KEEPING HER HEAD in the game

BY SARAH NELSON KATZENBERGER PHOTOS BY JEN SALVEVOLD

Nikki Blair has loved soccer for as long as she can remember. She started playing as a 4-yearold growing up in Alaska as a way to find something to occupy her busy little body. “I was a handful,” Blair laughed. “I needed something really active and soccer was it for me.”

“It helped bring down her energy level at home,” added Blair’s mom, Tracy Leonard. “I just know if Nikki was still in it she’d be at the top.”

In her 10 years of playing soccer in Alaska and then Arizona, Nikki Blair showed a natural talent for the game and quickly became a player to watch. Playing at a competitive level, she found herself at the top of her game at a young age and being approached by coaches at the highest level.

In her 10 years of playing soccer in Alaska and then Arizona, Blair showed a natural talent for the game and quickly became a player to watch. Playing at a competitive level, Blair found herself at the top of her game at a young age and being approached by coaches at the highest level.

“She was being watched by some of the best coaches around,” Leonard said.

Then the unthinkable happened.

In a very short time, Nikki suffered several concussions — while playing soccer, and then a final devastating blow came from a car accident where she suffered both a concussion and whiplash effectively ending her soccer career.

She was just 14.

“It was devastating,” Blair recalled. “I was injured but what hurt more was that I couldn’t play — probably ever. That was a lot (to process).”

Leonard said she and her husband Keith worried about Nikki’s mental health. “It was tough for sure,” Leonard said.

“I was so depressed,” Blair said. “I just didn’t have a lot of motivation to do anything else.”

In 2020, Blair’s family moved to the Brainerd lakes area giving her the opportunity to start over and in some form, be part of a new soccer community. She knew it might not look the same, but she wanted to try. Blair sought out the Brainerd High School soccer coach Grant Gmeinder for an opportunity to play just one game.

“I just kind of wanted this to be my chance to say, like, a goodbye, to soccer,” Blair said. “Just one more game.”

She scored a goal in case there was any doubt. And then she walked away.

Blair, now 20, suffers from chronic pain, headaches and memory loss. Her mom helps Blair with the parts of her memory she struggles to recall. When there are gaps in her stories and missing memories, it’s her mom who fills in the missing pieces. Despite all she has been through, one thing Blair does not suffer from is defeat.

In the fall of 2023, after a hiatus from soccer, Blair found herself back in the game but with a new role — Coach Nikki. Despite her struggle with memory loss, Blair said she is crystal clear on her memories of taking over as coach at Forestview Middle School.

“They just kind of threw me in,” Blair said, recalling there were 30 seventh- and eighth-grade girls that first day. “It took some convincing, but I really love it,” she said.

The return to the pitch came with a mix of emotions for Blair. “I want to be the kind of coach that I would have wanted growing up,” she said, citing poor education and sports culture for the impact her injuries had on her soccer career and her everyday life. “We need that in any sport. Just the opportunity for healthy communication is so important — if a kid is injured or just needs to rest, they should feel like they can say and feel supported and protected by their coach.”

Blair said the transition from playing to coaching came naturally for her. “I thought it would be a lot harder than it was,” she said. “You have to start off strict and then back off — you have to have some kind of control when you start out.” repertoire. “I’ve always loved makeup,” she said. “I was the girl who would show up at practice with a full face of make-up on.”

She offers private soccer sessions to players in the off-season and is a trained Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). That’s where she met her neighbor Don who contacted Her Voice Editor DeLynn Howard to share Nikki’s story — he was one of her clients.

“We think of him as our adopted grandpa,” Blair explained. “He has helped me a lot with my faith. Whenever I need guidance, I go to Don.”

The hard work and motivation have paid off. Forestview’s girls’ team went undefeated in their 2023 season under Blair’s coaching debut, and she hopes to keep up the run this year. More than wins, Blair said the big payout has been seeing her players work hard and improve their skills. “You get to really know the girls on a personal level,” she said. “And when you watch their confidence go up it’s such a great feeling.”

When she’s not coaching soccer, Blair is working on finding what normal life with chronic pain looks like for her. She’s a largely self-taught make-up artist, recently adding wedding make-up services to her

Blair’s group of seventh and eighth graders will play around a dozen games this fall and she said she is looking forward to cheering them on from the sideline once again this year. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to still be part of the soccer community,” she said. “I really want to be the kind of coach that not just teaches soccer but builds relationships — cares about their players.”

Sarah Nelson Katzenberger is a displaced Californian who had no idea there were four seasons until she moved to Minnesota. She is a former missionary, law school drop-out, high school teacher and award-winning journalist with the Brainerd Dispatch. She continues to write for local and national publications and provides unsolicited grammar correction as needed. Sarah lives in Brainerd with her husband Chad and their three baby Vikings, Ellis, Meredith and Truett.