Columbus North girls basketball assistant coach Karen McCaa inspires the team with a prayer Saturday March 7, 2015, before the Class 4A state championship game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Republic file photo
Despite her battle with Addison’s Disease and other various illnesses throughout the past 13 years, Karen McCaa never lost her positive outlook.
The former Columbus North standout basketball player, assistant football and girls basketball coach and motivational speaker succumbed to those ailments Saturday night. She was 52.
“What she’s gone through the last 15 years or so was unbelievable,” former North girls basketball coach Pat McKee said. “Most people could not have gone through that. For all the battles she had — and she had three or four different diseases, and they were all attacking her — despite all the challenges she had, she found a way to be positive about her life and be positive and encouraging to everybody she met. She had a very uplifting personality. She made others see the good side of every situation.”
McCaa was an Indiana All-Star in 1989 after graduating as North’s all-time leading scorer with 1,064 points. She went on to play at Eastern Illinois before returning to Indiana as a guidance counselor at Milan and Hauser High Schools.
Karen McCaa, left, looks for an open teammate against Columbus East during her playing days at Columbus North. McCaa was an Indiana All-Star in 1989.
The Republic file photo
After picking up a master’s degree from University of Tennessee, McCaa moved to Iowa and became guidance counselor at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She also coached Show Choir at a local high school and was on Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School’s football coaching staff as a life coach.
In the fall of 2010, McCaa began battling Addison’s Disease, which is caused when a person’s immune system attacks the body’s own cells and organs. After being diagnosed with Addison’s, she contracted Lyme Disease, babesia, bartonella and protomyxzoa rheumatica and spent the last five months of 2013 in a treatment facility in Tampa, Florida.
McCaa returned to Columbus at Christmas that year. The following year, she joined the North girls basketball staff as a volunteer assistant for the 2014-15 season that ended with a Class 4A state championship.
“The year we won state, she was there a lot,” McKee said. “She was a volunteer coach for two or three years, and two or three other years, she was a psychology person. There’s no question that she helped players at Columbus North in girls basketball a lot and other sports also a lot.”
Columbus North girls basketball assistant coach Karen McCaa, tells the North girls team where their minds need to be before they take to the court for their first sectional game at Shelbyville, Feb. 13, 2015.
The Republic file photo
McCaa also helped out with the football and baseball programs. The daughter of former North football coach Bill McCaa, she spoke to former coach Tim Bless’ teams after practices and prior to games.
“Karen was a huge part of our program for several years,” Bless said. “It was awesome to get her involved in our program because I admired her dad so much, and I know she made him proud. We all loved Karen; her passion for the Bull Dogs, the game of football and all the young men on our team was contagious. She was always so excited for Friday Night Lights. I always admired her unshakable faith and her courage — she was fearless.”
“She really helped a lot of our athletes in the form of mental training and just positive self-talk,” former North athletics director Jeff Hester added. “No matter what circumstance she was dealing with in her personal life, she always remained positive. Just her personality was infectious, and kids were just drawn to her. She would constantly go our of her way to give encouragement to me, our coaches and our athletes.”
Julie Davis, the mother of 2015 Indiana Miss Basketball Ali Patberg, and her family became close with McCaa. McCaa helped Patberg with her senior project, which she called “A Lasting Impact,” using the letters in Ali’s name.
Davis works for Our Hospice of South Central Indiana, where McCaa was first a palative care program patient, then became a spokesperson and also volunteered for Our Hospice of South Central Indiana.
“She always had a positive outlook,” Davis said. “She probably was the most Godly woman I’ve ever been around and one of the strongest I’ve ever been around, as well. She brought the best out of them. She got them to believe in each other, and she was just a fantastic role model. She’s been a blessing to this community. We consider Karen family.
“She was just a true blessing,” she added. “She is going to be missed.”
When former assistant Brett White took over for McKee as North girls basketball head coach two years ago, he started the Karen McCaa Award.
“First of all her energy, but her positivity, as well,” White said. “If you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t be aware of all the things she was dealing with at that time. She had such a positive outlook.
“We have a chapel that Tom Rust runs with our program on Wednesday nights, and Karen came in two years ago just a few days before her dad passed and spoke to our girls,” he added. “Even with what she was going through, the energy she brought and related to our girls is something I’ll never forget. We started an award in her name because anybody that plays basketball for North High School needs to know who Karen McCaa is because she represents what a Bull Dog is, and she loved North High School.”
White’s wife Allison followed in McCaa’s footsteps on more than one occasion. Allison (Lee) White was an Indiana All-Star from Columbus East in 1994, then went on to play at Eastern Illinois, where she met Brett, who had been a freshman when McCaa was a senior at EIU. Allison then became a radio color analyst with Rust on KORN Country after McCaa had been in that role.
“Our family was friends with their family,” Allison White said. “They would get together and ride horses. We had remained fairly close. She always kind of considered (Brett and Allison’s daughters) Madison and Kaitlin her nieces, too. We had a visit about a year ago, but she would text every once in awhile and wanted to know how the girls were doing and how we were doing. She was one of those people, it didn’t matter what was going on in her life, she made the people around her better people.”
Allison White had just texted with McCaa five days before her passing.
“I’m happy that she’s at peace,” Allison said. “She’s had a rough several years. We’ll miss her for sure.”
