CINCINNATI, Ohio — The La Salle football team is gearing up for its first state championship game since winning three state titles between 2014 and 2016.

And this one has a little extra meaning for one of the Lancers’ leaders on the sidelines.

• After a two-year absence, La Salle’s football team is back in the state championship game
• A liver transplant kept the line coach off the sidelines for much of the regular season
• He achieved his goal of getting back with the team by the playoffs, and his new goal is to win the state title

As La Salle’s football team prepares for the state championship later this week, they had to go through much of their season without a veteran coach.

But now, he’s back for the biggest game of the season.

Line coach Tom Doeger has been coaching the Lancers since 1992.

“I’ve been here almost 30 years," Doerger said.

But a medical emergency forced Doerger off the sidelines for much of the regular season.

“I found out I had something that’s called primary sclerosing cholangitis, which is a big fancy word which means that your bile ducts are constricting," Doerger said.

That was last November. Over the summer, he went through chemo and radiation, and then late this summer, was put on the transplant list for his liver.

Just three days after the Lancers’ first game of the season, he got the call that he had a match.

“He’s such a mainstay in this program and in our school," La Salle Head Coach Pat McLaughlin said. "To see such a tragedy, needing a liver transplant, it worked out, and him coming back healthier and better on the other end is just awesome.”

“Coach Doerger has been a big part of the La Salle community, part of the team forever," said Dylan Demaison, senior right tackle. "And it was really on the seniors and Coach Taylor to step up and fill in his spot.”

Coach Doerger’s goal was to get back on the field with the team for the playoffs. He shares that the La Salle community support, including dropping off stacks of letters at his home, was a source of inspiration.

“They dropped it off on the porch and I got it, and to be honest with you, I started crying," Doerger said. "I thought, I don’t deserve this. I’m just a coach here.”

But the team says Coach Doerger means a lot to them.

“He’s really been a source of inspiration for us," McLaughlin said. "He came back and talked to us St. X week. He was back in between his hospital stays just out here watching. So, every time he came back, it was inspiration and just giving awesome messages to our kids.”

And now this team is succeeding at the right time, heading to the state championship after winning in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

“It’s about as surreal as having the transplant," Doerger said.

The goal, of course, is to win Thursday night.

Coach Doerger says he wants it for this team, but the team and coaches say they want it for the coach that fought so hard to be with them.

“I think everybody, yeah there’s a little piece of us that would love to win it for coach and I think he deserves, in all that he’s gone through," McLaughlin said.

“The joy that I would have would be for these guys," Doerger said. "I’ve been there, I’ve done that... whether I had this liver, or the liver I had before.”

La Salle plays Massillon Thursday night at 7:00.  You can catch the game on Spectrum News 1.