Matthew Mitchell celebrating a win with his daughters. (Vicky Graff Photo)
He’s still not close to full speed but Kentucky women’s basketball coach Matthew Mitchell is at least able to be back on the court with his team and considering he had brain surgery in June, that’s a big step forward. Mitchell was in Mexico with his wife and two youngest daughters last spring when he fell while hiking. He thought he was fine but in June persistent headaches let him know something was not right. Doctors found a small crack in his skull that was allowing blood to enter and put pressure on his brain.
Mitchell, 49, said Thursday that was “appreciative” of the support his family has shown him in recent months as he’s gone through recovery that has not been easy when I asked him how his family had helped cope with his injury.
“It was good in some respects as far as being able to slow down and spend some time with family. So anytime, even for someone like you Larry, you have known me for a long time, I’m not the smartest guy, so you start poking around my brain, there’s not a whole lot of damage you can do there,” Mitchell said.
“But anytime you start drilling holes in your skull it’s a bit of a scary proposition initially. The team at UK Healthcare just did an amazing job and surgery was very successful and my family was very supportive during my recovery, so very blessed and grateful for a wonderful family.”
Mitchell is an outgoing, active person. No surprise he says being patient during his recovery was his most difficult challenge. His players were not on campus due to the pandemic and when they did return he had confidence his coaching staff could run the program until he got back on the court.
“The initial challenge was the recovery and without getting into it in too much detail the surgical area was hard and is still healing. That was a big challenge with the pain in your head and getting over that and bone heals very, very slowly,” Mitchell said. “That is difficult and was difficult and then just being patient and just knowing how fast paced basketball is.
“The team had been practicing and you show up at practice and it is moving really fast and just being patient and knowing that it is all not going to come back in one day. The coaches have been so supportive and that has been an amazing process. I think just being patient when in 25 years of coaching you have been going non-stop and now you have to slow down. That was a bit of a challenge.”
Mitchell admitted it was a “sobering moment” after his surgery.
“It just makes you understand how precious life is and I know we all say that and believe that but it just makes you realize that we are not promised anything,” Mitchell said. “What I have just tried to do is be real grateful to God for all the blessings I have with my family and then just the opportunity to be around such a special group of people in our basketball program.
“These are incredible young women that are just going to make a great, great team and a team we are all going to be proud of. It is an incredible opportunity to be around a group of people like that. I think it just heightens my gratitude for just the tremendous people in my life. I am real grateful for that.”
