VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Be it as a player or a coach, Jenna Wilson has always been on the softball field. A Smithfield native who played her college ball at East Carolina, she landed at Virginia Wesleyan as an assistant in 2018.
"Softball has given me a purpose," she said. "It's given me an opportunity to go and have an impact on these young women every single day and it's bigger than the field, it's bigger than the game."
Wilson has spent her life on the dirt, learning and teaching from the ups and downs of the game she loves. But no amount of adversity could have fully prepared her for her biggest battle. After last year's Women's College World Series, some routine blood work sounded the alarms.
"I was asymptomatic," she recalled. "I didn't realize that anything was going on and immediately my world was turned upside down. I got diagnosed at the end of July and started treatment about a week later."
That diagnosis was multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer. At first, she decided to conceal it from the team before eventually sharing the news in September.
"That was probably one of the hardest days I've ever had, to sit in that locker room and have to tell them," she remembered. "But it was also a weight that was lifted."
"I was angry, I was super angry," Marlins' head coach Brandon Elliott added. "Then you're just scared. It's your friend, sister, somebody who you love and you care about."
Like they've done countless times on the field, the players responded. First, senior Laci Campbell asked if she could accompany Wilson to treatment. That grew into a larger group that would sit in the waiting room in support of a coach who was in a fight for her life.
"The kids just wanted to be there because obviously I couldn't be at practice," said Wilson. "I wasn't visible, so our Fridays were kind of our day to be together and that was also me going through one of the hardest times of my life."
"This is about as bad as it can get for somebody," Elliott noted. "Just how she's led her life and led these women from afar, she's carried us more than we've carried her for sure."
Fast forward and Jenna's medical team is currently happy with her progress. After 20 weeks of treatment and approximately 70 days following a stem cell transplant, the assistant coach was cleared to return to the field this week. That added a little bit of normalcy to an abnormal time.
"Even if it's been her watching or seeing us from the hill, being able to get her back on the field and to hear her voice and hug her neck, it's just pretty powerful," Elliott said.
"To be able to be let off that leash a little bit and start to get back to normal life, it's huge," Wilson expressed. "I don't have many words to describe that feeling."
The coach is optimistic for what's to come, hoping for good results during her next round of tests, but also understanding more adversity may lie ahead. She has the help of her perseverance, perspective and people.
"It's just come out and enjoy every day," she said. "Being with these women is one of the greatest blessings of my life."
That's a blessing she doesn't take for granted and continues to fight her toughest battles with an army of Marlins by her side.
"I'm sure people will say 'I don't know how you got through that' and there are days she probably doesn't either, but that was the only choice she had," Elliott said. "I think that's what people are going to learn. She's tough as nails."
"Take care of yourself," Wilson advised. "Your health, it's the only one we have and I just turned 42 and I want another 40-plus years."
This is the second time Wilson has battled cancer. She beat salivary gland cancer about 15 years ago.
Saturday will find Virginia Wesleyan softball hosting its 16th annual Strike Out Cancer event during its home double-header against Averett. Elliott started the event to honor his mother and says this year the focus will be showing Wilson all the love they can.
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