Christian Heritage Overcomes Tragedy for Oklahoma 4A Title
Oct 20, 2014 17:21:16 GMT -5
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Post by John Tawa-VolleyballMag.com on Oct 20, 2014 17:21:16 GMT -5
We posted this story on PrepVolleyball.com today behind our pay wall, but it deserves a wider audience. Thanks to Mike Miazga for his fine reporting and congrats to CHA and coach Heath Kufahl for your achievement, your grace and your courage during such a trying time.
Gone But Never Forgotten: Christian Heritage Overcomes Tragedy, Wins First Oklahoma 4A Title
The weather was unseasonably cool two Saturdays ago in Oklahoma City, but the mercury was rising inside the gymnasium at Westmoore High School. Christian Heritage Academy had been on the verge of capturing its first state title in any sport after winning the first two sets of the Oklahoma 4A final, but now trailed 8-5 in the fifth set to rival Mount Saint Mary, the defending champion.
“I was sitting on the bench thinking, ‘This isn’t how it is supposed to end,’” CHA senior middle blocker and state tournament MVP Emily Watts said.
CHA needed to rally.
It would not be the first time…
***
Jenni Kufahl passed away on Aug. 3, nine days before CHA opened the 2014 season with a win at Bishop McGuinness. The wife of Crusader coach Heath Kufahl, Jenni succumbed to a rare form of appendix cancer diagnosed less than two years before. She was only 39 years old and left behind seven children: Maddie, 14, a freshman at CHA and a member of the team; Connor (12), Kelton (11), Macy (9), seven-year-old twins, Brody and Reese, and Cruz (4).
The day after Jenni died, CHA’s players gathered for an emotional practice.
“She died on Sunday and we went in Monday for practice and had an hour of worship and prayer,” HCA senior setter Jacquelyn Holdridge said. “It was extremely sad, but getting together like that helped us even more to play the season for Jenni and for coach and his family.”
After Jenni’s funeral, the team made a pledge.
“We all stood up right then and there and said we were going to win not only because God blessed our team with skill and talent, but we were going to win for Jenni and Coach Kufahl,” Watts said.
***
Jenni Kufahl had been complaining of pain in her side for a couple of months back in 2012 before it was determined that her appendix had burst. After surgery to remove it, Jenni’s pain returned. It was then that she was diagnosed with Stage 3 appendix cancer.
“They say there are less than 1,000 cases of it a year and most oncologists see one or two cases in a lifetime,” Heath Kufahl said. “It’s a rare cancer and inside of that rare cancer are even rarer forms.”
Jenni tried to fight the malignancy with chemotherapy – Heath won $20,000 and public acclaim in March 2013 by swishing a half-court shot at an Oklahoma City Thunder game and dedicated the funds to her chemo treatments – but to no avail.
"She was so brave and fought so hard," Heath said. "I don't know how many doctors and hospice people told me that Jenni was the toughest patient they have seen. It's a real challenge for me and my kids and other people to live the same way Jenni did.
Two months before she died, the family was in Arizona where Jenni was receiving specialized care.
“She was in so much pain she couldn’t walk,” Heath said. “She crawled on the floor to play with her kids. She was a fighter. She wasn’t fighting because she was afraid to die. She was fighting because she loved her kids and wanted to spend as much time with them as she could.
“The thing I always will remember about Jenni and I see it in my kids is the heart she had for others. It’s what I first saw when I met her and I saw even more of that over the 18 years I’ve known her. It’s never been about her. It was always about other people. She had such an appealing quality. She had a huge heart.”
***
Heath and Jenni Kufahl, who celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary in May, met through mutual friends while Heath was a student at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. Seven children, four boys and three girls, followed.
Heath took a job at CHA, teaching economics and bible studies and became both the girls’ volleyball coach and boys’ basketball coach. It was a family affair at Christian Heritage, as Jenni’s father, John Merrell, has been the athletic director at the school for more than 30 years, her brother teaches at the school and her mother was the cheer coach for more than two decades.
