Like most people, Rob Vite thought colon cancer was something that happened only to those over the age of 50. Never could he imagine a strong, successful high school football coach like him would find out he had a mass at 32.
That was in May 2014, nearly two years after he initially started having stomach problems, and one year after he lost his mother Jody-Kae to leukemia. Looking for guidance, he initially learned there was little available for people like him.
“I was trying to find someone who looked like me to talk with,” he said. “I didn’t even know what was in front of me. I really couldn’t find anybody and then had my surgeries at UNC-Chapel Hill in North Carolina, and when I was on that floor it was all old white men. I didn’t look like them so I couldn’t relate to them. Their struggle was different than mine because they were a little older.”
Eventually finding out he wasn’t alone, he discovered an organization called Colon Club founded in 2003 by Molly McMaster Morgoslepov, who four years earlier was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 23.
“The whole point of the organization was for people that were young getting hit,” he said. “I found brothers and sisters who were just like me. Once I found the organization, they gave me a voice and they gave me another purpose to impact people besides in the classroom and on the football field.”
Fortunately, the former coach and current Liberty Christian School math teacher was only at stage 2 and colon resection surgery rid all the cancer from his body. But it didn’t end his side effects of having most of his colon removed which included losing 45 pounds in five days and sustaining a blood clot.
Because he had the cancer so young, the UNC doctors recommended genetic testing at which time he learned he had Lynch Syndrome, an inherited disorder that led to his cancer. A year later his abdominal pains returned, accompanied by some enlarged lymph nodes. While no cancer was found, he did have the nodes and more of his colon removed without further issue.
By the time he joined Colon Club, Morgoslepov had stepped back from the organization to raise her children and Vite was brought on by her successor to chair its board of directors. He ended up making major changes including bringing Morgoslepov back and grew the organization to where two years ago it merged with Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC), one of the world’s largest colon cancer awareness organizations. He remains with that organization as backup to Morgoslepov on the Fight CRC’s board.
“The biggest thing is we didn’t want to lose the name and didn’t want to lose what we worked so hard for,” he said.
Among his successes was the lobbying efforts to lower the recommended age for colonoscopies from 50 to 45.
Well before his cancer diagnosis, Vite started his career as a purchasing director and pawn shop manager after earning a degree in business management at the University of Florida. He also taught math to youth in jail and realized he liked it enough to get a teaching degree and get into coaching.
Following wife Jade’s career with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, he spent seven years in Sanford, Florida, two in Raleigh, North Carolina, and four in the Milwaukee area before coming to Texas and Liberty Christian six years ago. They have two daughters – Kennedy and Harlow.
He was part of football coach Jason Witten’s staff when Liberty won the first of its consecutive Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools titles in 2023, walking away from the program while remaining at the school as a math teacher.
Since then, Vite has started a non-profit program in Denton for girls called Surge Softball where he coaches his youngest daughter. He also plans to stay involved with Fight CRC including challenging firefighters and police officers to be screened.
“Why I’m here on Earth is to inspire people. Whether it’s in the classroom, or on the field, through the Colon Club, or colorectal cancer awareness, I want to try to help people,” he said. “People did that for me, and I feel I owe that. I’m paying it forward.”
