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KINSEY WRIGHT TO DO COMMITMENT

Kinsey Elizabeth Wright.  

A message from Coach Preston, Oct 30, 2023:

If you were a 2008 girl in Tulsa and good at soccer, you knew Kinsey Wright.  Either you knew her as a teammate (hurray!), or you knew her as an opponent that you had to beat.  But either way, you knew Kinsey, and what it meant to see her in goal.  

Shortly after she joined WSA, I’m just now told that Kinsey said to her parents something effectively like “Preston knows a lot about soccer, but way less about goalkeeping than what he thinks.”  It's not every day you get burned from beyond the grave, but I still got a much needed laugh when I heard this.  Kinsey had that quality - she was a truth teller and a straight shooter. 

It was my great joy to coach Kinsey over the last two seasons.  Before then, she played at Blitz where Dan Roberts and so many others invested so much into her.  If you coach a player - anywhere, and any sport - you get to know them.  So I knew Kinsey pretty well, but to be honest, I am also still learning about her, and the family that raised her.   As you read this, I hope you’ll do the same.  

• Kinsey’s Family Cares About You.  They care about Eva Kaercher, Kinsey’s teammate who was also in the car wreck.  They care about everyone in that wreck.  They care about every soul impacted by that terrible day.  Time and again, they have asked me, how I am doing.  This is incredible.  In their spirit, know that WSA cares about you, too.  We have grief counselors available.  We have pastors on standby.  Contact any WSA coach for more information.  Pray for full healing Kinsey’s WSA teammate, Eva Kaercher, in mind, body, and soul.
   
• Kinsey’s Memorial service was absolutely beautiful.  Heart wrenching - almost beyond words -  but also beautiful.  Approximately 1400 people attended it in person.  Matt Fowler at New Beginnings Church and Pastor Mike Keahbone did an amazing job.  Mike put it so beautifully, when he said “Kinsey’s entire life was an arrow pointing to the light of Jesus”.  And oh, how brightly did she reflect that light! 
   
• Before her passing, Kinsey was a frustrated soccer player.  Hopeful, but also frustrated.  Kinsey tore her ACL in her first start as a varsity player for the Bixby Spartans.  Prior to that, and especially through the winter, Kinsey had worked her tail off to be ready.  Kinsey loved being a Spartan.  She loved the fact that she was likely going to be an anchor for their high school team.  Kinsey worked so hard to be ready.  The message, “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” applies so perfectly to her.  I thought Kinsey’s harvest would be within the game of soccer.  The Good Lord had other plans.  Still though - her example for those who saw it is spectacular.  Her response to frustration was simple: work.  
   
• Kinsey did everything right in her return to play.  Kinsey didn’t waste a single second feeling sorry for herself, or being fearful upon her return.  She did everything asked of her by her physical therapists, and then she did a little more.  She was fearless to the point of being reckless.  It takes a special kind of special to be a goalkeeper in the first place, but Kinsey was something else on her way back.  Part of my message to her after her ACL surgery is that full healing for the athlete only happens when they are able to play without thinking about their injury, and for some that can take years.  In Kinsey’s case, I think that happened somewhere around month 3.  Kinsey was on track to return to play to club soccer after being out for less than seven months - just incredible.  Above all else, Kinsey was brave.  We must be the same.
   
• TRUST GOD.  Kinsey had a pair of custom Nike cleats.  This was not mere lip service or a vanity declaration.  This was a statement straight from the heart of Kinsey Wright.  She got this through “the faith of her fathers” - principally by watching Damon and Krista.  Kinsey trusted God from the moment she was baptized at 12 until her last day on earth.  The family trusts God to get through this impossible time.  It is because we trust God, that we know that Kinsey is the only person who is now no longer hurting.  Be like Kinsey.  Trust God.  
   
• Those cleats, and her gloves, stank to high heaven.  Let’s stay real here - goalie gloves smell like no other.  Just as all at the viewing could smell Kinsey’s cleats and gloves, so too will all be affected by this tragedy, most of all her teammates and all other goal keepers.  
   
• Comfort the family.  We all hurt, but the family will hurt most of all.  The Book of Books tells us to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”.  As soccer people, we’ve all won games, and we’ve all lost games.  But when it comes to our duty to the family, we must succeed.  I showed the family a picture of three kids from my younger team with the words “Trust God” or “KW 00” on their cleats.  This brought a measure of happiness that I am grateful for.  The Wright family appreciates every tribute to Kinsey that is made out of love.  They see them all.  Keep them coming.  
   
• Nothing we as a WSA family can do will be more impactful to the family than the Kinsey Wright, Beloved scholarship fund.  The family wants this to succeed.  They have made this explicitly clear to me.  In 5, 10, 25 years, when little kids play the game of soccer WSA, the family wants Kinsey’s story to be told.  I’ll say it again: they want the scholarship fund to provide for the future generations of the Kinseys that are yet to come.  

KINSEY WRIGHT BELOVED FUND

• Be Happy, Be Joyful.  Live your life.  The Wrights want you to be happy.  Laugh, sing, enjoy life.  Go to school.  Play your games.  Be a kid (or an adult).  The Wrights knew that Kinsey’s teammates stuck around at the church after the memorial service, and they asked me how they were in that moment.  I was honest.  “New Beginnings was great.  They had the loft for them.  The players were fed, and then they found the volleyballs and started making up games to play.  And then they were their normal goofy, dumb selves.”  Krista and Damon loved this.  They take joy from the happiness of Kinsey’s teammates.  They want the same for you and your child too.  
   
