Before the women's basketball season, Ball State University athletics director Tom Collins ordered coach Tracy Roller off a lift next to a team billboard, ending a public relations stunt aimed to sell tickets.
With offseason practices in full swing, Collins wanted to ensure Roller was healthy for the upcoming season. He might have been able to keep Roller from getting sick at that time, but Collins couldn't prevent her from getting mononucleosis almost a month ago.
"I guess it's ironic, but I'm not really thinking about that," Collins said. "Right now I'm really just concerned about Tracy's health."
As Ball State opened the Mid-American Conference portion of this season Wednesday night at Western Michigan University, Roller was in Muncie recovering from her illness. It was the fourth game she's missed since she acquired mono, and the team moved to 2-2 in that stretch with an 84-70 victory against the Broncos.
Acting head coach Lisa McDonald, who has served on Roller's coaching staff since she arrived at Ball State seven years ago, said losing your head coach is a difficult situation for a team to face.
"You're used to losing a player here and there, but you're not used to losing your head coach," McDonald said. "We all miss her and the team talks about her all the time, but there's still games to play and that's what we have to do."
Forced to handle the responsibilities of a head coach for the first time in her career, McDonald said the past month has been a learning experience for her. However, it's the things she's learned serving under Roller that have helped her to the success she's had in the past four games.
"I've been fortunate enough to watch Tracy for seven years," McDonald said. "I just do whatever I think she would do in every situation."
McDonald also said she's been proud of the way the players have responded to not seeing Roller shout instructions from the sidelines.
"We could've crumbled at that point, but we really stuck together," McDonald said. "This team really steps up when they face adversity. Everything we've faced so far has only made us stronger as a team."
An added difficulty to the situation is that there is no set recovery time for people with mono, making it impossible to predict when Roller can return to the team. Collins said the team is waiting to get the approval of Roller's doctor before she can return to the bench.
"I'm not an expert, but I know mononucleosis is one of those sicknesses where there is no set timetable," Collins said. "You have to look at each individual person and what their health level is. Everybody has to be patient because we all want her back on the sidelines, but the most important thing is Tracy's long-term health."
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