Assistant girls varsity soccer coach, Clarke Central High School Class of 2010 alumna and CCHS’s all time leading goalscorer Ashley Wassel Still stands on the field in Billy Henderson Stadium on Jan. 23. Head girls junior varsity soccer coach and assistant girls varsity soccer coach Alex Sams saw the team be more connected to Wassel because she’s a former player. “It just gives a little more credibility, it gives a little more heart to how (she coaches),” Sams said. “When coaches are telling you to run harder and they’re not running with you, it’s easy to go ‘Well, that’s coaches,’ but they know (Wassel has) done it (as a player).” Photo courtesy of Ashley Wassel Still
Assistant girls varsity soccer coach Ashley Wassel Still’s resilience and love of soccer have persevered despite her trials with life-threatening cancer.
Throughout her life and two diagnoses of colorectal cancer, Clarke Central High School Class of 2010 alumna and CCHS assistant girls varsity soccer coach Ashley Wassel Still has battled to hold onto one of her greatest passions: soccer.
Wassel was diagnosed with colorectal cancer — cancer of the rectum — in April 2020, undergoing radiation and chemotherapy over the ensuing summer to treat it. According to Cedar Shoals High School Class of 2008 alumna Theresa Gonzalez, a close friend of Wassel’s, the toll of the diagnosis was greater due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was a very isolating time to get a cancer diagnosis,” Gonzalez said. “When someone you love is diagnosed with cancer, you want to shower them with love and support. You want to go with them to chemo and radiation, visit them in the hospital, drop off gifts, care packages and because of COVID, that wasn’t an option.”
After Wassel was treated during the summer of 2020, she had surgery to remove the tumor and was officially declared to be in remission on December 26, 2020.
“I did not expect (to enter remission). I was supposed to finish treatment in February, so this is in December. It was the best Christmas present a girl can have,” Wassel said. “I was still immunocompromised, but I just wanted normalcy. I started to play soccer the following week.”
After entering remission, it took less than three months before she accepted a position as an assistant coach for the CCHS girls varsity soccer team in early 2021. While cancer could have sidelined her from soccer, it had the opposite effect.
“(My cancer diagnosis) motivated me more because I got to be back in an environment that I really enjoy and that I’m passionate about,” Wassel said. “It motivated me to help motivate the girls and lead me to where I am today.
“When someone you love is diagnosed with cancer, you want to shower them with love and support. You want to go with them to chemo and radiation, visit them in the hospital, drop off gifts, care packages and because of COVID, that wasn’t an option.”
— Theresa Gonzalez,
Cedar Schools High School Class of 2008 alumna and a close friend of Ashley Wassel Still
Head girls junior varsity soccer coach and assistant girls varsity soccer coach Alex Sams feels that the coaches and team acclimated to Wassel quickly.
“She came during tryouts and quickly got COVID and had to be quarantined for 10 or so days and I remember quickly going, ‘Huh, I miss having her out here,’” Sams said. “She is my favorite assistant coach that we’ve had.”
In addition to coaching, Wassel began playing soccer again, earning a scholarship to Georgia Military College, where she has played for the past two years.
“I think (playing college soccer) gave her a very unique perspective because coming out of high school and going to play college soccer didn’t work out for her the first time around,” Gonzalez said. “It was almost like she’s been given the second opportunity, the second gift, and I think it’s made her much more positive.”
Wassel even encouraged girls varsity soccer winger Eleanor Mathews, a CCHS senior, to play college soccer alongside her at GMC.
“She was like, ‘Oh, you should come play with me’ and I was like, ‘Okay,’ and then she talked to the coach and then also gave me the opportunity to talk to their coach,” Mathews said. “We’ve been close because once I graduate, we’re gonna be teammates.”
Wassel finished her second season on the girls varsity soccer team coaching staff in April 2022, earning a Positive Athlete Award. The award is given to the most positive girls coach in Georgia by Positive Athlete, an organization that recognizes players and coaches for their positivity and how they overcome challenges. However, within weeks of receiving her award, Wassel received devastating news: her cancer had returned.
“I knew that I was at a higher risk of (my cancer) coming back, I just didn’t expect it to be this soon,” Wassel said. “I was angry. I worked really hard to get where I am and now I’m at a standstill.”
“(My cancer diagnosis) motivated me more because I got to be back in an environment that I really enjoy and that I’m passionate about.”
— Ashley Wassel Still,
Clarke Central High School Class of 2010 alumna and CCHS assistant girls varsity soccer coach
Wassel’s doctors recommended she seek treatment from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. To cover the cost of her treatment and transit, Gonzalez started a GoFundMe page in her friend’s name.
“When someone you love gets such tragic news, the hardest part is you never feel like you can do enough,” Gonzalez said. “To me, the GoFundMe is just the smallest, most simple thing that I can do to let her know that I’m thinking of her, I love her (and) I support her.”
Even though her treatment plan requires her to regularly visit Houston, Wassel plans to keep playing and coaching, though she will be moving to Piedmont University as a player and Monsignor Donovan Catholic High School as a coach.
“I’m being told that immunotherapy isn’t as damaging on the body like chemo is and they’re saying that I can play (soccer),” Wassel said. “Once I was told I have cancer. I was like, ‘Okay, what are we gonna do now?’ I’m not gonna cry about it. It’s sad, (but) I gotta beat it, so let’s go.”
Mathews hopes that Wassel can overcome her second stint of cancer , but she is inspired by her story already.
“For her to go through cancer and beat it and then still go back (to) what she loves, it’s a lot and it’s a lot for her body,” Mathews said. “She definitely is an inspiration because a lot of people can never do what she does.”
The Athens community has bonded around Wassel’s story and have made donations of more than $10,000 dollars to her GoFundMe page. While that sum is short of the page’s fixed goal, Wassel has been nonetheless surprised by how the community has come together to support her.
“Athens is a small town, especially if you become a local,” Wassel said. “It’s like a web of people and the web that is growing to know my story and to be here to help me and my husband, financially and emotionally, has been great.”
