HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Anyone who has met Marshall University football defensive line coach J.C. Price knows he puts his heart into the profession.
A few weeks ago, Price heard some news from a doctor that limited his ability to put his all into coaching.
The problem was with his heart.
“I had a flutter, which caused my heart to go into a-fib (atrial fibrillation), so I had to get a procedure — a cardiac ablation,” Price said. “The upper chamber of my heart would flutter and it caused an irregular heartbeat. It would beat really fast, so they went through my femoral artery and up to my heart.
“They cauterized — basically shut down — some of the electricity that is circling your heart.”
The diagnosis forced Price to do something a bit different to him — be up in the press box for games — until he could get into the hospital to have the procedure done.
It wasn’t something he wanted to do, but knew it was necessary to get back to coaching at the level he expected of himself.
“I couldn’t exert myself, I couldn’t run around, I couldn’t coach the way I wanted to…