TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - The Mineola football program was shaken after Head Coach Luke Blackwell stepped away in 2022 to help his son, Jase, who had been diagnosed with cancer at 6 years old.

“When you are in it, now you are trying to figure things out and what all of that means, and at the same time with a young child, you are trying to explain things to that young child, too, in a way that they understand but is also sensitive. So there is a lot of challenges in that,” said Luke Blackwell, the head coach of Mineola football.

“When he left, we didn’t expect him to come back,” said Juan Cervantes, a senior at Mineola who was on the team when Blackwell left.

Blackwell maintained his role as athletic director but traded his clipboard for a seat in the stand, giving him more time to help navi

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