***
On the court, the season started well for Christian Heritage. The Crusaders won their first five matches and were 16-3 after the first month.
CHA, which graduated only one player from last year's team, was expected to do well. Heath Kufahl labelled his squad the most experienced in his eight years at the helm.
During the season CHA players wore heart stickers on their shoes, a subtle reminder of what they needed to do on the court.
“It motivated us to put our hearts on the floor,” Holdridge said. “It meant that we had to play so hard that our hearts fell out. We left it all on the floor this year. Our first priority was to play for the Lord and the second was to do it all for Jenni.”
Mekennah Wiechman noted that the team had a slogan that signified the group’s togetherness.
“Our motto this year was, ‘Union is strength,’” she said. “We really pushed the concept of unity. Everybody got together and we pushed together with unity.”
***
Christian Heritage Academy finished the season hot and carried a 21-match winning streak into the final versus Mount Saint Mary.
After winning the first two sets, 25-21, 25-20, CHA dropped the next two, 25-20, 25-20, then fell behind 6-2 in the third as the Crusaders withered under the power attacks of senior OH Mandy Martincich. Heath Kufahl called time out.
“We were down 6-2 and were in a timeout and I could tell in the girls’ eyes that they weren’t going to be denied,” Heath said. “It was amazing to watch. They weren’t going to lose. I think collectively their will to win set them apart.”
CHA cut the lead to 6-4 out of the time out, only to see Mount Saint Mary score two of the next three points to make it 8-5 Rockets. A serving error gave the ball back to CHA and sent its best server, Wiechman, behind the line. She served Mount St. Mary out of system and MB Abigail Corff delivered four kills and a block during a run that reached seven points, one for each of the Kufahl children.
Now ahead 12-8, it was only a matter of time before the Crusaders became champions. They made all the plays down the stretch, coming up with one remarkable save after another despite great pressure from the Mount St. Mary offense. At 13-10, Holdridge dumped a tight pass to give CHA four championship points and set the stage for Watts.
Watts had been no factor to that point in the deciding set and had been on the bench for virtually the entire rally, but she flashed her MVP form with the title on the line when Holdridge gave her a 2-ball set in the middle.
“Nobody was there,” Watts vividly recalled. “I put it into the left corner to the 1’s position. If I had to say, it was the hardest ball I ever hit. I wanted to go out swinging. I put all I had into it. I remember it all like it was yesterday. When that ball hit the floor, we all started crying and teammates piled onto me. I can’t put it into words. There was so much happiness and then there was sadness that the season was over. But is there a better way to finish the season than to win the first state title for the school?”
While CHA’s players celebrated with a dogpile on their side of the court. Heath Kufahl spent his first few moments as a state championship coach alone, in quiet contemplation. He then joined his team for a series of long, emotional hugs.
“Coach is so strong,” Holdridge said. “He was the rock of our team. For him to coach us this season was not an easy thing for him to do at all. He did an amazing job and he helped us get to the state championship.”
“I can’t even begin to describe him,” Watts added. “I’ve been with him for four years and have seen him go through some little things and handle them well. Now, he takes care of seven kids and is a teacher and a coach. He never complains. He makes sure everybody else is doing well. I can’t tell you how many times he’s asked me if I need anything. He’s one of the strongest men I have in my life. We are lucky to have someone like him coaching us. He is so dedicated to his family and has shown great strength through all this.”
“Someone asked me, ‘How do you get out of bed every morning and function?’ Heath Kufahl recalled. “It’s a choice you have to make. How are you going to respond to difficulties in life? We have had an incredible support system here. This is a school of about 650 students and we’re a tight-knit community. It’s the toughest thing myself or our families have had to go through. It’s been extremely hard on everybody. I could write a book and talk all night about all the things people have done for us. God has truly blessed us.”
Watching the championship celebration, Mount St. Mary coach Mary Jekel couldn’t help but feel a little bit happy for Christian Heritage’s achievement.
