Players’ Player

Keagan jokingly says his knee ligaments peaked when he was in the 7th grade. Since then he’s been diagnosed with OCD in the left knee, Osgood Schlotters in both knees, and hyperextension/ MCL sprains in both knees multiple times. The knee braces, the patella bands, the crutches, the wraps, the physical therapy, the weight lifting, the ice, the rest, the doctor visits, the Advil, the tears, the bad words, the prayers, and now collagen - we’ve tried everything to get those knees healthy. And, yet, six years later, they are still only 80%. 

And yet, he never gave up. He’s the poster guy for perseverance. For grit. For motivation. For sheer determination. 

Tonight he was awarded Players’ Player Award, voted on by the coaches.

I’m so proud of him for chasing his dream and persevering through all of the setbacks. 

Love him big! 

Collegiate Goal

What a night! I’m sleepy. My bed has been so tempting all day after a long weekend and little sleep, but I wouldn’t miss this for anything! Keagan’s first collegiate goal!!!!

After going down a goal in the first half of tonight’s game against Covenant, we were awarded a PK. Keagan motioned to the coach he wanted to take it, and the coach said, “If you are that confident, Keagan, then go ahead. You take it!”

Center backs never score. They never take PKs either. But never say never to Keagan. He tied up the game with his beautiful goal. 

In the last ten minutes, we scored again on a beautiful upper 90 goal. The team is 3-0.

4:15 will hurt tomorrow, but I can sleep this weekend.

3rd ⚽️ffer

Today Keagan received a text message with a third offer from a school in North Carolina. It’s a new program at a school we’re not familiar, but it is  exciting just the same. The coach found our contact info on a recruiting website that included Keagan’s  video and player profile. It was nice to be able to say, “Thank you, but I’ve committed to play elsewhere.”

College Road Trip 2022

Keagan and I hit the road today headed East; our week of college school visits starts now. I got in the car today and jokingly said, “This will be smooth sailing! We won’t see any round abouts this week.” Would you know we found the only round about in North Carolina while looking for a gas station! 

Stop #1 was Maryville, a D3 school 15 min from Knox. The new field’s grass looked great, and the campus itself was much more modern than I had envisioned. I would have preferred a formal tour but summer tours are limited. It appeared money was being funneled into athletic improvements, so this school is a contender.

Stop #2 was Gardner-Webb; this is a D1 school in Boiling Spring. We drove by it last summer and we didn’t think much of it. It’s in the sticks - so far out my phone dropped its signal. Today we saw the backside of campus and it was actually very beautiful. The sports facilities were nice, too. This school was also added to our list of possible choices.

Tomorrow we see two more schools.