Sophomore year the whole Nashua High School South girls soccer community was in for a hard season. Sure each player has had a difficult season, but for most of us this season wouldn’t compare to any other. It started off like any other season, tryouts the week of August 19th, it’s easy to remember because it is always the week of my birthday. Wednesday would be the day that teams are decided and the rest of the week would be practicing with your appointed team. One thing that was noticeably different was the presence of an assistant coach, Coach Kelly, for the varsity team. Very unusual for Coach Beyers to have an assistant, but for everyone this season was off to what seemed like a normal start.
The varsity team went on to play in our yearly tournament and came out winning the games we played. We were excited to see where the rest of the season was going to take us. We were constantly working hard as a team. It was one of the few teams I have been on where we each line connected on the field, which was a huge strong suit for us. But, it was all about to change.
Tuesday September 4, 2012, during 3rd block, an announcement came over the loud speakers of the whole school, “All players apart of both girls JV and varsity soccer team please report to the auditorium”. Some of us just thought our game time was getting changed, while others thought we were in trouble. Once we arrived to the auditorium we were faced with our principle, athletic director, Coach Kelly and JV Coach Watson. All but Coach Beyers.
That day we found out Coach Beyers had pancreatic cancer and had passed away. In shock and with emotions high, we now understood why Coach Kelly appeared this season as an assistant coach. Coach Beyers knew he wouldn’t make it the whole season coaching but couldn’t give up the love he had for the sport so he brought along his former player whom he trusted with his team. Coach Kelly was now appointed head coach for the remaining of the season.
With a season still left to play, we were faced with the hard reality of taking the rest of the week off to greave our loss or to play for Coach Beyers. Ultimately it was left up to the players when it probably shouldn’t have been. We decided to play our scheduled game that day, for Coach Beyers. Upon taking the field, they recognized the work Coach Beyers had done through the 30 years of coaching at Nashua High School South. Each player on the team was still filled with all different kinds of feelings, most of us bringing those feelings on the field. With an aggressive game, our minds were not in the state to play a game and no matter how hard we tried the pieces were not coming together. We lost the game which really made our emotions worse because now we felt like we let down Coach Beyers.
The next day our practice was cancelled for a day to gather all our thoughts and emotions, something we should have done instead of playing the game the previous night. Once we regrouped and began practicing again we had a different flow, we were missing something. It felt like our once tight knit team lost a section of stitching and we didn’t know how to seal that hole. It was truly hard to say if we would be able to regroup and make it to playoffs like we once thought we could do.
In light of all the emotions, both JV and varsity teams banded together and did a bake sale with all proceeds going to Pancreatic Cancer Awareness.