Lima Warriors Football

TOLEDO, OH -- Imagine your a tough guy all your life.  You specialize in full-contact body bruising.  Then one day you wake up and can't even pick up a pop can.  That's just what has happened to one local coach, Dave Calabrese.

Dave Calabrese may not have been the greatest but he was one of the toughest football players to ever come out of Maumee High School.

"He was superman. Nobody could bring down superman," said his wife, Carey.

He went on to play 15-years of semi-pro football including in 2007 with the Northwest Ohio Knights.

Two-years later he now coaches and co-owns the team with his wife, Carey.  His plan was to keep playing but then something happened.

"I was at work and noticed the slurring of my words and weakness in my right arm," said Dave.

After talking to one doctor, then another, Dave learned he had been diagnosed with A-L-S or Lou Geherig's Disease --- A disease, that is gradually robbing him of his speech and his strength.

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"I feel like a wuss, that's all there is to it. I'm usually a tough guy but I can't even hold a glass of water anymore," he said.

Dealing with the sudden physical limitations are obviously difficult but nothing was more difficult than having to tell his family --- Carey and their 4-children.

"The first couple of months were the worst. I couldn't stop crying," said Carey.

Crying for her husband and crying because by some cruel twist of fate.  This was not the first time Carey had been this close to this disease.

"I knew a lot about it.  My grandfather died from it. So when the first word came, I lost it. I know what a horrible disease it is. It takes everything but your mind so you know how everything is falling down. You know you can't talk no more. You know you can't hug the people you love. You can't talk to your children. You just lay there...it's awful," she said.

As with all those that suffer from A-L-S, Dave's prognosis is not good.

"They gave me 1-3 years and I'm already alive one. I'm on one pill that's supposed to extend my life 3-6 months. That's it.  That's all I have," Dave said.

But Carey is not giving up.

"I know what it is. I think God has a mission. I think he wants me to go out and tell people this disease is real and it is out there and get people to recognize it and help us find a cure so we can stop it," she said.

Until then, as you might expect, Dave lives everyday to the fullest with his two greatest passions always at the fore-front..

"I'm all about family and team.  I do everything i can," he said.