“I tell my girls, ‘Every time you go on the court, you compete to win,’” she said. “Last year we had one goal, one focus and every game we played was to win the state championship. Heath’s team had that vision this year. You could see it every time they played. We played a cancer awareness match with them as well as in the conference finals (the team's split the first two meetings). We saw their determination when they played other teams as well. We wanted to win state, no doubt about it. Once the final point was awarded, it truly was bittersweet. If we were going to lose to a team, I would rather lose to a team that I witnessed all season show game after game focus, determination and heart to achieve a team goal. Heath is a great guy. Jenni's dad has coached at CHA for many years. There were no dry eyes in the gym as everyone watched her dad, crying, handing out the team’s medals. Sometimes it is meant to be.”
***
The victory carried great meaning for Watts, who was one of the players closest to Jenni.
“I was very close to her ever since I got into high school,” said Watts, who wrapped up her CHA career with the second-most kills in program history (1,100). “I would babysit the kids and eat dinner with the family. She was a big influence on my life. Even though she is gone now, she still is a major influence. Jenni had a sincere goodness to her. You could be in the worst of moods and she would walk in smiling and light up the entire room just because of her presence and positive attitude. She could get rid of all your problems and worries. She always made sure everybody was happy.”
Wiechman has equally fond memories of Jenni.
“She was always around watching our games with the kids,” she said. “She would organize lunches and T-shirts for us. She did not give up in her fight, She was very impactful to our team and was a major inspiration."
Holdridge, the last of five siblings to play in the HCA program over a span of 30 years, remembers times where Jenni would be in full mother mode at home with her seven children, yet would still have time for others.
“She would be helping all her kids and still loved having us over,” she said. “We all were close to her. She was like a second mother or older sister type for us. She’s a great woman to look up to.”
Blythe Bullard, a senior outside hitter, said that this year’s CHA team also benefited from a group of players who were extremely familiar with each other.
“We’ve known each other almost our whole lives,” she said. “We’re best friends and we’re family. There was something different and special about this team. We had an awesome group of seniors that knew they had to lead this team and be strong for this team. We had to show how we had to go on even though we were dealing with Jenni passing away. We knew we had to keep going and we knew we had to fight for her. She was like our mom. She always was there for us. Jenni was an incredible wife, mother and daughter. She was someone we all looked up to and she’s someone we all will strive to be like.”
While the members of the Crusaders’ team will have the memory of winning a state championship etched in their minds forever, the players from this Oklahoma school gained even more knowledge that will help them in their lives moving forward.
“If anything, life isn’t easy,” Watts said. “Life will knock you down, but it’s not about getting knocked down. It’s about how you get back up and it’s about being a strong person because of everything you’ve gone through.”
“It’s how you respond to tough situations,” Bullard added. “This is probably the worst thing that could happen to someone and look how our coach responded. You have to keep going and keep playing hard no matter what.”
Heath Kufahl admits that things still are tough at times.
“At our end of the year party I told some people I was dreading the end of the volleyball season,” he said. “In a way, that kind of ended a chapter that still was part of Jenni’s life. When it gets tough is when I have idle time and I’m sitting at home. I dreaded the Monday after the season. I’m thankful basketball season will start soon. I have my good and bad days, but I’m thankful I have my children to go with this through. We have each other. I’m amazed at my kids’ toughness, especially our daughter, Maddie, who is on the volleyball team. She’s extremely tough. We know we can’t get through this on our own, but because of Jenni's influence we have so many people praying for us and helping us get through day by day. So many people have helped us. For two years, so many people have taken care of us. The support has been unbelievable. We have a great support group.”
Heath added that this volleyball season was the pinnacle for him for obvious reasons.
“These girls were so close to each other and they prepared and fought so hard just like Jenni did,” he said. “It wasn’t because the end was important; it’s because what happens along the way is important. For me, this is the most important volleyball season I will ever coach no matter what happens the rest of my life and it might be their most important season they will play because of Jenni's legacy. I can’t get it out of my head being down in that fifth game and having talked about it all year. We would fight until the end and do what it takes.
