MEIGS COUNTY, Tenn. — Students at Meigs County High School are showing strong support for their assistant football coach as he fights and recovers from stage 4 cancer.
Jace Greene, who started coaching the team in 2023, received his diagnosis earlier this year when a colonoscopy uncovered a tumor.
“I woke up and had four doctors standing over me and my wife, and they said, ‘Hey, you have the tumor. Looks pretty simple. Gonna go in, take it out, everything should be good,'” Greene said.
However, further tests showed the cancer had spread to his liver. “He’s like, ‘Hey, you know that is cancer. You have stage four cancer. It’s spread throughout your body,'” Greene recalled.
Despite the diagnosis, Greene stayed optimistic.
“I’ve never been scared throughout this,” he said. “I want my wife and daughter to be okay, and I didn’t know how that looked… But I did know that everything was gonna be okay.”
The Meigs County community has rallied around Greene and his family, organizing fundraisers and showing overwhelming support. Head Coach Nathan Simbeck praised Greene’s resilience, saying, “You talk about toughness, Coach Greene’s tough, and just one of the best hearts that I know.”
Throughout his treatment, Greene continued teaching seventh-grade English, setting an inspiring example for his students. “He’s just been a really good example for our kids that there’s days he don’t feel good and he’s still here,” Simbeck said.
Recently, Greene received the news he had been hoping for.
“I get a call from a random cell phone number, and it’s my doctor, and she’s screaming that the test came back negative. She’s like, ‘It’s a miracle the test came back negative. You’re cancer free,'” Greene said.
To honor him, the Meigs County Tigers will wear stickers on their helmets celebrating his cancer-free diagnosis.
Greene’s final treatment is scheduled to end on September 11th.
Reflecting on his journey, Greene said,
“This year is just gonna be really different in a good way, and the rest of my life will be because I’ve learned not to take this for granted.”
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