SHAWNEE, Kan. — On Tuesday, the soccer grandstands in Shawnee, Kansas, were full for a rival soccer game.
“We’ve been battling each other for decades,” said Jason Pendleton, the soccer coach at Mill Valley High School.
Brenda Carroll, whose son plays for Mill Valley, was in attendance.
“Both Mill Valley and Olathe Northwest have very strong soccer teams,” she said.
However, at the game on Tuesday night, there was a much more important message.
“I’m sure his team wants to win and my team wants to win too, but we will all move on or whatever after the result,” Pendleton said. “This has a much more important message to get across.”
Both the players and crowd wore "Keeping Clean for Coop" shirts in honor of 16-year-old Cooper Davis. Davis died last year after a Fentanyl overdose.
“I think it alleviates stress for the game to be honest with you, because it puts things in perspective,” Pendleton said.
The Davis family wants these conversations to be his legacy.
“We love it, it is just a great opportunity to use his story to educate people and spread that awareness," said Libby Davis, Cooper's mother. "Cause right now, that awareness is our number one defense."
The death of Cooper Davis had Carroll reflecting on the dangers of fentanyl.
“I think that what’s really scary is teenagers think they are invincible and think it’s not going to happen to me, it’s going to happen to that next person," Carroll said. "It’s just not true, it’s not true anymore."
Pendleton said the message on Tuesday night was important than the game.
“We’re just trying to remind them that all of our actions have consequences so making sure we make good ones,” Pendleton said. “While the soccer matters it’s big picture at the end of the day, it’s about kids.”
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