Soccer during COVID: High School Players Grayson Dugan and Nolan Colladay
Written by Dave Wasiolek
In the soccer world, no group has been more impacted by the COVID shutdown than the players. Whether it is your son or daughter just starting out in a recreation league, chasing the ball with their friends like bees around a flower, or the older crowd trying to have one more season in the sun – the loss of these last few months on the pitch are profoundly felt.
To find out the perspective of an average Middle Tennessee player, we talked to Grayson Dugan and Nolan Colladay. These gentlemen hail from Page High School, and are two of the best high school soccer players in the state. Grayson and Nolan began playing when they were just 4-5 years old, and the game quickly became their passion. As teammates on both their TSC team as well as their high school squad, they have led past clubs to considerable success – though not without detours and hurdles.
Grayson’s story is particularly poignant. A significant force on his TSC team, Grayson led the entire District 11 in scoring as a freshman in high school. Then just weeks before the start of his sophomore season, he tore his ACL and had to miss the entire year. Over the next 12 months he battled back and by the start of his junior season he had regained all of his old form. With Nolan dominating the midfield and dealing out the assists, Grayson racked up five goals during preseason and two more in the first regular season match. Unfortunately, after going undefeated to that point, COVID struck and the remainder of the team’s march to a state championship vanished like morning mist on a hot summer day.
Initially, both players said they felt a little lost when COVID shut down the world. With the structure of school and the team gone they stayed close to home working on their fitness and ball skills by themselves or with their siblings. (And in Nolan’s case, experimenting with new hairstyles and colors.) The isolation was difficult, but while neither of them knew anyone directly who had COVID, they wanted to be considerate and not risk getting sick and passing it on to others whose health might be compromised. However, when the world finally got a better handle on the disease and began to open back up, the guys loosened their isolation. This included playing small-sided matches with close friends and joining the other PHS senior soccer players to hold a “social distancing appropriate” summer soccer camp for kids. Watching the gentlemen run the camp, it was easy to see how much they missed being out on the pitch together and it was hard to say who enjoyed the event more – the little tikes or the big ones running the show.
But not even COVID can derail life forever, and as Nolan and Grayson prepare to begin their senior years they are already mapping out the stepping stones for their future. Both are being pursued by colleges to continue their soccer careers at the next level and Nolan has already verbally committed to Belmont. Academically, Grayson is planning on studying business and psychology while Nolan is looking to become a dentist. With the discipline and focus they have shown both on the pitch and in the classroom, they will undoubtedly be successful in whatever path they choose.
Times like these can be difficult, but maybe we’ll look back on these days and come to appreciate the lessons learned from those who navigated these storms successfully. To keep looking forward like Nolan and Grayson you should remain grateful, cherish the moments we do have, and remember the saying once inscribed on a ring given to a Persian Sultan to help him deal with troubled times: This too shall pass.