Skip to content

Sentinel coach puts the focus on kids, not cancer

Rob Inman vows to stay on despite serious surgery

Sentinel secondary super coach Rob Inman loves to talk soccer.

In fact, through all my years of conducting interviews, I've met very few people who love to talk - about nearly anything - as much as Rob Inman loves to talk.

Usually when I call him up to talk soccer I barely have time to get a question out before Inman launches full speed into a detailed analysis of whatever particular team he's working with at the moment.

Ten minutes later he'll still be going, having covered such topics as how he likes his kids to run the pre-game warm-ups, what the weather might be like for upcoming games, and how he figures out what position each player should play. By then he may have even segued into his days with the B.C. Lions, way back in the early 1980s when he was team director and earned his very own Grey Cup ring.

It's charming, but to be very honest my mind does sometimes wander when Inman is already a couple of minutes into a story about taking the kids to Dairy Queen and the end of the tale seems nowhere in sight. On Tuesday, during one such conversation, Inman caught my attention in the strangest of fashions as he was explaining why one of the games for the team he is coaching now, the Sentinel senior girls, needed to be moved up one day. This was already at least 10 minutes into our conversation.

"I'm going into hospital next week because I have cancer and I'm getting a tumour out," he said. "I got the game moved from Wednesday to Tuesday so I could be there with the girls. I'll be there for the West Van game on Tuesday and hopefully I can be there on Friday."

He then continued right on into a description of how his team, currently second place in the North Shore AAA league, is doing so well this year despite the fact that he starts five Grade 10s and has only three Grade 12s total.

Hold on Rob. Cancer? Inman has actually been coaching the team while undergoing treatments to get rid of cancer cells on his face. And yes, he did politely request that the league move next week's game from Wednesday to Tuesday so that he could be on the sidelines the day before his April 23 surgery to remove a tumour that's near his eye.

Sentinel athletic director Glenn Johnston said that when he found out Inman's predicament before the season started, he immediately assumed that the school would need to find another coach for the team. Inman was having none of that.

"He was adamant - no," said Johnston, adding that Inman has continued to go above and beyond his expected duties as a community coach despite some severe side affects from his treatments leading up to next week's surgery. "It just lit his face up - his whole face started peeling and cracking because the chemo was attacking the cancer cells in his face.... I know he felt a little embarrassed with it but he still has been up every day helping out, getting the team ready. They're having a great season too."

For the folks at Sentinel, Inman is more than just a coach. Johnston confirmed my own assessment that he is, among many other things, a world-class talker.

"Rob talks so much," he said with a laugh.

"You get Rob talking, you won't be able to get away.... That's Rob. He'll chat you up. The kids always roll their eyes, but they love it. He's like a second dad to them."

Whether it be the kids, fellow coaches, or random reporters that he's talking to, Inman always has a story. Johnston said when he first met Inman, who has been coaching at Sentinel for 15 years, he wasn't sure if the tales were true. Now he knows.

"The stories are insane but they're actually all true," said Johnston before listing off some of his favourites. "Sure enough, I went to his house and there he is, he's got that Grey Cup ring.... At one point he owned a hotel in Waikiki.... Do you know about the cats? He's got like 35 cats in his place. He's like a cat shelter. He'll come to Sentinel in the morning, back to work for a few hours, then go coach, then go home for dinner and then he'll go back out to feed, like, 30 cats. He literally spends like $2,000 a month on animal food and spaying and neutering. He's the most interesting guy I know."

Johnston said that Inman is following in the footsteps of his highly regarded father Derek, the namesake of North Vancouver's Derek Inman Park who was named to the Order of Canada for his work with many different North Shore organizations. Rob's work as a volunteer coach at Sentinel, often at the expense of his varied and assorted businesses, has earned him many great relationships with North Shore kids.

"We're all hoping for the best," said Johnston. "I know that at Sentinel everyone appreciates his years of dedication to the kids. It's never been about wins for Rob. It's always about the kids. I've seen him take some really difficult experiences and just turn it around."

This season looks like another great turnaround. Sentinel finished last in the league one year ago but now they are battling for first as this season passes the midway point. The team's next game is Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at Ambleside Park against West Van, the winner of which will take sole possession of first place. The next day is surgery day.

"(The tumour) is attached to the corner of my eye, so I have to have two surgeons and an eye doctor and a plastic surgeon," said Inman. "It will be 10 hours on and off. When it's all over I want them to say to me, everything is good, we got it all and it won't come back and it won't spread. They seem to be pretty confident."

Inman has been told the surgery is nearly 100 per cent successful. That's great for him, because he's nearly 100 per cent sure he's going to be back at Ambleside for the team's next game, Friday at 3:30 p.m. against Argyle.

"My intention is to be on the field on Friday," he said. "I'm not too sure what I'm going to look like. I'm really counting on the skin-craft guy to do a good job."

There is one part of Inman's appearance that will be certain, whenever he makes it back onto the field. Since his skin cancer diagnosis he's been ordered to wear sunblock, sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat whenever he is on the sidelines. His hat choice, like the man himself, is pretty interesting.

"I'm wearing my Indiana Jones hat I got at Disneyland," said Inman. "The girls all think I look really goofy when I'm wearing my Indiana Jones hat. They want me to have it when we do the team picture."

The situation has been a little tough on the team. With the scarring on his face Inman was forced to let them know exactly what was going on. It was the coach who ended up consoling the kids.

"I got hugs from a few of the girls at the time and they started tearing up and I said 'Don't worry guys, I'm fine. I'll be there with you for soccer.' My two co-captains, Nicola (Bonnell) and Jenn (Lesage), they've been with me since Grade 8."

It may seem like a stretch to think that the coach actually will be back on the sidelines three days after such an operation, but Johnston has a lot of faith.

"Knowing Rob, my gut tells me he's going to be there, I don't think this is going to stop him," he said. "His (own) kids have all graduated, he's not a teacher here, he doesn't have to be doing what he's doing. He does it because he loves working with the kids.... His passions are basically working with kids, and soccer."

Inman, in fact, already has an important game plan drawn up for Friday's game.

"The priority for the girls is that I'll still be there for them," he said. "And after the game we can still go to Dairy Queen."