Indomitable spirit Colleagues and friends unsurprised by Wesmen assistant coach’s courage in face of cancer diagnosis By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 5:03 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 4, 2024 Last Modified: 12:52 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 5, 2024 Updates

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Jeff Kovalik-Plouffe has always been the sort of guy who wouldn’t willingly slow down for anyone or anything.

It’s a characteristic that helped make him a trusted political operative, running campaigns for a number of federal Liberal candidates and as a director of communications in government, and more recently, as an assistant coach with the University of Winnipeg men’s basketball team.

The realities of life, however, have forced the 41-year-old Winnipegger to tap the brakes… for the next few months, at least.

In March, you see, Kovalik-Plouffe was in Quebec City while the Wesmen were making their second consecutive trip to the national tournament.

Without warning, he began to feel sick at a Wednesday morning practice. His symptoms worsened over the next 48 hours.

“By Friday, I had to tell (head) coach Mike (Raimbault), ‘I don’t think I can go to this game,’” recalled Kovalik-Plouffe in a recent interview with the Free Press. “I was in my hotel room, and about an hour before (the game) I had to call an ambulance. I was throwing up and now I was getting a little concerned.”

Kovalik-Plouffe missed both of Winnipeg’s games at nationals and remained in hospital until Sunday afternoon, undergoing a battery of tests before doctors found a complete blockage of his colon. Although he was able to fly back with the team, he went straight to Health Sciences Centre for surgery.

An operation to remove his colon is life-altering stuff, but Kovalik-Plouffe is accustomed to the rigours of recuperation from a major health event. In 2000, while trying out for the University of Manitoba men’s basketball team, he was diagnosed with ulcerated colitis and had to quit the team and school.

Five years later, he was also diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease, that would lead to a liver transplant in 2022. He receiving a life-saving organ donation from his sister, Julia Kovacs.

In between, Kovalik-Plouffe was also afflicted by autoimmune encephalitis. He recovered from that, getting massive steroid treatments while also needing to learn to walk and talk again.

He is approaching his latest cancer diagnosis with a similarly fierce resolve. After going public with his battle in an Instagram post, he received more than 500 messages of support on the first day.

“They classify it as a Stage 3 cancer and they suggest you do chemotherapy,” said Kovalik-Plouffe, who carries only 160 pounds — a drop of 20 pounds since his surgery — on a 6-3 frame. “I kinda had a feeling that was how it was going to break out over time because, with colitis, a lot of people get colon cancer over time. When they told me that, it was a little bit of a shock.”

His resilience doesn’t surprise old friends such as Winnipeg South Centre MP Ben Carr. Kovalik-Plouffe ran Carr’s election campaign in 2023.

“Jeff’s a fighter,” said Carr from Ottawa. “He doesn’t let the challenges and obstacles that life puts in his way distract from his joy of life, the contributions that he wants to make, his spirit — and that’s what makes him special.

“He has been through so many things that I would think the average person, understandably, would use as a justification for slowing down and taking a step back. And he’s never done that. It’s just not who he is.”

“Jeff’s a fighter. He doesn’t let the challenges and obstacles that life puts in his way distract from his joy of life, the contributions that he wants to make, his spirit — and that’s what makes him special.”–Ben Carr

Kovalik-Plouffe’s loyalty to the Wesmen has been reflected in the tight bond he’s forged with Raimbault in two seasons since joining his staff following an 18-month recovery from the liver transplant. At nationals, retiring U of W athletics director Dave Crook kept vigil in hospital.

“I talk to (Mike) almost every day,” said Kovalik-Plouffe. “He’s been one of the most supportive people through this whole process. They were great while I was away in Quebec and Crook missed his last-ever U of W basketball game when we were playing on the consolation side, just to hang out with me in the hospital. I told him to leave, but he didn’t listen.”

Said Raimbault: “He’s obviously got a great degree of toughness and resiliency to persevere and to continue to take care of all the things that he needs to do. He’s a fighter and we’re counting on him to continue to be as tough and fight as much as he has previously.”

Kovalik-Plouffe’s dedicated work in government service is matched by his love for basketball, a sports he coached for years at the high school level prior to working in Ottawa.

“He’s there every single day,” said Raimbault. “He’s there early, he stays late. He helps the guys with extra things. He’s helped to take things off of my plate so I can focus on other things. He’s the ultimate team guy and he’s been a huge part of what we’ve been doing.”

”He’s the ultimate team guy and he’s been a huge part of what we’ve been doing.”–Mike Raimbault

Kovalik-Plouffe also ran the late Jim Carr’s election campaigns in 2015 and 2019.

“He’s an unbelievably loyal and genuine person,” said Ben Carr, whose father died in 2022. “And I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for a very long time. He ran my campaign last year, he ran my dad’s campaigns. He worked for my dad. When my dad was dying, there were very few people who were invited to be by his bedside to say goodbye and Jeff was one of them.”

Kovalik-Plouffe has his eyes on the prize: a complete recovery that will get him back to a cherished place.

“Basketball has been a big part of my life,” he said. “My goal is to get through the chemotherapy in October and be back on the sidelines for when the Canada West season starts and I want to get back to nationals. This (last) experience wasn’t as much fun as the first one.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca