![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9428.jpeg\")
Pat Dettman at a Wasatch High School football game. Credit: Photo courtesy of Pat Dettman<\/p>\nPat Dettman was at a football long snapping camp in Las Vegas with his son, Brock, in January when he first experienced the symptoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got up to get a ball, and my right knee kind of buckled, and I fell,\u201d he recalled. \u201cOf course, my wife and daughters were there and had a good chuckle because their dad looked uncoordinated and fell. We just chalked it up to being old and clumsy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He fell a few more times in the following months, but it wasn\u2019t until April that Pat began to suspect something was wrong. He set a doctor\u2019s appointment for himself \u2014 which, his wife Lorraine joked, \u201cnever happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what (it is) about men, but men don\u2019t want to go to the doctor,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n
That doctor\u2019s visit led to a follow-up with a neurologist. And in late August, Pat was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
ALS destroys motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, which communicate with the body\u2019s muscles to control movement. There is no known cure. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, most people with ALS die from respiratory failure within three to five years after first symptoms, and about one in 10 people survives for over a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Casey Lewis, Pat\u2019s friend of 12 years, remembered the heyday of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014. Lewis, Pat and some other friends and family members participated, recording a video of themselves dumping ice and frigid water on their heads as part of the viral trend to spread awareness about the degenerative neurological disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody even knew what it was, but it was kind of the thing to do,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cWhen he was diagnosed, we knew exactly what it was. It\u2019s the most ruthless, thieving, unfortunate disease there is out there, that just robs you of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that hasn\u2019t stopped Pat from continuing his passion for assistant coaching football at Wasatch High School. Pat has driven a golf cart around the field all season, offering advice to players, repairing helmets and setting up equipment with the other equipment managers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thought about how he can make everything better for the boys \u2026 from equipment to events to celebrating little accomplishments in their personal lives to highlighting them on social media,\u201d said head coach Derik Bringhurst.<\/p>\n
Pat Dettman at a Wasatch High School football game. Credit: Photo courtesy of Pat Dettman<\/p>\n
Lewis recalled a moment two years ago when a student athlete was injured during a game. Tearing up, Pat helped the student off the ground as EMTs rushed to help him.<\/p>\n
\u201cPat is 6-foot-4, 375 pounds, but he\u2019s just a big, giant teddy bear,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI remember a couple behind me, they were like, \u2018Holy cow. Look at that big, giant guy. He\u2019s so emotional about this. It must be bad.\u2019 But the reality of it was that Pat just wanted to make sure this young man was comfortable and had a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
An army of friends and local businesses, donating time, labor and funds, backed the Dettmans when they remodeled their home for wheelchair accessibility, beginning in September and finishing earlier this month.<\/p>\n
A week before moving back in, a power wheelchair the family ordered for Pat arrived. Already, he has minimal mobility in his legs. Lorraine said the disease\u2019s progression has been faster than she expected.<\/p>\n
Lorraine recalled the evening they moved back into their remodeled home with the help of friends, neighbors and church members. She had gotten Pat to bed when she went to the bathroom and found an envelope of money had been slipped behind the sink faucet, with no indication of who had left it.<\/p>\n
Bringhurst said he wasn\u2019t surprised that so many people have rallied behind Pat since his diagnosis because he\u2019s touched so many people through his involvement in the football program.<\/p>\n
The latest act of kindness came from Shane Clegg, owner of Mountainland Auto Sales. When Lewis came in to inquire about purchasing a wheelchair-accessible van for the family, Clegg went ahead and ordered an all-wheel drive Toyota Sienna, complete with a hydraulic ramp.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to help. I don\u2019t know Pat personally really well,\u201d Clegg explained.<\/p>\n