VERO BEACH — Mike Rahaley says the show will go on, despite his ongoing battle against prostate cancer.
The longtime local tennis pro said he’s currently undergoing aggressive radiation treatments at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, but he’s scheduled to return to Vero Beach next month and will continue to run the annual $10,000 USTA Futures men’s tournament in April.
“If you’re going to get cancer, this was the right kind to get,” Rahaley said from the Detroit suburbs, where he and his wife, Beth, are staying at a friend’s home until his treatments are complete. “I’m in the middle of undergoing 45 days of radiation – every morning at 8:30, Monday through Friday – and the prognosis is promising.
“We started last month and I should be done the first week in January,” he added. “The doctors say there’s a 99 percent chance they’ll get it all. It just takes time.”
Rahaley, 71, said the daily treatments are painless and take only 15 minutes. The former tennis director at John’s Island, Grand Harbor and Indian Trails said he feels so good that he has been jogging four miles each day on a treadmill.
As he has done for the past 42 years, he spent the summer teaching tennis at the Little Harbor Club in northern Michigan. It was shortly before he headed north in May, in fact, that his doctor suggested he get a prostate cancer screening test.
The results came back positive – “I found out the day before I left for the summer,” he said – and he arranged to be treated in Detroit.
Although Rahaley was unable to return as the tennis director at Indian Trails, he plans to work with juniors at The Moorings and The Boulevard Tennis Club when he returns to Vero Beach.
He’ll also be preparing for the SorensenRealEstate.com Tennis Classic, a lower-level professional tournament that will be played here for the 23rd consecutive year.
Only two other men’s events on the USTA Futures circuit have enjoyed a longer marriage between tournament and town.
The clay-court tournament, which features both singles and doubles competition, is scheduled to begin April 27 at The Boulevard.
“Even if I did nothing but work on the tournament, that takes 250 to 300 hours to put together,” Rahaley said. “So I’ll have plenty to keep me busy. I’m looking forward to getting down there and getting started.”