“When we won that last point, the weight of everything came out. There was a lot of raw emotion. This is what life is about. Life is about success and failure and adversity and triumph. What are you going to do? Are you going to give up when things aren’t going your way or keep going? We kept going and that something’s Jenni always modeled. I cannot believe the depth of these girls’ character and the love they have for each other. They are a real picture of life.”
Just like Jenni Kufahl.
Gone But Never Forgotten: Christian Heritage Overcomes Tragedy, Wins First Oklahoma 4A Title
The weather was unseasonably cool two Saturdays ago in Oklahoma City, but the mercury was rising inside the gymnasium at Westmoore High School. Christian Heritage Academy had been on the verge of capturing its first state title in any sport after winning the first two sets of the Oklahoma 4A final, but now trailed 8-5 in the fifth set to rival Mount Saint Mary, the defending champion.
“I was sitting on the bench thinking, ‘This isn’t how it is supposed to end,’” CHA senior middle blocker and state tournament MVP Emily Watts said.
CHA needed to rally.
It would not be the first time…
***
Jenni Kufahl passed away on Aug. 3, nine days before CHA opened the 2014 season with a win at Bishop McGuinness. The wife of Crusader coach Heath Kufahl, Jenni succumbed to a rare form of appendix cancer diagnosed less than two years before. She was only 39 years old and left behind seven children: Maddie, 14, a freshman at CHA and a member of the team; Connor (12), Kelton (11), Macy (9), seven-year-old twins, Brody and Reese, and Cruz (4).
The day after Jenni died, CHA’s players gathered for an emotional practice.
“She died on Sunday and we went in Monday for practice and had an hour of worship and prayer,” HCA senior setter Jacquelyn Holdridge said. “It was extremely sad, but getting together like that helped us even more to play the season for Jenni and for coach and his family.”
After Jenni’s funeral, the team made a pledge.
“We all stood up right then and there and said we were going to win not only because God blessed our team with skill and talent, but we were going to win for Jenni and Coach Kufahl,” Watts said.
***
Jenni Kufahl had been complaining of pain in her side for a couple of months back in 2012 before it was determined that her appendix had burst. After surgery to remove it, Jenni’s pain returned. It was then that she was diagnosed with Stage 3 appendix cancer.
“They say there are less than 1,000 cases of it a year and most oncologists see one or two cases in a lifetime,” Heath Kufahl said. “It’s a rare cancer and inside of that rare cancer are even rarer forms.”
Jenni tried to fight the malignancy with chemotherapy – Heath won $20,000 and public acclaim in March 2013 by swishing a half-court shot at an Oklahoma City Thunder game and dedicated the funds to her chemo treatments – but to no avail.
"She was so brave and fought so hard," Heath said. "I don't know how many doctors and hospice people told me that Jenni was the toughest patient they have seen. It's a real challenge for me and my kids and other people to live the same way Jenni did.
Two months before she died, the family was in Arizona where Jenni was receiving specialized care.
“She was in so much pain she couldn’t walk,” Heath said. “She crawled on the floor to play with her kids. She was a fighter. She wasn’t fighting because she was afraid to die. She was fighting because she loved her kids and wanted to spend as much time with them as she could.
“The thing I always will remember about Jenni and I see it in my kids is the heart she had for others. It’s what I first saw when I met her and I saw even more of that over the 18 years I’ve known her. It’s never been about her. It was always about other people. She had such an appealing quality. She had a huge heart.”
***
Heath and Jenni Kufahl, who celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary in May, met through mutual friends while Heath was a student at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. Seven children, four boys and three girls, followed.
Heath took a job at CHA, teaching economics and bible studies and became both the girls’ volleyball coach and boys’ basketball coach. It was a family affair at Christian Heritage, as Jenni’s father, John Merrell, has been the athletic director at the school for more than 30 years, her brother teaches at the school and her mother was the cheer coach for more than two decades.
***
On the court, the season started well for Christian Heritage. The Crusaders won their first five matches and were 16-3 after the first month.
CHA, which graduated only one player from last year's team, was expected to do well. Heath Kufahl labelled his squad the most experienced in his eight years at the helm.
