SALUDA, S.C. — A little league softball team from Saluda Angels X-Play Team is fighting for more than a championship. Their head coach Nancy Jordan was diagnosed with cancer last month and rescheduled her surgery for after the playoff.
“I’m not afraid. I tell the girls I’m not afraid,” Jordan, the head coach of Saluda Angels X-Play Team. “We will tackle this, we have our faith and we’ll move forward and come out better in the end for it.”
Coach Nancy was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and had to put off her surgery for the championship game.
“I feel special like all of us feel special because she had surgery that she pushed back just for us,” Ava Frye, a player, says.
Players see her sacrifices and kindness on the field and say they also experience it off the field.
“She’s one of a kind there’s none like her. She would give her shirt off of her back. She puts in countless hours on and off the field for these girls,” parent Ashleigh Buzhardt shares. “And her heart is bigger than anyone that I know.”
Coach Nancy’s husband, a co-coach, believes their shared interest in softball and the team bonds them closer.
“We go home, we talk about softball, we love the game, we love mentoring these young ladies, and being around them,” Jeffery Jordan, coach of the Saluda softball team and Nancy’s husband, says. “They are truly family to us.”
For two players on the roster, their coach’s diagnosis hits home.
That’s because Nancy’s daughters, Nayla and Nicole, are both Saluda softball players.
They say they found this difficult time somewhat bearable because of the family they have formed on the field.
“I felt that I was just hurt. And like so many emotions were going through me. But like there was one thing that I knew,” Nayla says. “And it was god had put this plan for us and he had given us this village of people to take care of us and support us.”
Coach Nancy and the players continue to lean on faith during difficult times.
“It’s just little kids — they love you so much. They don’t know exactly what’s going on to the full extent what going on,” Coach Nancy explains. “But they know Coach Nancy needs prayers. And they know they love Coach Nancy, and Coach Nancy loves them.”
Coach Nancy and her team hope to follow up on their championship win from last year.
The Dixie Softball Championship is set to take place in Tennessee and Louisiana next weekend.