As time wound down at the end of Wednesday’s match between the under-17 women’s teams of the United States and Haiti, US goalie Bryane Heaberlin looked across the field at her Haitian counterpart, and her heart sank. It wasn’t that her team had done poorly, in fact they had opened play in the CONCACAF U-17 Women’s Championship by dominating the match from the very start, with Heaberlin’s net-minding helping to blank the Haitian’s by a score of 9-0. But as the final whistle blew, she watched the young Haitian goalkeeper, Alexandra Coby, crumble to the pitch sobbing.
Much had been made about Haiti putting on a brave face and participating in the tournament and, despite the lopsided score, everyone would agree that the Haitian team had played with heart. But, at that moment, Heaberlin didn’t see an opponent, she saw a girl not that different from herself overcome by the weight of the tragedy that had ripped apart her homeland. She saw a girl who needed a hug and so the 16-year-old stepped away from the high-fives and congratulatory embraces of her teammates, walked the length of the field, took Coby into her arms, and squeezed. They two goalkeepers were soon joined by the rest of the US team and within moments not a dry eye could be found on the field, or in the stands.
“I saw her crying, and that was pretty hard for me to see,” Heaberlin later told USsoccer.com, “She’s a keeper, and we have that bond. I knew that she had probably lost people close to her and when she goes home she might not have anywhere to go. I gave her a big hug, and told her that she did great. She came to compete in this tournament despite all that she’s been through and I have tremendous respect for her.”
This remarkable young woman and her teammates, who have trained to compete at the highest level of their sport at such a very young age, have managed to retain the emotional faculties to be so cognizant, even in the heady rush of victory, of the suffering of others. So much lip service is paid to the hollow cliche that the word “sportsmanship” has become, but it took a young woman who may not even have her driver’s license yet to remind us what it can truly mean.
Photo by USsoccer.com