During the season CHA players wore heart stickers on their shoes, a subtle reminder of what they needed to do on the court.
“It motivated us to put our hearts on the floor,” Holdridge said. “It meant that we had to play so hard that our hearts fell out. We left it all on the floor this year. Our first priority was to play for the Lord and the second was to do it all for Jenni.”
Mekennah Wiechman noted that the team had a slogan that signified the group’s togetherness.
“Our motto this year was, ‘Union is strength,’” she said. “We really pushed the concept of unity. Everybody got together and we pushed together with unity.”
***
Christian Heritage Academy finished the season hot and carried a 21-match winning streak into the final versus Mount Saint Mary.
After winning the first two sets, 25-21, 25-20, CHA dropped the next two, 25-20, 25-20, then fell behind 6-2 in the third as the Crusaders withered under the power attacks of senior OH Mandy Martincich. Heath Kufahl called time out.
“We were down 6-2 and were in a timeout and I could tell in the girls’ eyes that they weren’t going to be denied,” Heath said. “It was amazing to watch. They weren’t going to lose. I think collectively their will to win set them apart.”
CHA cut the lead to 6-4 out of the time out, only to see Mount Saint Mary score two of the next three points to make it 8-5 Rockets. A serving error gave the ball back to CHA and sent its best server, Wiechman, behind the line. She served Mount St. Mary out of system and MB Abigail Corff delivered four kills and a block during a run that reached seven points, one for each of the Kufahl children.
Now ahead 12-8, it was only a matter of time before the Crusaders became champions. They made all the plays down the stretch, coming up with one remarkable save after another despite great pressure from the Mount St. Mary offense. At 13-10, Holdridge dumped a tight pass to give CHA four championship points and set the stage for Watts.
Watts had been no factor to that point in the deciding set and had been on the bench for virtually the entire rally, but she flashed her MVP form with the title on the line when Holdridge gave her a 2-ball set in the middle.
“Nobody was there,” Watts vividly recalled. “I put it into the left corner to the 1’s position. If I had to say, it was the hardest ball I ever hit. I wanted to go out swinging. I put all I had into it. I remember it all like it was yesterday. When that ball hit the floor, we all started crying and teammates piled onto me. I can’t put it into words. There was so much happiness and then there was sadness that the season was over. But is there a better way to finish the season than to win the first state title for the school?”
While CHA’s players celebrated with a dogpile on their side of the court. Heath Kufahl spent his first few moments as a state championship coach alone, in quiet contemplation. He then joined his team for a series of long, emotional hugs.
“Coach is so strong,” Holdridge said. “He was the rock of our team. For him to coach us this season was not an easy thing for him to do at all. He did an amazing job and he helped us get to the state championship.”
“I can’t even begin to describe him,” Watts added. “I’ve been with him for four years and have seen him go through some little things and handle them well. Now, he takes care of seven kids and is a teacher and a coach. He never complains. He makes sure everybody else is doing well. I can’t tell you how many times he’s asked me if I need anything. He’s one of the strongest men I have in my life. We are lucky to have someone like him coaching us. He is so dedicated to his family and has shown great strength through all this.”
“Someone asked me, ‘How do you get out of bed every morning and function?’ Heath Kufahl recalled. “It’s a choice you have to make. How are you going to respond to difficulties in life? We have had an incredible support system here. This is a school of about 650 students and we’re a tight-knit community. It’s the toughest thing myself or our families have had to go through. It’s been extremely hard on everybody. I could write a book and talk all night about all the things people have done for us. God has truly blessed us.”
Watching the championship celebration, Mount St. Mary coach Mary Jekel couldn’t help but feel a little bit happy for Christian Heritage’s achievement.
“I tell my girls, ‘Every time you go on the court, you compete to win,’” she said. “Last year we had one goal, one focus and every game we played was to win the state championship. Heath’s team had that vision this year. You could see it every time they played. We played a cancer awareness match with them as well as in the conference finals (the team's split the first two meetings). We saw their determination when they played other teams as well. We wanted to win state, no doubt about it. Once the final point was awarded, it truly was bittersweet. If we were going to lose to a team, I would rather lose to a team that I witnessed all season show game after game focus, determination and heart to achieve a team goal. Heath is a great guy. Jenni's dad has coached at CHA for many years. There were no dry eyes in the gym as everyone watched her dad, crying, handing out the team’s medals. Sometimes it is meant to be.”
