The last seconds of Nisson's final high school football game were ticking down; four years of practices, and arguments, and laughter, and boyfriends and. . . and cheering under the Friday night lights were all but over.
Four years.
Through it all Soash, Alonso's cheerleading coach, was there for counsel and, as she likes to say, "Discipline."
"I learned from my days as a cheerleader (1985-88 at Chamberlain) how important discipline is," Soash said. "What I learned, and I can't emphasize it enough, helped me prepare for life. So I know the system works.
"That's why I tell my girls and their parents on the first day that the priorities are: family and religion No. 1, followed by academics and then cheerleading."
Soash wants her girls to appreciate things like Friday night football as much as she did, which would seem difficult considering her family history.
Her mother and father, Perry and Norm Soash, have been living and dying on Chamberlain's sidelines for more than 20 years. Norm, a math teacher, has been a defensive coordinator for as long as Helen can remember.
"During the week the only thing on our television was high school games because dad was studying tape to prepare for Friday night's game," Soash said. "I learned so much with dad that I would love to try coaching football."
Meantime, she simply loves everything about it, but none of it, she says, "more than my girls."
"From August through the end of basketball season, these girls are mine," she said. "And for four years, since Alonso opened, I've been through those seasons with these girls. That's why I appreciate how emotional that last game was for my five seniors (one of them, Nisson, pictured left).
"Hopefully, now, they understand that all that discipline I enforced on them was because I adored them. Each and every one in their own way."
