Canton, Connecticut (WFSB) – Rahiem Nelson was an all-state soccer player who just joined Canton this year.
His classmates and teammates paid tribute to him with a beautiful match.
Five months is a long time, depending on who you ask.
At Canton High School, he was just hanging out with Jamaican Rahiem Nelson, who transferred to the boys’ soccer program.
Nelson died in a car accident along with his mother on Christmas morning, shocking the team and community that had embraced him from the beginning.
His teammates had a particularly hard time.
“I met him and for the short time I met him, I really, really loved him. I got
“We all came down to this lawn around 10:30 at night, which is quite late, but we all gathered and went around thinking only of Rahiem,” he said. Canton HS Senior Jake Dean said.
The Warriors turned words and thoughts into action by organizing a football fundraiser for Rahiem’s family.
They invited me to participate in other programs as well.
“It may have been just the Canton kids here, but they reached out to Granby and the other NCCC teams, invited them over and said, ‘Come and play. Bill Phelps, head soccer coach for the Canton Boys.
“He’s been around these people for five months… seems like five years to me. The love, I mean, it’s indescribable. But the love I’m feeling here is… amazing.” …” said Jesse Judkins, Rahiem’s stepfather.
But even with the outpouring of support, family and friends still mourn what might have happened.
“He was on his way to becoming a college player, not just athletically, but the kid was incredibly smart academically. I was worried about it just to make my mother’s life better.
“I hear they called him ‘Dream’. Now he’s dreaming, but I think he left us with a lot of memories, a lot of good memories.
On and off the pitch, Rahiem Nelson was seen as the type of student-athlete he wanted to keep forever.
But even though he was only in Canton for five months, he would be a warrior for the rest of his life.
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