Meador has a life lesson with the most important stat of all

One of the most important numbers for Hoffman Estates baseball this season is SPF.

What does SPF matter compared to ERA (earned run average) or OBP (on base percentage)?

Just ask Hoffman head coach Todd Meador why coaches, players, fans and media should pay more attention to SPF.

In the grand scheme, it definitely means more than a few points on a batting average.

The 37-year-old Meador, who is in his ninth year in charge of the Hawks' program, learned that this winter when he was diagnosed with melanoma, the least common but most serious form of skin cancer.

"What's ironic about this is, my coaching staff was shocked because I'm that guy who has bottles of sunscreen," said Meador, who played baseball and basketball at Naperville Central. "I'm that guy who globs it on all the time. In my adult years I've always been conscious about wearing sunblock."

Fortunately for Meador, the melanoma on the back of his neck was caught early enough and removed through surgery in December. He's now considered cancer-free.

But the fair-skinned Meador's adult vigilance toward sun protection underscores one of the primary concerns related to skin cancer. According to the Web site Melanoma.com, protection by children in the first 18 years can reduce some types of skin cancer by 78 percent.

Meador said his doctors couldn't give a definitive time when he got the cancer. He was told because he is in the sun all the time it could have occurred anywhere from five to more than 15 years ago.

"You don't have to be 70 or 75 years old for this to happen," Meador said.

Meador was getting ready for a family trip in August when his wife Heidi noticed a freckle on the back of his neck that seemed unusually dark. It wasn't very large or bleeding but Heidi told Todd he should have it checked.

So he did the typical guy thing. He waited until November.

"I thought it was no big deal," Meador said with a laugh. "As usual, she was right and I was wrong."

Meador went to see a dermatologist and had the area of the skin numbed and removed. A few days later he received a chilling phone call.

"I just hung up the phone and didn't know what to say or think," Meador said of learning he was one of more than 50,000 people each year in the U.S. who are diagnosed with the disease, according to Melanoma.com.

There were a lot of thoughts in the days leading up to his surgery in December. Of his wife and three children who are 9, 7 and 4.

Of Naperville Central baseball coaches Bill Seiple and Phil Lawler and their cancer battles. And his mom Carolyn, who died in 2002 at 57 after battling breast cancer for nearly 20 years.

"I always looked at her as the strongest, most courageous person in my life," Meador said. "I took strength from her even though she wasn't there.

"When I walked in the cancer treatment center at Loyola (Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center in Maywood), that's when it hit me."

Surgery dug out the area further to make sure the tissue underneath was healthy. He also had his lymph nodes removed and has scars 3 to 4 inches long on each side of his neck.

Meador believes he has a good grasp of the workings of the human body as a biology teacher. He learned the real significance of melanoma is the depth it penetrates from the skin's surface.

Meador's was at 0.6 millimeters. At 1 millimeter, it's deep enough to get into the blood stream and spread.

"That's why I look at this as being lucky," Meador said.

Meador will keep trying to decrease his odds of getting it again. His dermatologist told him to use a sunscreen with as high of an SPF as he can wear and be comfortable.

Meador said he uses a Noxzema product with an SPF of 75. And sunscreen has become a part of the Hoffman baseball equipment along with bats and helmets.

"One of our first games at home, it was a sunny day and I made the announcement about sunscreen and left it on the bench for the kids," Meador said. "I looked back one time and saw a handful of kids putting it on and I said, 'That's all I can do.'

"I have a scar on the back of my neck and maybe every time they see that they'll say, "Boy, I should put sunscreen on.' It's certainly not going to hurt them to do it."

Not doing it could have much more painful consequences down the line.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com