MOUNT VERNON – Gary Stamp was scheduled to have a follow-up visit with his cancer specialists in Houston next month, but he’s put it off until September.

For one thing, he’s feeling so well that his doctors don’t see the need for him to make the trip right now.

For another, the appointment in mid-July comes smack in the middle of the state high school softball tournament.

Just three months ago, the 65-year-old area coaching legend was not sure he’d even be alive come tourney time, much less preparing a team to play in it as he’s been doing for for the past 42 years.

But there he was last Thursday night at the snazzy softball complex the Mustangs share with Cornell College, a bundle of energy as he prepped his girls for a home game with Marion.

“The last six weeks have been just phenomenal,” Stamp said as he took a short breather after hitting infield practice with the same sharp precision as always.

“I feel the best I’ve felt since last November. I feel really, really good.”

With that, he was off to the cages behind the home dugout, loading up the contraption that whips fastballs for batting practice.

Then he greeted the night’s umpires, gathered his team to go over the lineup and huddled with son Shea to talk strategy.

“Dad’s doing everything he’s always done, except I do most of the pitching in practice,,” said Shea, who volunteered as an assistant coach this summer when it looked like the old coach might need some extra help because of his health problems.

“I could still do that, too,” Gary Stamp said. “But (Shea) likes to do it.”

In early March, Stamp was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and initially given little hope for survival.

Rather than going home to die, however, he went to the MD Anderson Cancer Clinic in Houston and started a pill-form of chemotherapy treatment that has been successful in the past for his rare type of cancer.

He seemed to get worse at first instead of better.

But since going back to Houston in late April for a checkup, he’s gotten stronger and healthier.

His lungs are clearer, the tumor has shrunk from the size of a tennis ball to a golf ball and the lymph nodes are not as enlarged.

He’s not cured, he stresses, but he is feeling like his old self.

As far as his players are concerned, he’s the same coach that has helped revive the Mustang program over the past five years.

“Nothing has changed,” said junior right fielder Mackenzie Foxen. “He always has the right things to say to get us ready to play."

Even in the early dark days following his dismal diagnosis, senior first basemen Kari Martin said the team knew Stamp would be back for them.

“This is his life,” she said. “He loves what he’s doing, and we love him for doing it.”

The girls are playing their hearts out this year, as is usual for Gary Stamp teams.

They’re 24-6 going into a home doubleheader Monday night with Maquoketa and inching up in the 3A rankings, currently sitting at No. 9. They beat a Class 4A Sioux City East team that was 15-0 and ranked fourth in Class 4A earlier in the season. The Mustangs have more than held their own in a tough schedule sprinkled with bigger schools.

It’s no surprise that Stamp and his players are confident heading into the postseason.

“I’m excited,” Stamp said. “I think we’ve got a good chance this year.”

But this year, especially, means much more than winning or losing on the softball diamond.

“Every day I’m just thankful I’m still feeling well, and I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Stamp said. “And being around these kids puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step.

“It’s the best medicine I could have.”