Football coach fought through cancer and now brings tenacity to raising awareness

Rob Vite's first reaction was disbelief after cancer was discovered in his colon at age 32. His second was to suggest keeping the traumatic news from his pregnant wife. His doctor overruled that one.

Now Rob is telling anyone who will listen about the importance of being screened for this deadly cancer. This week he's in Washington sharing that message with members of Congress and pushing for more federal support for colorectal cancer research.

This is a guy who can make you believe life is like football, attitude is everything, and cancer doesn't have to win. Don't bother him with survival rates.

"I don't like talking percentages," he said. "I tell people I'm a winner in everything I do in life, so it doesn't matter to me. I don't care what people predict."

Rob has nothing against numbers in the classroom. He teaches math at Whitman Middle School in Wauwatosa. And he's a new assistant football coach at Waukesha West High School. His kids have heard about his disease. They're old enough to know that life happens this way sometimes.

"It doesn't define who you are. I don't let things bother me. I just keep going," he tells me.

Rob, now 35, grew up in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando, playing football in high school and hoping to walk on at the University of Florida before a torn knee ended his playing days.

He met his wife, Jade, at the university and they graduated in 2004 and married four years later. Rob coached football and taught at the high school level in Sanford for seven years, and then they moved to Raleigh, N.C., where he continued teaching and coaching.

Stabbing abdominal pains that had begun in Florida — and were misdiagnosed as an ulcer — returned in North Carolina. A colonoscopy led to the cancer diagnosis.  Most of Rob's large intestine was removed, which will make eating and bathroom habits challenging the rest of his life. But the cancer has not returned.

Genetic testing found Lynch syndrome, which had predisposed him to get colorectal cancer. His mother, Jody-Kae, long his biggest cheerleader in life, contracted leukemia shortly before she died in 2011 at age 50. She also had multiple sclerosis.

It was difficult to watch her deteriorate and wind up in a nursing home in her 40s. And it made the shock of Rob's diagnosis hit even harder. It didn't help that the family had just moved from Florida and were away from all of their support systems there.

"I truly felt our world was caving in on us," Jade said. "But he was like, 'We're going to be fine. I'm strong and healthy, and we're going to fight this thing. It's a story that we're going to tell.' "

"The fact that he is such a vocal leader in everything he does — at work, in football coaching, in our family — I knew he would take it and run with it, and turn what could have been a terrifying horrible situation into a positive," she said.

Rob calls Jade a smart, tough warrior and his stabilizing rock. "She's a little pit bull just like I am. Well, I'm actually a bigger one at 6-3 and 220 pounds," he said.

The Vites have two daughters, Kennedy Kae, 6, and Harlow Faith, 2. Jade's job in personnel at Enterprise Rent-A-Car brought them to Wisconsin in 2015. They live in Waukesha.

"Between the Tosa community and the Waukesha community, since I moved here they have been there with open arms. They come to my events. They donate money. They help raise money. They walk with me," Rob said.

Last year, Rob and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch spoke at the Get Your Rear In Gear run/walk to raise money for colon cancer awareness. And Rob helped draft a proclamation signed by Gov. Scott Walker to make March Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

After Rob’s diagnosis of Stage 2 colorectal cancer, he went online to learn everything he could about his disease. He found out it's the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men, and rates of the disease are rising sharply among millennials and Generation X.

Rob connected with an organization called The Colon Club and last May was chosen to attend a weeklong retreat at a resort near Nashville. He is one of 150 ambassadors for the club and another advocacy group descending on Washington this week to spread the word and share their personal stories.

“I tell people I teach kids, I teach football, and now this is the next thing I'm trying to teach."

Contact Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl