After prep soccer, former
players now star in hospitals
By Chris Walker
As the coronavirus pandemic kept high school soccer players off the field this spring, some former players from the area were in hospitals, working as nurses and fighting a war against COVID-19 that’s bigger than any soccer game.
“I work at a Level 1 trauma center in ER at Froedert (pronounced fray-dert) Hospital, and there are only two Level 1 hospitals in Milwaukee. So we have gotten hit a decent amount,” said Amanda Kaiser, a registered nurse who was playing her senior year of soccer at Benet just seven years ago. “We created a special, separate unit in the ER for those coming in with coronavirus symptoms and for others without it.
“There’s been a screening process for when they come in with a cough or fever. It definitely isn’t as hectic as the beginning days. During the first few weeks we had changes every day.”
Kaiser confirmed that personal protective equipment (PPE) continues to be scarce, making it difficult for health care workers to personally to protect themselves, patients and others, including their own loved ones at home.
“Normally we’d be wearing one mask and then take it off,” Kaiser said. “Now we have one mask every four hours unless it’s soiled or dirty. We’re trying to adjust every day to different protocols.
“People are coming in super sick, and we have to act quickly so we can kind of stabilize them. It’s kind of scary sometimes with people trying to jump into rooms who are so sick. And we’ve had some come in with just a cough, and we send them home with some education.”
Shortages of PPEs continue to plague many who work in health care facilities throughout the country. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hospitals and other health care organizations should follow conservation strategies due to the shortage but without replacing specific controls and procedures developed by health care organizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee to aid in infection prevention and control.
Nurses wear PPE to keep them safe from common hazards associated with their job. It also benefits a health care organization by helping keep staff healthy so they are able to continue working.
“It’s been pretty stressful and tough wearing an N95 mask for an entire day,” said Brittany (Wahlen) Townsend, a nurse at Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital. “I think a lot of my co-workers can feel me on that one. It’s been rough for shifts. Staying in some of the COVID rooms for half an hour wearing all the PPE that you have to wear is almost suffocating after wearing the equipment for so long. Some of these patients are pretty sick, but we like what we do, and we’re there to help.”
Just six years ago, Wahlen graduated from Batavia High School. She was no longer playing soccer, foregoing her senior year after breaking her ankle a fourth time. She had hoped to return to the game and play in college, but by retiring from playing, she was able to really concentrate on her academics and pursuit of a nursing career.
“As a little kid, at first I wanted to be a teacher and then as I grew up in middle and high school I knew I wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “I did the CNA program through the high school, and we did it at Mooseheart and some clinicals around the area, like Delnor (Northwestern Medicine’s Delnor Hospital in Geneva) and Michaelson’s (Michaelson Health Center in Batavia), so I got a little sneak peak of what nursing was actually like.”
Townsend, whose mother is employed by the Batavia school district and father works in manufacturing, knew health care work would be challenging and had already experienced enough in her life to know that everything simply doesn’t always go your way. As she was finishing up her time at Batavia she still considered playing at college and going away. She ended up staying at home and ended her college soccer playing dreams.
“I kind of knew if I wanted to be a nurse one day I would need to spend more time toward nursing,” she said. “It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but looking back, I’m glad that I did it.”
Now, with about two years of nursing experience in McHenry, Townsend was beginning to really feel comfortable as a nurse in 2020, and then coronavirus invaded the scene.
“I had just started getting comfortable after a year and half or two years as a nurse and feeling confident with what I was doing,” she said. “Throwing this (pandemic) in there makes it more stressful, and I’m seeing a lot of things I haven’t seen before.
“Patients are crashing very quickly with no signs. We’ve had to adapt to everything going on, but getting all this first-hand experience has made me a better nurse in caring for these people.”
It’s taken an unprecedented coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak like this for many in the general population to understand what is a true emergency.
“It’s been interesting to see,” Kaiser said. “During the beginning of the coronavirus people were coming in for actual emergencies. It’s taken a pandemic to know what an emergency is and what can wait until morning or what you can take care of with an appointment with your primary doctor.”
Since no hospital system has ever faced what it’s facing today, it’s been an ever-evolving situation at work for health care professionals.
“We are still getting more cases, but they’re screening a lot more people, and we’re not seeing as many positive cases,” Kaiser said. “The amount of sick people is not as overwhelming, but it’s been kind of weird with some circling back around.
“Initially we had two cases in our own staff who were sick and one of our doctors was diagnosed and we have an ER tech in ICU with it. It’s still scary. People are sick of staying home and staying safe and clean and some have just disregarded it. The vulnerable population can still die from this.”
Townsend was working in the cardiac unit when the pandemic began flooding hospitals with extremely sick folks as well as those nervous that their cough and symptoms could be COVID-19 related. Working with those suffering from heart problems, including congestive heart failure, is serious stuff, but seemingly overnight the cardiac unit was converted for pandemic use.
“The whole unit turned into a COVID unit and we stopped seeing the open-heart surgeries and other cardiac patients,” she said. “And a lot of the COVID patients were coming from nearby nursing homes, so it’s been crazy.
“We’re finally starting to return back to seeing some regular cardiac patients and seeing some open-heart surgeries, but we still have part of our floor for COVID patients. It’s died down a bit, but I think everyone is still nervous about it. It’s hard to tell nowadays who has it and who has something else going on with an infection or some other sort of issue. It’s scary that it’s so hard to tell.”
Kaiser has only been at Froedert for about two years, but previously she spent three years at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Her experience has proven to be quite helpful in these unprecedented times for those working in the health care field.
“We have a decent amount of staff, but not enough, and we usually seclude the really sick patients with the nurses with more experience,” she said. “But with the growth in the number of people that are sick we can’t handle them all in that area.
“So we’ve had to do a crash course in how to care for these patients. I’m grateful I worked in Chicago before and been here long enough with training beforehand. There are a lot of nurses who have worked on the floor but so much is new to them, and they don’t have as much experience with these critical patients.
“It’s been more stressful for them, especially being thrown in where there are not enough resources, not enough beds for the patients coming in. I can see how scary it is for them, because they haven’t really had the time to take in all the knowledge.”
Kerrin (Clancy) Larsen won’t ever forget her senior high school season as Wheaton Academy placed fourth in the state in Class AA. Larsen was part of a veteran group of eight seniors who led the way for the Warriors that season. Larsen was part of a backline that earned nine shutouts; Crystal Thomas and Ally Witt led the offense with a combined 54 goals.
Back then Larsen still didn’t have a clue what she wanted to do with her life beyond soccer, which she played at Indiana Wesleyan
“I knew I wanted to help people, and I really liked science,” she said. “I hurt both of my knees so I thought I might do physical therapy since it was part of my life, but that meant more schooling. And my mom is a nurse.”
Mom is impressive all right.
“She is one of the best people I know, and she’s passionate and feisty and compassionate while serving others,” Larsen said. “If I could be half the person that my mom is … and she’s one of the best people in the world.”
Today, Larsen is a pediatric nurse in the ICU at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital of Chicago. While adults make up the majority of COVID-19 cases, children aren’t immune to the coronavirus. Larsen personally hasn’t seen too many of her patients fighting it.
“It doesn’t seem to be as bad in kids, and honestly I’m pretty thankful for that,” she said. “Lurie’s has not seen that many COVID-19 patients. Some of those we have seen, I would say about half of them were pretty sick.”
The coronavirus situation has been very fluid. Staying up to date with the latest information has been challenging. Larsen supported Kaiser and Townsend’s experiences with a lack of vital PPE.
“It’s literally changing every day,” Larsen said. “Scientists are finding out more about the virus, and I have never gotten so many emails from work about how we’re doing things.
“With the shortage of PPEs as a nurse, I feel like I didn’t sign up for this. To not have that equipment in America was a little shocking; I’m working with sick people. My husband is in finance, and he signed up for Excel spreadsheets, and should not to be exposed to tuberculosis or the flu. It honestly has been crazy. What a time to be alive.”
Kaiser acknowledged that while she was growing up soccer was the only thing she was passionate about. Even when she went away for college, she wasn’t sure what she was going to study or what she would become.
“I had no idea of what I wanted to do,” she said. “I definitely had a lot to figure out. I talked to my parents and taking care of others, helping out, was something I’ve always liked doing. And my sister is a nurse, and I have two aunts who are nurses, so I come from a long line of nurses.”
Just to make sure nursing was the right path, Kaiser enrolled in a business class to consider other options. That pretty much instantly solidified her decision.
“The business class was horrible,” she laughed. “The nursing side you can apply to everyday life. Even when I’m not working I can apply what I learn, not even the medical side of things, but the personable side -- just taking care of patients of all different backgrounds and seeing their families.
“You can talk to people and empathize with people. I feel like I wouldn’t have learned that in any other field. And it’s hard sometimes, but also really beautiful to see how people come together, especially as a health care team when we can turn a bad situation and someone survives.”
High school soccer players throughout the state missed out on playing this spring. The seniors missed out on more than that. They were stuck taking classes from home alone, just like the rest of the student body, while missing out on prom, graduation, Senior Night and other once-in-a-lifetime memories. But that’s how they did their part to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
They’re young adults, and they’ll ultimately come to terms that they’re blessed to go on and create other great memories in college or wherever life takes them.
Regardless, the circumstances hit them pretty hard, and the former players and current nurses can only imagine what it would have been like if a pandemic like this hit years earlier. Still, they know they still would have had their friends alongside them through the adversity.
“I made a lot of friends through soccer,” Townsend said. “That’s what I miss most about soccer. My soccer friends were super close regardless of what team it was, club or high school, and we were all very supportive. Some of my old friends, Karina (Rosales), the two Renfus (Paige and Tori), Ally Grimm, a bunch of them were at my wedding and we still talk and hang out every once in a while.”
As a high school gymnast, Townsend possessed the unique flip throw-in skills that so many can only dream of doing. She acknowledged that while she misses her friendships, she also misses those amazing throws. She helped the Bulldogs win a regional and finish 13-5-3 during her junior season in 2013. Those flips were part of the reason why Batavia did so well.
“I miss the flip throws, but I’m not sure if I could still do it,” she said. “I think the toughest thing is staying active now. Back then I was always doing something almost every day. Now I try to stay active, but it’s not touching a soccer ball. My sister (Morgan Wahlen) was a freshman my senior year (at Batavia), and she’s actually a senior at St. Ambrose so I kind of have been able to get little touches on the ball and do other stuff with her.”
Larsen also has maintained great friendships with her former Wheaton Academy teammates with some of them celebrating with her on her wedding day.
“I have pretty fond memories of Wheaton Academy and had some great experiences,” she said. “I was well-rounded. I was even a part of the spring musical as well. I can’t sing or dance, but I was a part of the stage group. Three of the girls were in my wedding. They’re great people.”
Kaiser was able to enjoy her senior year of soccer, although she was just one of four seniors on the roster (along with Lindsy Kendrick, Meaghan O’Hara and Amanda Smaira). The Redwings had a great year (18-4-1) and won a regional in Class 3A before losing 3-0 to Hinsdale Central in a sectional semifinal. The Red Devils advanced to the finals and finished as the state runner-up to Naperville North.
She also was able to attend a formal graduation before heading off to Illinois Wesleyan, but recalled adding colored strings to her graduation cap for Jennie Dizon, a fellow senior classmate from Downers Grove who was struck and killed by lightning while hanging out at O’Brien Park.
Dizon died just three days before graduation. She was only 17.
“The Benet Academy class all came together, and we wore yellow or purple strings on our graduation caps,” Kaiser said. “We were all stunned. I wasn’t close to her, but this girl was supposed to graduate. It makes you think about life and how sacred it is.
“But I can understand how upset (this year’s seniors feel). I feel bad for everything. It’s crazy. My sister just had a baby (recently), and I just saw him from afar. It’s weird, being a nurse I can’t get anywhere near him right now.”
It’s all about perspective.
“When you’re younger, and don’t get me wrong because this is a quarantine and COVID is a big deal, it might seem like the end of the world,” Larsen said. “Missing prom and soccer season seems to be all that you live for, but it’s not a big deal, especially with how fast things go. And 10 years from now how are you going to remember these three months?”
It might just be a silly movie, but sometimes laughter is the best medicine, as clichéd as it may be, during these stressful, scary times. It’s Ferris Bueller in the movie that bears his name that says, “Life moves pretty past. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”
In 2014, Townsend was graduating from Batavia. Then it was on to Waubonsee Community College and Purdue University. In 2018, she got married. In 2020, she’s been helping those stricken with the coronavirus fight for their lives. That’s a lot of new experiences in just a half-dozen years. The high school graduating Class of 2020 may not have gotten their senior spring soccer season, but they have their whole lives in front of them.
How different will their lives, their priorities, be in 2025?
“Don’t give up,” Townsend said. “Keep pushing through. It may be tough now, but in the end it’ll be worth it. It’s definitely not what would you expect. I thought that my whole life would be all different than it is, but to get to where you want to be, you’ve got to keep pushing through and keep fighting.”
Make your future and don’t dwell on the past.
“I didn’t even meet my husband until after high school so my senior year (at Batavia) I didn’t even know who he was and did not expect to be married,” Townsend said. “I did expect to be a nurse, and I knew it would be hard, but I don’t think I thought I would’ve been married and owning a home now, and obviously be going through this whole pandemic.”
According to the CDC, as of June 13 there have been 2,038,344 cases of COVID-19 in America and 114,625 deaths. Currently some states are reporting surges.
Could there be a second wave?
Has the first wave even ended yet?
Will soccer players ever be able to hug and high-five their teammates and shake hands with their opponents ever again?
Will high school boys have a season this fall?
While much remains unknown and unanswered, we do know that these successful women have found their calling in nursing, taking their talent and skills from the pitches to hospitals, swapping their cleats for clogs, slip-ons or sneakers while maintaining the utmost compassion to helping others.
players now star in hospitals
By Chris Walker
As the coronavirus pandemic kept high school soccer players off the field this spring, some former players from the area were in hospitals, working as nurses and fighting a war against COVID-19 that’s bigger than any soccer game.
“I work at a Level 1 trauma center in ER at Froedert (pronounced fray-dert) Hospital, and there are only two Level 1 hospitals in Milwaukee. So we have gotten hit a decent amount,” said Amanda Kaiser, a registered nurse who was playing her senior year of soccer at Benet just seven years ago. “We created a special, separate unit in the ER for those coming in with coronavirus symptoms and for others without it.
“There’s been a screening process for when they come in with a cough or fever. It definitely isn’t as hectic as the beginning days. During the first few weeks we had changes every day.”
Kaiser confirmed that personal protective equipment (PPE) continues to be scarce, making it difficult for health care workers to personally to protect themselves, patients and others, including their own loved ones at home.
“Normally we’d be wearing one mask and then take it off,” Kaiser said. “Now we have one mask every four hours unless it’s soiled or dirty. We’re trying to adjust every day to different protocols.
“People are coming in super sick, and we have to act quickly so we can kind of stabilize them. It’s kind of scary sometimes with people trying to jump into rooms who are so sick. And we’ve had some come in with just a cough, and we send them home with some education.”
Shortages of PPEs continue to plague many who work in health care facilities throughout the country. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hospitals and other health care organizations should follow conservation strategies due to the shortage but without replacing specific controls and procedures developed by health care organizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee to aid in infection prevention and control.
Nurses wear PPE to keep them safe from common hazards associated with their job. It also benefits a health care organization by helping keep staff healthy so they are able to continue working.
“It’s been pretty stressful and tough wearing an N95 mask for an entire day,” said Brittany (Wahlen) Townsend, a nurse at Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital. “I think a lot of my co-workers can feel me on that one. It’s been rough for shifts. Staying in some of the COVID rooms for half an hour wearing all the PPE that you have to wear is almost suffocating after wearing the equipment for so long. Some of these patients are pretty sick, but we like what we do, and we’re there to help.”
Just six years ago, Wahlen graduated from Batavia High School. She was no longer playing soccer, foregoing her senior year after breaking her ankle a fourth time. She had hoped to return to the game and play in college, but by retiring from playing, she was able to really concentrate on her academics and pursuit of a nursing career.
“As a little kid, at first I wanted to be a teacher and then as I grew up in middle and high school I knew I wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “I did the CNA program through the high school, and we did it at Mooseheart and some clinicals around the area, like Delnor (Northwestern Medicine’s Delnor Hospital in Geneva) and Michaelson’s (Michaelson Health Center in Batavia), so I got a little sneak peak of what nursing was actually like.”
Townsend, whose mother is employed by the Batavia school district and father works in manufacturing, knew health care work would be challenging and had already experienced enough in her life to know that everything simply doesn’t always go your way. As she was finishing up her time at Batavia she still considered playing at college and going away. She ended up staying at home and ended her college soccer playing dreams.
“I kind of knew if I wanted to be a nurse one day I would need to spend more time toward nursing,” she said. “It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but looking back, I’m glad that I did it.”
Now, with about two years of nursing experience in McHenry, Townsend was beginning to really feel comfortable as a nurse in 2020, and then coronavirus invaded the scene.
“I had just started getting comfortable after a year and half or two years as a nurse and feeling confident with what I was doing,” she said. “Throwing this (pandemic) in there makes it more stressful, and I’m seeing a lot of things I haven’t seen before.
“Patients are crashing very quickly with no signs. We’ve had to adapt to everything going on, but getting all this first-hand experience has made me a better nurse in caring for these people.”
It’s taken an unprecedented coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak like this for many in the general population to understand what is a true emergency.
“It’s been interesting to see,” Kaiser said. “During the beginning of the coronavirus people were coming in for actual emergencies. It’s taken a pandemic to know what an emergency is and what can wait until morning or what you can take care of with an appointment with your primary doctor.”
Since no hospital system has ever faced what it’s facing today, it’s been an ever-evolving situation at work for health care professionals.
“We are still getting more cases, but they’re screening a lot more people, and we’re not seeing as many positive cases,” Kaiser said. “The amount of sick people is not as overwhelming, but it’s been kind of weird with some circling back around.
“Initially we had two cases in our own staff who were sick and one of our doctors was diagnosed and we have an ER tech in ICU with it. It’s still scary. People are sick of staying home and staying safe and clean and some have just disregarded it. The vulnerable population can still die from this.”
Townsend was working in the cardiac unit when the pandemic began flooding hospitals with extremely sick folks as well as those nervous that their cough and symptoms could be COVID-19 related. Working with those suffering from heart problems, including congestive heart failure, is serious stuff, but seemingly overnight the cardiac unit was converted for pandemic use.
“The whole unit turned into a COVID unit and we stopped seeing the open-heart surgeries and other cardiac patients,” she said. “And a lot of the COVID patients were coming from nearby nursing homes, so it’s been crazy.
“We’re finally starting to return back to seeing some regular cardiac patients and seeing some open-heart surgeries, but we still have part of our floor for COVID patients. It’s died down a bit, but I think everyone is still nervous about it. It’s hard to tell nowadays who has it and who has something else going on with an infection or some other sort of issue. It’s scary that it’s so hard to tell.”
Kaiser has only been at Froedert for about two years, but previously she spent three years at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Her experience has proven to be quite helpful in these unprecedented times for those working in the health care field.
“We have a decent amount of staff, but not enough, and we usually seclude the really sick patients with the nurses with more experience,” she said. “But with the growth in the number of people that are sick we can’t handle them all in that area.
“So we’ve had to do a crash course in how to care for these patients. I’m grateful I worked in Chicago before and been here long enough with training beforehand. There are a lot of nurses who have worked on the floor but so much is new to them, and they don’t have as much experience with these critical patients.
“It’s been more stressful for them, especially being thrown in where there are not enough resources, not enough beds for the patients coming in. I can see how scary it is for them, because they haven’t really had the time to take in all the knowledge.”
Kerrin (Clancy) Larsen won’t ever forget her senior high school season as Wheaton Academy placed fourth in the state in Class AA. Larsen was part of a veteran group of eight seniors who led the way for the Warriors that season. Larsen was part of a backline that earned nine shutouts; Crystal Thomas and Ally Witt led the offense with a combined 54 goals.
Back then Larsen still didn’t have a clue what she wanted to do with her life beyond soccer, which she played at Indiana Wesleyan
“I knew I wanted to help people, and I really liked science,” she said. “I hurt both of my knees so I thought I might do physical therapy since it was part of my life, but that meant more schooling. And my mom is a nurse.”
Mom is impressive all right.
“She is one of the best people I know, and she’s passionate and feisty and compassionate while serving others,” Larsen said. “If I could be half the person that my mom is … and she’s one of the best people in the world.”
Today, Larsen is a pediatric nurse in the ICU at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital of Chicago. While adults make up the majority of COVID-19 cases, children aren’t immune to the coronavirus. Larsen personally hasn’t seen too many of her patients fighting it.
“It doesn’t seem to be as bad in kids, and honestly I’m pretty thankful for that,” she said. “Lurie’s has not seen that many COVID-19 patients. Some of those we have seen, I would say about half of them were pretty sick.”
The coronavirus situation has been very fluid. Staying up to date with the latest information has been challenging. Larsen supported Kaiser and Townsend’s experiences with a lack of vital PPE.
“It’s literally changing every day,” Larsen said. “Scientists are finding out more about the virus, and I have never gotten so many emails from work about how we’re doing things.
“With the shortage of PPEs as a nurse, I feel like I didn’t sign up for this. To not have that equipment in America was a little shocking; I’m working with sick people. My husband is in finance, and he signed up for Excel spreadsheets, and should not to be exposed to tuberculosis or the flu. It honestly has been crazy. What a time to be alive.”
Kaiser acknowledged that while she was growing up soccer was the only thing she was passionate about. Even when she went away for college, she wasn’t sure what she was going to study or what she would become.
“I had no idea of what I wanted to do,” she said. “I definitely had a lot to figure out. I talked to my parents and taking care of others, helping out, was something I’ve always liked doing. And my sister is a nurse, and I have two aunts who are nurses, so I come from a long line of nurses.”
Just to make sure nursing was the right path, Kaiser enrolled in a business class to consider other options. That pretty much instantly solidified her decision.
“The business class was horrible,” she laughed. “The nursing side you can apply to everyday life. Even when I’m not working I can apply what I learn, not even the medical side of things, but the personable side -- just taking care of patients of all different backgrounds and seeing their families.
“You can talk to people and empathize with people. I feel like I wouldn’t have learned that in any other field. And it’s hard sometimes, but also really beautiful to see how people come together, especially as a health care team when we can turn a bad situation and someone survives.”
High school soccer players throughout the state missed out on playing this spring. The seniors missed out on more than that. They were stuck taking classes from home alone, just like the rest of the student body, while missing out on prom, graduation, Senior Night and other once-in-a-lifetime memories. But that’s how they did their part to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
They’re young adults, and they’ll ultimately come to terms that they’re blessed to go on and create other great memories in college or wherever life takes them.
Regardless, the circumstances hit them pretty hard, and the former players and current nurses can only imagine what it would have been like if a pandemic like this hit years earlier. Still, they know they still would have had their friends alongside them through the adversity.
“I made a lot of friends through soccer,” Townsend said. “That’s what I miss most about soccer. My soccer friends were super close regardless of what team it was, club or high school, and we were all very supportive. Some of my old friends, Karina (Rosales), the two Renfus (Paige and Tori), Ally Grimm, a bunch of them were at my wedding and we still talk and hang out every once in a while.”
As a high school gymnast, Townsend possessed the unique flip throw-in skills that so many can only dream of doing. She acknowledged that while she misses her friendships, she also misses those amazing throws. She helped the Bulldogs win a regional and finish 13-5-3 during her junior season in 2013. Those flips were part of the reason why Batavia did so well.
“I miss the flip throws, but I’m not sure if I could still do it,” she said. “I think the toughest thing is staying active now. Back then I was always doing something almost every day. Now I try to stay active, but it’s not touching a soccer ball. My sister (Morgan Wahlen) was a freshman my senior year (at Batavia), and she’s actually a senior at St. Ambrose so I kind of have been able to get little touches on the ball and do other stuff with her.”
Larsen also has maintained great friendships with her former Wheaton Academy teammates with some of them celebrating with her on her wedding day.
“I have pretty fond memories of Wheaton Academy and had some great experiences,” she said. “I was well-rounded. I was even a part of the spring musical as well. I can’t sing or dance, but I was a part of the stage group. Three of the girls were in my wedding. They’re great people.”
Kaiser was able to enjoy her senior year of soccer, although she was just one of four seniors on the roster (along with Lindsy Kendrick, Meaghan O’Hara and Amanda Smaira). The Redwings had a great year (18-4-1) and won a regional in Class 3A before losing 3-0 to Hinsdale Central in a sectional semifinal. The Red Devils advanced to the finals and finished as the state runner-up to Naperville North.
She also was able to attend a formal graduation before heading off to Illinois Wesleyan, but recalled adding colored strings to her graduation cap for Jennie Dizon, a fellow senior classmate from Downers Grove who was struck and killed by lightning while hanging out at O’Brien Park.
Dizon died just three days before graduation. She was only 17.
“The Benet Academy class all came together, and we wore yellow or purple strings on our graduation caps,” Kaiser said. “We were all stunned. I wasn’t close to her, but this girl was supposed to graduate. It makes you think about life and how sacred it is.
“But I can understand how upset (this year’s seniors feel). I feel bad for everything. It’s crazy. My sister just had a baby (recently), and I just saw him from afar. It’s weird, being a nurse I can’t get anywhere near him right now.”
It’s all about perspective.
“When you’re younger, and don’t get me wrong because this is a quarantine and COVID is a big deal, it might seem like the end of the world,” Larsen said. “Missing prom and soccer season seems to be all that you live for, but it’s not a big deal, especially with how fast things go. And 10 years from now how are you going to remember these three months?”
It might just be a silly movie, but sometimes laughter is the best medicine, as clichéd as it may be, during these stressful, scary times. It’s Ferris Bueller in the movie that bears his name that says, “Life moves pretty past. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”
In 2014, Townsend was graduating from Batavia. Then it was on to Waubonsee Community College and Purdue University. In 2018, she got married. In 2020, she’s been helping those stricken with the coronavirus fight for their lives. That’s a lot of new experiences in just a half-dozen years. The high school graduating Class of 2020 may not have gotten their senior spring soccer season, but they have their whole lives in front of them.
How different will their lives, their priorities, be in 2025?
“Don’t give up,” Townsend said. “Keep pushing through. It may be tough now, but in the end it’ll be worth it. It’s definitely not what would you expect. I thought that my whole life would be all different than it is, but to get to where you want to be, you’ve got to keep pushing through and keep fighting.”
Make your future and don’t dwell on the past.
“I didn’t even meet my husband until after high school so my senior year (at Batavia) I didn’t even know who he was and did not expect to be married,” Townsend said. “I did expect to be a nurse, and I knew it would be hard, but I don’t think I thought I would’ve been married and owning a home now, and obviously be going through this whole pandemic.”
According to the CDC, as of June 13 there have been 2,038,344 cases of COVID-19 in America and 114,625 deaths. Currently some states are reporting surges.
Could there be a second wave?
Has the first wave even ended yet?
Will soccer players ever be able to hug and high-five their teammates and shake hands with their opponents ever again?
Will high school boys have a season this fall?
While much remains unknown and unanswered, we do know that these successful women have found their calling in nursing, taking their talent and skills from the pitches to hospitals, swapping their cleats for clogs, slip-ons or sneakers while maintaining the utmost compassion to helping others.