After longtime coach Kent Nelke passed away from pancreatic cancer last May, varsity girls soccer rallied together and honored his memory with a successful season. Led by new head coach Roland Peekel (he/him), the team has maintained a dynamic committed to building on Nelke’s legacy. Peekel joined the girls soccer staff seven years ago, when Nelke took him under his wing as an assistant coach for varsity and head of JV.
Peekel attributes the team’s recent success on the field to a combination of organization, offensive creativity and a strong defensive line backed by senior captain goalkeeper Reese Lawlor (she/her), who was named Second Team All-KingCo for the second year in a row.
“It’s an amazing experience, especially playing with so many girls who play at such a high level. It gives you a really good, competitive atmosphere and keeps the intensity really high,” Lawlor said.
Senior Mickenze Maestas and juniors Charlotte Schenkein, Claire Stewart and Maggie Cowan were all named All-KingCo Honorable Mentions, and senior captain Sammy Snorsky was named KingCo Offensive Player of the Year in the Crown/Crest Division. Peekel said that their willingness to work together augments their individual talent.
“I think it has to do with the dynamic in the team,” Peekel said. “There’s absolutely no drama going on. We have a really good core group of players with amazing individuals with it, and that makes a great team.”
Peekel’s path to coaching was very different from Nelke’s. He was injured while playing field hockey for the national team in the Netherlands, so he turned to coaching.
“The games have a ton of similarities, more than just that we play on a field,” Peekel said. “At the end of the day, it’s coaching. There are definitely some differences, but in general, a lot of the lineup stuff is completely the same.”
In 2009, he moved to the United States to coach at Rutgers University in New Jersey, while Nelke was coaching and teaching at Inglemoor. Over time, Peekel has recognized differences between his and Nelke’s coaching styles during games.
“Nelke was a big believer of staying really calm on the sideline and not saying much and then talking a lot at halftime,” Peekel said. “I do yell a lot during the game, as the girls will say. That’s the main difference.”
Lawlor found these differences easy to overcome, thanks to how connected the two coaches were.
“Roland (Peekel) definitely made fitness a large component. We had our first running test in years instead of just focusing on technique,” Lawlor said. “Other than that, it was relatively the same because he had always been Nelke’s assistant coach, and they were really close.”
Peekel attributes the turning point of their season to their 1-0 victory over Liberty High School on Oct. 3. He said the win reinforced the team’s belief that they could achieve great things this year. They played Liberty again on Nov. 7, losing 0-2 and ending their playoff run one win short of qualifying for state.
Peekel and Nelke shared many ideas with each other in their tenure together. He hopes that the similarities across JV and varsity training helps athletes climb the team ranks and navigate the recent coaching change.
“We always made sure that from our JVC team to our JV team to our varsity team, that was one line with similar plans,” Peekel said.
Although Nelke’s passing was unexpected, Lawlor said her teammates felt supported throughout the complicated grief process.
“The school handled it the best they could, but it was just hard imagining ourselves playing high school soccer without him,” Lawlor said. “We went to his memorial, we grieved, we cried together. It was amazing that we had such a good support system, because you have varsity, JV and JVC, the staff and the faculty all with us.”
Peekel is grateful for how the team has dealt with their loss, especially with how closely bonded the team has become.
“Losing Nelke has impacted the team quite a lot, obviously, in the way that everybody was really upset about this whole situation,” Peekel said. “But also, it definitely brought them together in the off-season and during the summer and right now we have a goal altogether that we want to fight for.”
Peekel introduced the team to a “dream drop,” a pre-season team exercise where each player writes down three goals: one within the soccer season; one within the school year; and one within their lifetime to strengthen their sense of purpose and comitment. This season, the team set the goal of making the playoffs, which they succeeded in. Peekel and Lawlor said the goal setting was a defining moment for the team’s bonding and collective journey through the loss of their coach.
“When we came back, Roland instantly started us off by saying, ‘Hey, I know this is hard, being back without Nelke,’ but he made us play for him,” Lawlor said. “So every game was for Nelke, and it was more bringing light to his death instead of mourning.”
Over 50,000 Americans die from pancreatic cancer each year. Visit the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation at www.npcf.us for information on how to help the cause.