• Stay the course.  So many have reached out to me to comfort me with a pat on the back or a “well done”.  We have no time for that right now.  We’re in the opening minutes of a full 90.  There is time for everything, and with God’s grace we will see this thing through to the end and we will know Glory together after honoring Kinsey the right way.

We love you Kinsey.

Coach Preston

The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh.  Blessed be the Lord.  

THANK YOU SENT OCT 25TH, FROM ROGER

Thank you!

In the most profound way.  Thank You. 

Prayers have been felt. Prayers have made a difference.

You have shown up, taken action, and helped envelope Kinsey Wright’s family in love and kindness.  

Your ongoing thoughtfulness for our players, Kinsey’s friends; our staff, Kinsey’s mentors; and our shared challenge, Kinsey’s impact that we aim to magnify; is something I am in awe of and grateful for witnessing and being a part of.  

On Tuesday, October 24^th, New Beginnings Church hosted Kinsey Wright’s service.  It was an overflow attended event.  So many of our players, parents, staff, and extended family were there.

There will be milestones of this process. And we humbly proceed with an understanding we will never fully comprehend here on earth, The Greater Plan.  And as Kinsey stated, on her customized shoes, and left as a poignant, powerful, timely reminder… TRUST.  GOD. 

I am honored and humbled to stand with our 08G program & team, our staff, and the Wright Family, as we take action on where and how we can, and within what is our earthly duty, To Do.
 

Kinsey’s life was a Light, and we can and will aim to shine this Light in a manner that dissolves thoughts of a life quantified by time.  The story written by Kinsey we believe is one of eternal consequence.  This is what we will magnify.  This is within our control and is our duty. 

Please standby in the coming days for plans to take this action, to magnify, honor, remember, and aim Kinsey’s Light where and how it ought to shine.  Her teammates will help direct us.  We will abide by the Calling placed on their hearts and the calling of those prayerfully led.

Several of our players, both those very close to Kinsey, and those by casual acquaintance to Kinsey, have been dealt a new experience, a new challenge, with new questions.  These impressionable souls will be in a process for the coming days and weeks.  

I have provided below two resources that may help with this process, which Coach Preston provided to our 08 Girls Program last week.  

These resources are gifts via internal sources within our 08 Girls program.  They are trusted sources, with a capacity for us to reach out directly if needed.  You are free to alert Preston or myself, if any guidance, via counseling or pastoring, is needed within your team. 

GRIEF COUNSELING HANDOUT – from Jessica Dixon-Neal, LPC, parent on WSA 08G RL program 

FULL CIRCLE GRIEF COUNSELING WEBSITE – recommended by Catherine Brown, author of Your Teen, For Parents

These resources are provided on our website under MANAGER then MYTEAM.

I recommend giving these a quick glance as a coach/team leader, if your team was intimately connected or causally connected to Kinsey Wright.   

Please be observant, alert, aware, and attentive to your players in the coming days.  Do your best to connect, engage, and empower each one.  Noticing is such an important skill.  Please notice, so you can Love where Love is needed. 

I am in awe to witness leadership, grace, graciousness by you, by others, within and beyond our community.  Thank you for the example.  Thank you for the action.  Thank you for nurturing, for giving, and thank you for relating.  

At Kinsey’s service, we learned she was a Guardian of an important message.  A goalkeeper who guarded her team's nets by trade, and a Spiritual Guardian by a Calling and a Greater Purpose. 

We will reconnect soon, as an extended club community, led by Coach Preston and the 08 Girls Team, 08G Staff, the RL Program's Leadership and Staff, to inform the Club of the next action to take.  

In the interim, Our Beloved Kinsey, our Guardian, provides us a direct, powerfully focused message…. She had these two words custom embroidered on her two cleats…. 
 

TRUST.  GOD.

 

MEMO SENT TO CLUB LEADERSHIP FROM ROGER ON TUESDAY, OCT 18, 3 AM

Dear WSA Team & Club Leaders,

Thank you for your service, sacrifice, and when called upon, your supreme leadership, of our young people and each other.  

I asked Coach Preston to write the following tonight because of his intimate connection to the players of our soccer family we need to inform you about.  

If you are willing, please dedicate a few moments upon reading the following, to a short prayer.

I remain convinced that Prayer is the most Transformative Force in our Cosmos. 


FROM COACH PRESTON WIRUTH, 10/18/23, 2 AM: 
 

Kinsey Wright, WSA 08 ECNL-RL, passed on late Tuesday evening.  

Kinsey and Eva Kaercher had been in a car wreck earlier that day on their way to practice.  Eva is in the hospital but is stable and expected to make a full recovery.  Kinsey took the brunt of the impact.  

Kinsey represented everything that was good within the game of soccer, and also everything good outside of it.  A ferocious competitor, a great teammate and a fearless shot stopper - Kinsey loved soccer, loved keeping the ball out of the net and all who played alongside her loved having her on their team.  

Kinsey fought in the hospital for four hours before succumbing to injuries that are beyond what can be healed on this earth.  

We humbly ask that you pray.  Pray for Eva as she continues her recovery.  Above all else, pray for Kinsey’s family.  Pray for her father Damon, her mother Krista, her brother Kaden.  For all of her friends and family and for all of her teammates.  She is loved dearly and we will miss her terribly.  May the way she lived be an example to us all and may her memory live on within us forever.

-- Preston Wiruth 

KINSEY WRIGHT BELOVED FUND