Arriving in Virginia, Torbush was impressed with the kindness of the people and the atmosphere of Liberty, noting how he can pray with athletes without being condemned by fans and onlookers.

His praise of Liberty’s values and its facilities comes with much experience and with the perspective of a lifetime of coaching. He began his life after graduation from Carson Newman College in 1974 playing a year of baseball in the Kansas City Royals’ organization. From there, he moved up the ladder from high school football to a graduate assistant position at Baylor University and later to assistant coaching positions at Southeastern Louisiana and Louisiana Tech.

In 1983, Torbush became the defensive coordinator at the University of Mississippi and at the University of North Carolina before earning his first head coaching position at UNC in 1998.

He also had stops at Alabama, Texas A&M, Carson Newman, Mississippi State — his alma mater — and eventually Kansas, where he served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach under Gill.

There, his loyalty to Gill was enforced.

“If I started my coaching career again at age 25, I’d coach for him for the rest of my life,” Torbush said of Gill. “That’s how much I think of him.”

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Due to his loyalty to Gill and Assistant Coach Robert Wimberly, Torbush committed to coaching the Flames Dec. 28, 2011 — the same day he discovered he was cancer-free.

“The Lord gives us experiences, heartache and trials, and learning how to deal with certain situations,” Torbush said. “I think, over a period of time, those experiences give us the wisdom we need to have to deal with certain situations.”

Sitting at his desk, which is strewn with Bibles and devotional books, Torbush reflected on what he has achieved so far in his life. The seasoned coach who has overcome cancer brings a wealth of life and coaching experience to Liberty University.

He has overcome being let go from positions, criticism and a cancer diagnosis.

Throughout the interview, however, he kept mentioning God’s will with a smile spread across his face. When asked to describe something he learned during his battle with cancer, he spoke for a while on serious matters, paused, looked up from his desk, and said:

“Don’t take yourself too seriously.”