Beech Grove basketball coach had brain tumor

GREENFIELD — On Monday evening, Matt English sat at a table at Clowes Hall in Indianapolis. On his lap much of the night was his three-year-old daughter, Addison.

English, his wife, Angela, and their family were attending the St. Vincent’s Spirit of Sports Awards, which recognize dedication, charity and other positive traits associated with athletics.

It was nine months ago, on Oct. 7, that English, a 1991 Greenfield-Central graduate and the Beech Grove boys’ basketball coach and interim athletic director, underwent brain surgery at St. Vincent’s to remove a malignant tumor from his temporal lobe.

As English, 39, bounced little Addison on his knee Monday night — surrounded by many of the same people who have mattered so much to him these last few life-changing months — he couldn’t help but count his blessings.

“During the ceremony with Addi there … I just think those times are special and you cherish those maybe a little bit more than before,” English said Tuesday. “I don’t want to say I took them for granted, but I probably didn’t appreciate them as much as I should have before.

“The cancer, it did certainly put things in perspective. It makes you take a step back and make sure you’ve got your priorities straight.”

English, who also has two older daughters with his wife, completed what he hopes was his final round of chemotherapy Friday. Doctors deemed the October surgery a success and a follow-up MRI is scheduled for July. The outlook of a full recovery for English is good.

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