‘It will always be his number’: Nolan Davidson’s soccer coach reminisces on his life, time spent with him

By Rachel Henderson

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB) — Loved ones and community members are grappling with the loss of a nine-year-old Lenexa boy, Nolan Davidson, after he passed away due to injuries sustained in an alleged drunk driving incident.

Davidson’s family announced early Friday morning on their Caring Bridge site that Nolan passed Thursday evening, in addition to mentioning their decision to make him a “Hero Donor” and that his Celebration of Life details would be announced in the future.

There has been no shortage of support for this family, as seen in the hundreds of comments not only on Caring Bridge, but also across social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

“It’s an unbelievable, devastating thing for a lot of groups of people in the Kansas City area,” said Mo Loridon, Nolan’s soccer coach with the KC Fusion Soccer Club.

The club made a statement Friday not only offering their condolences to his friends and family, but also speaking to his value as a member.

“Nolan was obviously very talented on the field, but his presence as a teammate and leader is what made him so special,” the statement read. “Nolan is everything that is great about youth sports, and soccer specifically, as he wanted to be the best (both teammate and player) that he could be.”

Loridon says he knows how much of an impact this loss will have not only on himself, but on his team.

“I’ve been a coach for 22 years, and I have never lost a kid that was on my team,” Loridon said. “The agonizing part is, how do I communicate this loss through soccer back to the boys who love him just like I do?”

That’s why he made the decision to retire Nolan’s number, 10, as a way to keep his legacy ongoing.

“I’ve already told the parents and I made the decision, we’re retiring his number from our team,” Loridon said. “It will always be his number. That’s how we’ll remember and support and celebrate getting to spend time with Nolan.”

Loridon says it’s the time he spent with Nolan that turned their relationship from coach-player to mentor-mentee.

“I think Nolan and I took together very quickly, and the best compliment I can give Nolan is that he was made the team captain at eight years old,” he said. “I don’t get to be with my buddy.”

It’s a feeling Loridon knows his entire community is grappling with, especially considering how many ties the family had to various organizations.

“His family is so involved in cross country, running track, so that community knew Nolan,” he said. “The soccer community knew Nolan, and then we have to think about his school and what an impact he made at school with all his school friends. There’s just a lot of people that were impacted by Nolan, and they all say the same thing — high character young man at nine years old, who was super competitive, who worked hard in everything he did.”

That support system is something even the regional executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Heartland Region can attest to.

“We’ve reached out to the family, we know that they have an amazing support system,” said Jerod Breit, with MADD.

Breit says he’s seen an increase in DUI incidents, something that he says always results in a larger outcome than people realize.

“Unfortunately, the numbers are on the rise,” Breit said. “We continue to see families crushed, and the web of tragedy doesn’t just stand with a parent, or a child, it stands with every person that that victim or survivor has or would have interacted with.”

According to data MADD references from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, two out of three people will be impacted by drunk driving in their lifetime.

In Nolan’s case, a number of comments and support came from people who did not even know him.

“It is a tragic loss in our community from a 100% preventable crime,” Breit said. “This crime is a choice. People choose to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle intoxicated.”

Matthew Alexander Jacobo, a KCK, man faces three charges in connection to the hit-and-run crash: DUI aggravated battery, failure to stop at the scene of an accident, and possessing or carrying a loaded firearm while under the influence, according to court documents.

“The hardest thing to come to terms with is, I don’t get to see Nolan,” Loridon said.

He wants people to remember though, that while Nolan may be physically gone, his memory lives on.

“I was lucky, we were all lucky that we got to hang out with Nolan,” he said.

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