Longtime St. Scholastica baseball coach John Baggs has a rare form of cancer, the school announced Friday.
Baggs, 42, was diagnosed Oct. 24 and is being treated for cholangiocarcinoma -- cancer of the bile ducts -- which has an occurrence rate of one or two in 100,000 people each year.
"We've had more than 30 visits to SMDC and three to [the] Mayo [Clinic in Rochester, Minn.], and the prognosis has not improved," Baggs said in a news release. "It is hard when they can't tell you truly what you have or where it came from for certain."
Baggs, who has coached the Saints since 1992, often has been limited to his home while being treated with chemotherapy. He hopes to return to the team by April.
"There are some days that are better than others," said Baggs, a Chicago native. "There are days when I don't leave the bedroom and there are days when I do some work from home and on the computer, and then there are some days where I am just in sharp pain."
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Baggs is 531-197 -- a .720 winning percentage -- and has missed just one game in 17 seasons at St. Scholastica.
The Saints, ranked No. 15 in the NCAA Division III poll, open their season Sunday at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. St. Scholastica's five assistant coaches, Tim Anderson, Tom Berrisford, Justin Harriman, Corey Kemp and Joe Wicklund, have guide the team until Baggs returns.
"Obviously the biggest change is that Coach Baggs isn't physically here with the baseball team," Wicklund, a former Saints pitcher, said in a statement. "But he is still our head coach and he still has a big part to play in what we are doing each day to prepare for this season."