***
The victory carried great meaning for Watts, who was one of the players closest to Jenni.
“I was very close to her ever since I got into high school,” said Watts, who wrapped up her CHA career with the second-most kills in program history (1,100). “I would babysit the kids and eat dinner with the family. She was a big influence on my life. Even though she is gone now, she still is a major influence. Jenni had a sincere goodness to her. You could be in the worst of moods and she would walk in smiling and light up the entire room just because of her presence and positive attitude. She could get rid of all your problems and worries. She always made sure everybody was happy.”
Wiechman has equally fond memories of Jenni.
“She was always around watching our games with the kids,” she said. “She would organize lunches and T-shirts for us. She did not give up in her fight, She was very impactful to our team and was a major inspiration."
Holdridge, the last of five siblings to play in the HCA program over a span of 30 years, remembers times where Jenni would be in full mother mode at home with her seven children, yet would still have time for others.
“She would be helping all her kids and still loved having us over,” she said. “We all were close to her. She was like a second mother or older sister type for us. She’s a great woman to look up to.”
Blythe Bullard, a senior outside hitter, said that this year’s CHA team also benefited from a group of players who were extremely familiar with each other.
“We’ve known each other almost our whole lives,” she said. “We’re best friends and we’re family. There was something different and special about this team. We had an awesome group of seniors that knew they had to lead this team and be strong for this team. We had to show how we had to go on even though we were dealing with Jenni passing away. We knew we had to keep going and we knew we had to fight for her. She was like our mom. She always was there for us. Jenni was an incredible wife, mother and daughter. She was someone we all looked up to and she’s someone we all will strive to be like.”
While the members of the Crusaders’ team will have the memory of winning a state championship etched in their minds forever, the players from this Oklahoma school gained even more knowledge that will help them in their lives moving forward.
“If anything, life isn’t easy,” Watts said. “Life will knock you down, but it’s not about getting knocked down. It’s about how you get back up and it’s about being a strong person because of everything you’ve gone through.”
“It’s how you respond to tough situations,” Bullard added. “This is probably the worst thing that could happen to someone and look how our coach responded. You have to keep going and keep playing hard no matter what.”
Heath Kufahl admits that things still are tough at times.
“At our end of the year party I told some people I was dreading the end of the volleyball season,” he said. “In a way, that kind of ended a chapter that still was part of Jenni’s life. When it gets tough is when I have idle time and I’m sitting at home. I dreaded the Monday after the season. I’m thankful basketball season will start soon. I have my good and bad days, but I’m thankful I have my children to go with this through. We have each other. I’m amazed at my kids’ toughness, especially our daughter, Maddie, who is on the volleyball team. She’s extremely tough. We know we can’t get through this on our own, but because of Jenni's influence we have so many people praying for us and helping us get through day by day. So many people have helped us. For two years, so many people have taken care of us. The support has been unbelievable. We have a great support group.”
Heath added that this volleyball season was the pinnacle for him for obvious reasons.
“These girls were so close to each other and they prepared and fought so hard just like Jenni did,” he said. “It wasn’t because the end was important; it’s because what happens along the way is important. For me, this is the most important volleyball season I will ever coach no matter what happens the rest of my life and it might be their most important season they will play because of Jenni's legacy. I can’t get it out of my head being down in that fifth game and having talked about it all year. We would fight until the end and do what it takes.
“When we won that last point, the weight of everything came out. There was a lot of raw emotion. This is what life is about. Life is about success and failure and adversity and triumph. What are you going to do? Are you going to give up when things aren’t going your way or keep going? We kept going and that something’s Jenni always modeled. I cannot believe the depth of these girls’ character and the love they have for each other. They are a real picture of life.”
Just like Jenni Kufahl.
