Memorial girls soccer players compete with heavy hearts

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Sports often are credited with helping people move forward in times of tragedy. The only real salve is time itself.

But for at least 80 minutes Saturday, the Memorial girls soccer players passed the time in a productive way as they try to make sense of schoolmate Kobi Pickett's death.

"It's been real cathartic for the girls just to come out here," coach Lindley Amarantos said. "They made wristbands, and they all have ribbons in their hair, from the JV on up, and both our JV teams came out Thursday and Friday and played really well. They wanted to play well for Kobi."

It was all they could do.

Pickett, who was sick with the flu, was showering last Sunday at home when the illness and hot water caused her to lose consciousness and fall through the glass shower door, severing her carotid artery.

Life cut short

She was 15, just a high school sophomore.

The members of the Memorial High School girls soccer team competed in the I-10 Shootout on Saturday with heavy hearts after schoolmate Kobi Pickett, 15, died after an accident in the shower at her home last Sunday. less The members of the Memorial High School girls soccer team competed in the I-10 Shootout on Saturday with heavy hearts after schoolmate Kobi Pickett, 15, died after an accident in the shower at her home last ... more Photo: Bob Levey, Photographer Photo: Bob Levey, Photographer Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Memorial girls soccer players compete with heavy hearts 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

"Her family was there and heard it immediately and came to help her," Amarantos said. "Her brother was doing chest compressions and her dad was trying to stop the bleeding. They got in the ambulance, and when they got to the hospital she still had a very weak pulse, but she lost too much blood."

A funeral was held Thursday at St. Francis Episcopal Church, where Pickett's mother is a teacher. Approximately 1,300 people came to support the family and celebrate Pickett's life.

"It was a gut-wrenching situation, but also a really uplifting service, and it was a great way to honor her life," Amarantos said.

In Pickett's obituary, she's described as a creative and outgoing girl who loved her family, adored her parents, Stephanie and Don, and "spread positive energy and God's love everywhere she went."

She had many interests, from soccer and track, to snorkeling, water skiing, and baking.

"She was the sweetest girl," Amarantos said. "She was the hardest worker. Even in the soccer class last period, there was never a day she didn't give 100 percent. She came out all the time and gave us her best, and in doing so encouraged other people to do that."

That's why her death, and the way it happened, is so hard to process.

Backup goalkeeper Madeline Margraves knew Pickett from the neighborhood, and through her younger sister, Molly, who practiced with Pickett on the junior varsity. She has late arriving at Memorial, so she found out late Monday morning, when her mom delivered the news.

"At first I didn't believe her, but friends were texting me, and I realized it had to be real," Margraves said. "It's really hard because she was such a light, and it's hard to believe that she left so tragically. It's really just unfair."

Blue ribbons went up on trees throughout their Spring Valley neighborhood, and the soccer community was supportive.

At the I-10 Shootout, where Memorial went 1-1-1, falling 6-5 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie to Deer Park in the third-place match Saturday, tournament director Mark Kluppel, Katy Taylor's girls soccer coach, shuffled game times so a busload of junior varsity players could go from their matches to the funeral.

Many tributes

The first team Memorial's varsity squad played, San Antonio Johnson, handed the members a sympathy card at the start of their match and wore blue tape, and players from teams throughout the tournament tied blue ribbons in their hair in remembrance of Pickett.

"From varsity on down, we're all just so overwhelmed with the solidarity everyone showed us," Amarantos said.

Memorial's junior varsity players, who were able to visit with grief counselors Monday, decorated and filled a jar with their favorite memories of their teammate, then delivered it to her parents at the funeral.

Then they went back to their lives, and soccer, knowing Pickett was no longer with them, except in their hearts.

"We could have played better, but we played with Kobi in our hearts, and that was really important, that we did it for her," Margraves said.

Jason McDaniel is a freelance writer.