Father, Son Face Off on the Soccer Field While Raising Funds for Relay for Life

winkler soccer
Saturday’s boys soccer match between Olympia and Clover Park will serve as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. It will also be the fourth consecutive season that Bryce (left) and Bryan Winkler have faced off against each other as player/coach for opposing teams.
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By Tom Rohrer

capital medical centerA father and son go through so many things together.

Success, failure, love and loss are all characteristics of a healthy relationship between a boy and his dad.

Together, Bryce Winkler and his father, Bryan, have experienced towering highs and trying lows.

Those experiences eventually lead back to soccer, where Bryce is a senior captain for the Olympia High School varsity team and Bryan is in his first year as head coach of the boys team at Clover Park High School.

On Saturday, March. 15, Bryce and his father will face off for the fourth consecutive season, as Olympia will host Clover Park at Ingersoll Stadium beginning at 7:00 p.m..   Prior to taking over at Clover Park, Bryan Winkler served as head coach of the Tumwater boys team.  The T-Birds faced off against Olympia in a non-league match for six consecutive seasons.

Saturday’s game will serve as a fundraiser for the Thurston County chapter of American Cancer Society Relay for Life, with a suggested donation of $5.

winkler soccer
Saturday’s boys soccer match between Olympia and Clover Park will serve as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. It will also be the fourth consecutive season that Bryce (left) and Bryan Winkler have faced off against each other as player/coach for opposing teams.

A co-captain for Rachel’s Warriors Relay for Life Team, Bryce set up the fundraiser for his high school culminating project.

“I put some serious thought into my project and wanted to work on something really meaningful,” he said. “I’ve become passionate about fundraising for cancer research.  It’s something so close to my family.”

Bryce’s best friend, Rachel Vaughn, and the namesake for Rachel’s Warriors passed away following a battle with kidney cancer when she was 17.  In August 2012, Bryan lost his sister, Leanne Winkler Hogan, to lung cancer.  A track and field standout during her time at Capital High School, Winkler Hogan would be turning 45 on the day of the match.

“It’s affected us every day really,” said Bryan Winkler.  “Cancer affects everyone in some way and we have our own story.  It’s something Bryce, I and our family share and have gone through together.”

To go along with the fundraising effort, Bryce wanted to share the stories of other individuals and families impacted by cancer. Through social media and email, he reached out the Olympia community to obtain photos of loved ones who have beaten, fallen to or are currently battling cancer.  A flat screen at the stadium entrance will display a slide show of the submitted photos.

Though not surprised by the support, Winkler has been overwhelmed by the volume of responses.

“I’ve received hundred (of photos) the last few days, and they keep coming,” he said earlier this week. “It’s touching to see the faces of cancer and it just goes to show how far it reaches.”

Sports have a way of bringing people together in challenging times and for powerful causes.  Athletic memories elicit emotional responses in young and old athletes alike, something the Winkler’s have experienced first hand.

“The day of (Vaughn’s) service, we had a game at Gig Harbor.  That was the only game where I was playing for someone else, which is corny but so ridiculously true,” said Bryce, a four year member of the OHS varsity team. “I hadn’t cried to that point, even after attending her ceremony. Then I started sobbing in the locker room and it hit me that I had lost a best friend.  I’ve been able to take that emotion and put it into a sport I love throughout my life and I see the same thing from my dad.”

winkler soccer
Tumwater and Olympia High boys soccer teams posed for a photo prior to the start of their 2013 match. The game served as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, an effort spearheaded by Olympia coach Ty Johnson and then Tumwater coach Bryan Winkler. A year later, Winkler is the coach at Clover Park High School, and the Warriors will face-off against Olympia Saturday night. The match will serve as a fundraiser for the ACS Relay For life and is the culminating project of Winkler’s son, Bryce, a senior captain for Olympia.

“Everyone has that memory of playing sports as a kid,” said Bryan Winkler, who played soccer at Capital High School and then The Evergreen State College in the 1980s. “Sports take people back to a simpler time, a carefree time really.  Everyone connects to that and it makes people happy to see athletes put their cares aside for a few hours and compete.”

Prior to the start of Saturday’s match, the two teams will circle together at the center of the pitch.  Both Winkler’s will say a few words and a moment of silence will follow.

“It’s a time where both teams can come together, think outside themselves and say a prayer or a few words for a loved one,” said Bryan.  “It’s an emotional moment not just for the teams, but everyone in attendance.”

Emotions will continue to run high during the game, which serves as the finale of the ‘Winkler Bowl.’

“It’s going to be hard to focus,” said Bryce, who will attend and play for Colorado State University-Pueblo next fall.  “I grew up with him coaching me, and I decided I didn’t want that in high school.  We went our different paths in that respect and being able to play him one last time, it’s the perfect ending.”

“We’ve had fun in this game and we’re going to have fun again,” said Bryan.  “It’s been great to see him from the opposing sideline these last four years because I notice how hard he works.  Competing against his hard work has been a challenge as an opposing coach, but as a father and fan of the game, it’s fun to be on the same field as him.

The two have been instrumental in the creation of the fundraising match but are quick to cite several individuals who’ve helped along the way.

“(Olympia boys coach) Ty Johnson and I have a mutual respect for each other, and he’s as big a part of this game,” said Bryan. “He lost his father to cancer, so this event is for him and his family too.”

“I couldn’t have done this without Chris Miller. I reached out to him when I decided I wanted to do this project and he’s been so helpful,” said Bryce of the Tumwater citizen involved with Thurston County Relay for Life and a number of other fundraisers.  “Rachel’s Warriors co-captain Stefanee Erdahl has been with me every step of the way.”

The support they’ve received from the Olympia community does not surprise the two.

“Olympia really comes together in a big way,” said Bryce.  “We’re known as a ‘small town,’ but together we have a big impact and can display a lot of passion.”

“You’ve seen it with all the fundraisers and events going on,” said Bryan. “We as a community, we support one another.”

Bryce has developed into a beneficial byproduct of his environment, something his father relishes in witnessing every day.

“I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of him.  In high school, he started waking up at 5 a.m. every day just to get in extra work.  Not many high school kids do that, let alone on their own,” Bryan said.

“He’s been through a lot at a young age. Losing a great friend and then an aunt, that’s not easy,” he continued.  “But the way he’s responded, I couldn’t be more proud to be his father.”

For more information on donating to Rachel’s Warriors or becoming involved with the Relay for Life of Thurston County, email Andersen.bw7@gmail.com.

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