OLEAN, N.Y. — For years, Kenny Wright did all the right things from training hard enough to be a contributing member on two very competitive football programs to earning a whole bunch of varsity letters as a fleet-footed sprinter in track.
Once his competitive days were over, he dedicated four years of his life to the United States Army, including a four-month trip to Iraq.
He spent 23 years working for the the U.S. Department of Justice having recently retired after working at the federal prison in McKean County.
He treasures his wife, Teri, and two wonderful daughters, Brianna and Whitney, calling them his “rocks.”
When Wright talks of his fortunes today, you almost sense he feels a bit humbled.
Now an assistant on coach Phil Vecchio’s football staff at Olean High, Wright took a few moments to discuss his life following one of the Huskies’ recent practice sessions.
It was during the 1983 season when Wright and his teammates forged an undefeated 8-0 regular season before falling to Alden, 42-20, in the Section 6 Class B championship game at what was then Rich Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills.
“What made that season was the guys who were on the team,” Wright recalled. “We had a great team with guys like Sean Moran, Jerry Trietley and Tommy Ellis and we were a good team because we played like a team.”
Wright’s contributions that season didn’t go unnoticed. He made the Big 30 All-Star Team and was an All-Western New York selection.
He went on to Muskingum University where he paid his dues (“I was on the kickoff and punt units my freshman year”) before working his way into the starting lineup as a senior.
It was at Muskingum where he ran both indoor and outdoor track while earning a degree in sociology.
Returning to Olean, Wright was hired as a substitute teacher in the city’s school system, but that didn’t last long.
“I just decided that, at the time, it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing with my life,” he said.
So he joined the Army and spent the better part of the next four years stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas.
Wright returned to the Olean area and found the position at FCI McKean to his liking.
In the fall of 1993, he hooked up with Jimmy Lee and Dan Gayton to help coach the South Olean midget football team.
“We tried our best to teach the kids the right way to do things,” Wright said. “It wasn’t so much about the X’s and O’s as it was teaching them more about becoming good young men.”
And that’s one of the messages he tries to deliver today when he and fellow OHS JV mentor Terry Burrows talk to their players.

“I was very fortunate to have Terry in my corner,” Wright noted.
“About four or five years ago, the Olean High football program was looking for somebody to help out and Terry mentioned me to (former Huskie skipper) Mike Kane. He took me on and it was an answer  to a lifelong prayer.
“Coming back to help coach at my alma mater has long been an item on my bucket list.
“So now when coach Burrows and I spend time with the JV kids, we talk a lot about reaffirming our message;” Wright said. “We want them to strive to have good grades, be polite and have respect for their teachers and the football will take care of itself.”
But back in 2007 an annual check-up brought some startling news to his ears.
“My doctor told me I had the signs of having monogammagus, I call it MGUS, in my system,” Wright said. “It’s the same kind of cancer that (now-retired St. Bonaventure  President) Sister Margaret (Carney) has.”
Monoclonal gammopathy (MGUS) is characterized by the presence of an abnormal protein in the blood that is produced by plasma cells, according to the Mayo Clinic. Plasma cells are in the bone marrow that normally produce antibodies to fight infection.
MGUS can be referred to as a benign condition as there is only a small risk that it can develop into myeloma or a related blood disorder. The average risk of progression to active myeloma is about one percent per year. Lifelong monitoring to detect any increase in the paraprotein level and development of symptoms is required.
“So in 2007, I was thinking, ‘OK, there’s a 99 percent chance I won’t get it,’” Wright said. “The next year, it was like I had a 98 percent chance that I would not get it. Seven years later, I got it.”
It was the wrong kind of lottery to win.
“The first doctor I saw told my wife and I that we have to make our peace with God because there is no cure. The average life expectancy at the time was two to five years. Now, of course, there are people who have lived as long as 15 years once they are diagnosed.”
A year ago, with his strength tapped to the point where walking up a single flight of stairs proved impossible, he underwent a stem cell transplant at Roswell Cancer Institute in Buffalo.
“I’m hoping I’m on the 10-year plan,” Wright said. “If I can get 10 years out of my transplant and hope that, by then, they’ve come up with more cures and I can get another 10 years.
“My doctor laughs when I tell him that. Then he tells me my attitude will get me a few extra years.
“I have my two rocks to fall back on … my wife and two daughters.”
Wright said. “It’s unbelievable to have that support. One of the first things I tell people is that you can’t have fear. I believe that if you don’t fear what’s happening, your body will help fight it off.
“You need to eliminate the stress of fear,” he maintained. “Between that and the treatments, I think your body can overcome the disease. That’s the motto I use all the time. No stress, no fear, fight hard.
“I tell people half the battle is having lived your life the right way. Going back to when I returned to Olean, I had my reasons. First, I wanted to raise my girls in a nice community. I got a good job and a good wife.
“I’ve done a lot of the things I wanted to do,” Wright said. “I’ve lived a great life. So if the Lord is going to take me now, what can I say?
“There are still things I want to see, like watching my daughters walk down the aisle. In the long run, though, you also have to look at your life and be able to say, ‘I’ve done what I was supposed to do. I’ve tried to do everything the right way.’”
“I do not want my cancer to be my scarlet letter,” he said. “This is not what I want to be remembered for. I’m not that person. Being out here with my boys is what it’s all about. Last year, when I got out of the hospital, I was at the Eden game standing off to the side. I shouldn’t have been there … I was still wearing a surgical mask. But I wanted to be there. I went to the Bradford High game and could hardly stand. It was a small way for me to tell the guys that I was there for them.
“When I try to motivate kids with my story, they really can’t relate to the disease aspect,” Wright added. “So I try to tell them about my entire life.
“They relate more to my life as a whole, growing up in South Olean wasn’t all that easy. There were some rough situations to overcome. But I did overcome them because I chose to look up to the right people. I had guys like John Elmore and Reggie Spiller who I could look up to.
“What I try to tell the kids today is that they shouldn’t use their circumstance in life as an excuse,” he said. “I tell them that there are things they can do to make themselves better. I always harp on this one thought: Always do the right thing even when you think nobody’s looking.
“I hope I have a positive impact on these kids, I want to make a difference in their lives.
I want to be able to keep kids out of trouble. I worked in a prison for 23 years, so if I can give any kid, football player or not, the message that there value in making the right choices, I can feel fulfilled because I will have accomplished something special and made a difference in their lives.”
(Jim Melaro, a Times Herald sports writer, can be reached at jimmelaro@yahoo.com)