Gone, But Never Forgotten

Expect the unexpected is an understatement for this story, because no one saw what would happen coming, not even himself. Everything started my eight grade year when I met the craziest man in the world. It was right after the 2013 Football State Championship, Coach Doucette was pretty excited he was the first coach to win a state championship for Oak Hill since 1982. The coaching staff and their wives and children all went out to dinner and we were invited by the Wrights. As soon as coach saw me, it was like an explosion. This is seriously an understatement, he was so excited to meet one of his upcoming freshmen. If you didn’t know Stacen Doucette, you would by the end of the night. His energy lit up a room every time and was always a fun time. MY first football practice coach put his arm around me and said, “Liam, I’m going to turn you into a quarterback.” I couldn’t believe it, why would I play quarterback? Through my freshmen year I developed a skill of kicking footballs quite well, and coach D helped me better my skills. As my high school years went on, my skills were developing and I was becoming quite good. Coach Doucette would coach me hours a week to make me better, and I was able to teach him things I would learn at kicking camps. As my Junior year came around I was considered the best kicker in the state, this gave me a lot more confidence and wanted me to even better myself in my skills. This was something I was not expecting me to pursue in my life, I thought I’d be a wide receiver or a running back or something. What was unexpected was me becoming a kicker and being recruited by colleges. I had a very successful Junior season as it went on, I went 17/18 of PAT’s and 2 for 2 o field goals. This was a huge improvement for me, and I was ready to start looking at college. My senior year was a great year, Coach D was super excited and so were we. We had a really good start to the season, but it ended quite bad. I had one of the best years of my kicking career kicking a 51 yard field goal in practice and a 40 yard field goal in a game. I went 15/17 on PAT’s and had four touch backs on kickoffs. This was a huge accomplishment to me and I was super excited. The season ended 7-5 after playoffs. Coach Doucette and I started talking college and many different colleges started to become very interested.

I can relate this story to Marley and Me. At first they get the dog and don’t really like her. The dog then grows on the family and they fall in love with her. But then Marley dies and the entire family is absolutely devastated. Coach called me on a Sunday afternoon asking if I wanted to meet with a coach at the high school on Thursday to talk about a career. This school was Western New England. I told coach, “absolutely, I’d love to talk to the WNE coach” But let me tell you coach D did not sound very good. I asked him if he felt alright and he said “not really Llama, but i’ll be alright.” I said “Okay coach, thanks for reaching out, see you Thursday!” and what coach would say next surprised me, “Night Llama, I love ya kid!” I paused, and thought, he’d never said that to me before. I felt very happy, and was excited to prove to him what I could do in my college career. I replied with “Night coach, I love you too.” He hung up and I went on with my night telling my parents that I was going to meet with my first college coach. I went up to my room and played some video game and a couple hours later. Monday morning as my second alarm goes off, and normally me ignoring it, I hear my mom coming down the hall way and say “Oh no, are you serious?” “I can’t believe that, that’s so awful” I could hear the tremble in her voice and my stomach immediately dropped. I sat up as my mom opened my door with a tear running down her face, I asked as fast as I could, “mom what’s going on?” She said “Liam, I need you to stay calm, okay? Coach Doucette passed away very early this morning.” My stomach turned 180 degrees and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I sat back in my bed and starred at the wall. I felt my eyes starting to tear up and I couldn’t stop it. My mom called my dad and gave him the hard news, my dad asked me a couple questions but words just couldn’t come out of my mouth. My heart just hurt, I felt as if a piece of me was missing. My mom asked if I was alright and I looked at her, and hanging in the background was my home football jersey. I lost it. I just started balling. I couldn’t believe he was gone. After a while of my mom holding me as I cried I looked up at her and asked, “Can I go to school to be with my brothers?” My mom also crying said, “That’d be best.” I dressed as fast as I could, with a hundred texts, calls, and snapchats I drove, as fast as I could (Under a 100) to get to school. I had late arrival and I never wanted to be a school more. I passed two of my other football coaches on the way there and tried to stop me. I kept driving and finally made it to school. As I walked into school Mrs. Cloutier was waiting for me, the counselor I trust the most. She took me to her office as I was still crying, and I could just feel the emptiness in the school. I sat there and explained to her what had happened the night before, and she told me that Danielle, Coaches wife, said I was the last player he’d talked to. The door to the office had a soft knock to it, and Mrs. Cloutier opened it, it was Mr. Daniels. I stood up, and he ran to me and hugged me. We hugged and cried for probably 5 minutes, it was something I needed very badly. As The day went on it was about the family and the community, I left school and hung out with my football guys all day. The moral of this story is, I didn’t expect the unexpected for my outcome of kicking, but I never, ever expected losing my mentor, head coach, and basically another father. I still think about him everyday and miss him dearly, he may be gone but he will be forgotten, RIP Coach Doucette, I love you.

Photo by Greene Connections on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA