To the casual onlooker, Kent Wigle is the image of good health.

The veteran Marshfield coach is 61, but in great shape. He’s playing the best golf of his life, doesn’t show the effects of past knee injuries, and is known to hit the ground for push-ups with his players during drills in practice.

You couldn’t tell by looking at him that he got the scare of his life last fall.

Wigle was diagnosed with prostate cancer after football season, spent the better part of three months early this year getting treatment through one of the top programs in the country, and recovered in time to join the team for summer conditioning.

Across town, North Bend volleyball coach Les Willett is back on the court this fall after also going through a different treatment for prostate cancer.

Wigle and Willett want to turn their experience into a positive, or at least a chance to make sure others are aware of the risks.

Prostate cancer in men is similar to breast cancer for women — the most common form, and one that can be treated with a high success rate if it’s caught quickly.

But it’s also a form of the disease that starts with no side effects.

That’s why it was such a shock for Wigle last fall.

“It’s no fun to find out you have cancer,” he said. “I’ve never had any side effects showing I was ill or sick.”

He credits the diagnosis, which ultimately led to his successful treatment, to Bill King, his family physician.

Wigle went in for his yearly physical last September, and King was concerned that his PSA (prostate specific antigen) level was higher than it had been a year earlier.

“My PSA had gone from 3.8 to 4.5 — not real high for a guy my age, but it was a concern because it had gone up,” Wigle said.

So Wigle scheduled a biopsy with Leo Kusuda, a local urologist, and the results came back positive.

“I got the news on a Friday evening that I had cancer,” Wigle said.

He dove into research on the cancer, trying to educate himself on his options.

“I visited with several doctors and talked with people who have been through the process,” he said. “You make a decision on what fits your profile and you get it taken care of.”

Wigle decided his best option was proton radiation at Loma Linda University in California, the pioneer facility in the United States for that form of treatment, having started using it in 1990.

“I was really fortunate ... to get into the program as fast as I did,” Wigle said.

He and his wife, Susan, got a condominium in California, where they stayed in January, February and the start of March while he got a dose of radiation every weekday morning for nine weeks.

The Loma Linda facility has three treatment stations and treats 170 patients at a time. Wigle’s assigned radiation time was at 5:20 a.m. each day, the second session of a marathon day at the medical center that starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 11 p.m.

“Susan would go with me every morning,” he said. “We’d get done with the treatment and we’d go to the gym every day, except for Wednesdays, which is golf day.”

Wigle got a chance to visit with a few old friends who live in the area and also met a few coaches who were going through the treatment.

“There was a guy in the treatment that was coaching his son in youth football,” Wigle said. “He and I visited pretty much every morning. I tried to help him out.”

Wigle has passed all his tests for cancer since he got back to the Bay Area.

“Hopefully, that’s behind me except for having yearly physicals,” he said.

Now he’s on the educational campaign hoping to make others aware of the cancer.

“I’ve been open with the kids about it,” he said. “I feel that you’re dealt that card, you need to deal with it, educate people, and go from there.”

He’s quick to point out the value of the early diagnosis.

“As long as it’s encapsulated in that area, your success rate is real high,” he said. “I strongly recommend (check-ups) to people who have it in their family, or when you get to that 50-year-old age.”

Willett had a similar experience, going through a biopsy after having higher PSA levels and learning last summer that he had prostate cancer, too.

His research led him to the conclusion that surgery was a better option in his situation, and he picked City of Hope, a medical facility in Southern California renowned for its treatment.

“The reason I picked City of Hope is they’ve done about 3,000 of (these surgeries) with this robot,” Willett said of the surgical procedure, which uses a machine called the Da Vinci Robot. During the 41⁄2-hour surgery, six holes are punched in the area of the prostate gland and all the cancer is removed.

Willett had the surgery in May and said the recovery took about six weeks.

“Everything’s great,” he said. “I’m cancer-free as far as I know. My PSA is down  to zero.”

Like Wigle, Willett wants to spread the word about cancer awareness.

“Family members need to make sure they get checked, too,” he said. “There’s always more of a chance that the male who is closely related will have problems.”