Jennifer Rocha 'Really Grateful' to be Back With Oklahoma after Cancer Diagnosis

NORMAN — Jennifer Rocha walked from the dugout to the circle at Love’s Field just like she’d done plenty of times before.

This one was different though.

The Oklahoma pitching coach made her return to Love’s Field on Tuesday when the Sooners took on Wichita State.

It was Rocha’s first game coaching there this season after returning from a seven-week absence as she battled cancer.

And the OU fans welcomed her back with a hearty ovation as she went to the circle for the third-inning visit with pitcher Sydney Berzon.

They then gave her another strong round of applause as she headed back to the dugout.

Rocha kept her eyes fixated straight ahead on both walks.

“I really didn’t know how to react to the crowd,” Rocha said after the Sooners’ 12-3 win. “So I can say thank you to them right now for just that warm welcome back. I was really trying to get Syd on a good page, this is only my second time with her out on the mound so my wheels were turning and the fans were going so I didn’t know whether to stay locked in or to really let go for the crowd but I’m really grateful and it felt good to hear that warm welcome back.”

It was a long way from hearing the disheartening news that she had a rare form of cervical cancer.

“Anybody that … has had or has cancer understands the mental toll that it takes to really keep your mind in the right space and to keep it positive,” Rocha said.

Rocha leaned heavily on her faith during her fight with cancer.

“I feel like generally speaking I’m a positive person but it’s pushing you into a space where you have to look at life from a different perspective,” Rocha said, “and so having my family and a support system that has just pushed me to think positive and to maintain the integrity of my faith and to really believe that God can heal and He does and He did and He can and He will and I believe that.”

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Rocha stayed connected as much as she could with the team, with Patty Gasso and with the players.

But treatments and their after-effects limited her to sporadic contact, a difficult thing for the hard-working Rocha to handle at times.

“There’s a healing time that really is necessary,” she said. “When you’re a competitive person and motivated to work, sometimes your body doesn’t always agree with that and so I had to respect the process.”

But recently, Rocha visited with her doctors at OU Health Medical Center, and received the news that she was cancer free.

“I think anybody that has been under those circumstances, when you get that news, when I got that news, you don’t realize — I wouldn’t call it a hole but it’s a really big burden,” Rocha said, thinking back to the day she was diagnosed. “As much as people around me were lifting me up, I just as soon as I heard that news and less than 24 hours … I woke up feeling really light the day that I knew we were gonna find out the certainty of where the cancer was at. I felt really light that morning and I just felt like I had really just given it to God and just kind of surrendered the space of what it might be, good or bad and…”

Rocha stopped to collect herself.

“I’m just really grateful I came out on this end,” Rocha continued. “... I really just can’t thank God enough for healing me and allowing me to be cancer free.”