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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Tournament honors local star’s battle with cancer, impact on D.C. soccer

Tournament honors local stars battle with cancer, impact on D.C. soccer

American University senior defender Jordan Manley and his team headed to a grassy edge of George Mason Stadium for their post-game stretch Friday night in good spirits. The Eagles had just defeated GW men’s soccer 2–1 in game one of the second annual Kuykenstrong D.C. College Cup.

Just a decade or so earlier you might have seen Shawn Kuykendall doing the same thing.

Kuykendall, a four-year star at midfield for American, recorded 29 assists and 23 goals for the Eagles, played in three NCAA tournaments and was named the school’s first ever and only Patriot League Player of the Year before being selected by D.C. United in 2005.

He returned to his alma mater in 2010 as a volunteer assistant, became an assistant coach in 2011 and met Manley, a freshman at the time, in 2012.

“Shawn was kind of that guy who was a coach, but also young enough to be a player, and he kind of gave us both perspectives. He’d be the guy that would come out early before practice and help me work on my long balls or passes or whatever it was,” Manley said. “He had a relationship with everybody on the team.”

The Fairfax, Va. native was a prominent figure in the small, but tight-knit D.C. soccer community. Apart from his playing and coaching career at American, Kuykendall also worked as the director of player development for Montgomery Soccer Inc. and coached for McLean Youth Soccer.

But in July of 2013 Kuykendall was diagnosed with an advanced form of thymus cancer. He died of thymic carcinoma on March 12, 2014 at age 32.

“I knew [Kuykendall] from coaching in the area, we did some camps at D.C. United so obviously when they changed the name I was all for it,” GW head coach Craig Jones said. “He was a great guy. We just lost him too soon.”

While coaching for McLean, Kuykendall forged a strong friendship with Mike Foss, now the chairman of the Kuykenstrong Foundation, a charity that serves as the realization of Kuykendall’s last wish — being able to unite everyone who had followed his battle under one organization devoted to treating children with cancer.

The two had first met in 2004 at a D.C United youth clinic and crossed paths frequently during their time in the D.C. soccer scene. Foss, who also played soccer for George Mason, was contacted by West and George Mason head coach Greg Andrulis last year to find a way that the two schools could honor the local soccer star.

The decision was made last fall to rename the 14th annual tournament the first annual Kuykenstrong D.C. College Cup.

“This was an easy way to preserve Shawn’s memory and one that made sense for everyone involved. I played in the College Cup, Shawn played in the College Cup,” Foss said. “It has this very unique place in the heart of the D.C. soccer community in the same way that Shawn did.”

After being diagnosed in November 2013, Kuykendall wanted a way to document and share his fight against the disease. Kuykenstrong.com then became his way of keeping people in the loop about his cancer treatments, and he posted blogs and photos regularly.

Foss registered the domain for his friend while Foss’s wife made a few “Kuykenstrong,” T-shirts for Kuykendall and his family to wear to chemotherapy and doctors’ appointments. After posting some photos online, more people wanted to buy the shirts.

A mutual friend of Foss and Kuykendall set up an online shop to sell the shirts and raise money to help cover the cost of treatment bills. But just as money started coming in, Kuykendall passed away.

After T-shirt purchases and donations, $20,000 had been raised for his treatment. That then became the “seed money” for the Kuykenstrong Foundation.

But the support didn’t stop there. Foss, who is also a managing editor at For the Win, a USA Today sports blog, posted a story about Kuykendall on the day of his death.

“I’ll never forget writing that story the day he died and then turning off my phone just to spend some time with his family, and then maybe a couple of hours later coming back to see people I had known for years — people I had never met, people like Landon Donovan and Frank Lampard — just people you wouldn’t believe knew his story all of a sudden reaching out and giving his family support. It was really remarkable,” Foss said.

The Kuykenstrong Foundation has partnered with MedStar Georgetown University Hospital to support the work of its Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology but is also looking to expand its reach nationally. Ali Krieger, a defender on the the World Champion U.S. Women’s National team, is one of the most recent additions to the foundation’s board.

American head coach Todd West, now in his 16th year at the helm of the program, hopes the D.C. College Cup name change will live on long after he retires both to help raise money for children with cancer and to honor Kuykendall’s life and lasting impact on the D.C. soccer community.

“As a player, he was one of our best, and as an assistant coach, he was passionate, cared about the players, bled for the program,” West said. “He gave me 10 years of his life, and he died at 32, so a third of his life he gave to AU. His legacy is huge for me personally and for our university.”

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