The numbers turn like pages on a calendar as Don Patterson prepares for his 11th season as head football coach at Western Illinois University.

His third win of the 2009 campaign will make Patterson the winningest coach in WIU grid history.

The longest-tenured coach in the Missouri Valley Conference, Patterson, 58, ranks fourth all-time with 33 league wins and he has coached 108 all-conference selections and 59 all-Americans.

Each season enhances those numbers, but, these days, Patterson takes none of those things for granted.

Not any more.

He has learned that turning calendar pages are a gift, not a guarantee.

"I think you realize it is not a given that you get to live a long time," the veteran coach said of lessons learned from last year's successful battle against tonsillar cancer. "It's not a given that you get to coach a long time. The truth of it is, you appreciate it even more than you once did. You certainly don't take it for granted from this point forward."

Patterson was at Short Hills Country Club in East Moline on Monday for the Quad-Cities WIU alumni chapter's annual golf get-together.

Just less than a year earlier, he was diagnosed with cancer. In late December, after missing 2008 training camp and the season's first seven games on medical leave, Patterson was declared cancer-free.

He said the scare won't lessen his passion for coaching this coming season. Neither will he invest himself less in the job or expect less from his players.

"I think I recognize that every day is an opportunity, and you need to take advantage of it," he said. "It's an easy job for me to sell that to my players because they recognize I am an example of the fact there aren't any guarantees in life.

"You need to take advantage of (opportunities) as they come because you shouldn't assume you are going to have a chance to play football for a long, long time. It may not happen that way."

WIU senior Tim Jackson is a potential example of that, after being sidelined in the spring by a bad back.

The punt returner/safety is not listed on the WIU roster, but Patterson is leaving the door open for Jackson to rejoin the team in August should his back situation improve.

"We are hopeful Tim is going to be able to come back and play," said the coach. "He is certainly our most reliable punt returner."

Another Bettendorf product, sophomore fullback Josh Gableman, moved to the top of the depth chart in the spring, and a third Bulldog, incoming freshman quarterback Carter Ridenour, could challenge for playing time in years to come.

"He is a winner," Patterson said. "They were 24-1 the last two years and he was in the middle of that."

Quad-Cities players who could be in the middle of things this season include linebackers Kyle Glazier, a junior from Geneseo, and Andrew Briones, a sophomore from Rock Island.

Matt Warner, a senior tight end from Sherrard, Ill., should have an enhanced role after averaging 30-plus-yards a catch on nine receptions last year.

"He projects very well as a tight end," Patterson said of the 6-foot-4, 240-pounder, "and possibly as a tight end to play on Sundays."