Kerry Ann Ryan

January 24, 1971 - August 21, 2006

 Kerry joined the SABR TOPSoccer program in the 2001 – 2002 season.  She came to SABR as a result of her friend Greg Turner who had a son playing in the SABR Rec. Program.  Greg had introduced her to the program and he still recalls her excitement the day he told her that her application had been submitted to the SABR TOPSoccer program.  The day Greg delivered her 1^st uniform and Jersey with her name on it she immediately put on the uniform and shared her good news with the entire neighborhood.

She was SABR’s first player confined to a wheel chair.  Dean Frost, the then TOPSoccer Program Director requested Kerry be assigned to his team. 

 Kerry had spent all of her life in her wheel chair and this was her first opportunity to play an organized sport.  She LOVED the game of Soccer and she loved her many friends, both TOP’s athletes, Coaches and Soccer Buddy’s.  She was really proud of her TOPSoccer friends and she told everyone she came in contact with about all her friends and her soccer skills.

 Kerry had to undergo 29 surgeries in her first 32 years of life.  She was in the hospital on two different occasions while a member of the TOP’s program.  Dean recalls visiting her at the Boca Raton Community Hospital where he was introduced to all of her nurses and Dr.’s as “her soccer coach”.  She would immediately encourage Coach Dean to tell the individual(s) about her soccer skills.  Everyone on her hospital floor got to know Kerry and the patients, nurses and Dr.’s loved her. Kerry was in pain most of her waking life but you would have never known it.  She had a beautiful smile that immediately caught your attention.  When Dean walked into her room she would immediately tell him to pull up a chair. Kerry loved to talk about soccer and her many friends at TOP’s.  It was always difficult for Dean to leave because Kerry would encourage him to stay even when the nurses were trying to get her to rest.

Kerry passed away in August 2006 and never had a chance to be a part of the 2006 – 2007 TOP’s season.  She is missed by her many friends at TOP’s.  On Saturday, March 3, 2007 at the close of the SABR TOPSoccer season Kerry’s jersey was officially “retired”.  The baby blue jersey was signed by all of the TOP’s players, coaches, buddies and friends as a special tribute to “our” very special soccer player and FRIEND.  A plaque was added to the framed jersey that reads “A person can have no better epitaph than that which is inscribed in the hearts of her friends”. Author unknown.