SPRINGFIELD – Fate, perhaps.
Divine intervention, maybe.
Whatever you call it, it was necessary.
Springfield Central football coach Valdamar T. Brower knows that much.
“It,” of course, is the link between the coach and one of his players. This link, though, goes beyond what the normal coach-player relationship consists of. This is a story of coincidence.
A story of love.
A story of survival.
When Brower, a former Northampton High School football star who went on to an All-American career at the University of Massachusetts, started as a teacher’s assistant at Central, he attended a parent-teacher conference. Of the many parents and legal guardians present that night, two people stood out to him. They spoke of Nate Shea, then a freshman at Central.
The name stuck with Brower, but he couldn’t put it together. It wasn’t until he spoke with his sister that he realized: Shea, along with his brother and sister, had lived with Brower’s family in Northampton when he was a teenager.
You see, Brower’s family housed many foster children through the years. The coach can remember playing basketball with Nate’s older brother, Shawn. Nate was just a baby when the three siblings lived with the Browers.
This fairytale story, however, took anything but a positive turn.
The siblings ended up moving in with their grandmother — a sound situation, indeed. With their mother out of the picture, living in Springfield with family was the best situation for the Shea kids.
Being in Springfield, however, has its downfalls.
As Shawn Shea became a teenager, he fell victim to the pressures of the street. The birthplace of basketball endures many of the same problems as other cities across the country: poverty, high crime rate and seemingly worst of all, a strong street gang presence.
Nate shared a normal relationship with his older brother. They frequently played basketball and football together. They fought — a lot.
In fact, Nate says that the hardships the siblings went through together only made the brotherly bond stronger.
“We always had a really tight bond,” Nate says. “With everything we had been through together, we always kept that bond.”
Shawn began getting into trouble. According to Nate, when Shawn caused trouble, the blame came down on him hard at home. When Shawn was 16, he decided he had had enough and ran away from home.
They remained close as Shawn simply stayed elsewhere in the city, but the story would soon take a wrong turn.
On December 12, 2008, Shawn Shea, a member of the loosely-assembled Springfield street gang SWAT, was convicted of first-degree murder in the May 10, 2007 shooting death of 14-year old Dymond McGowan, reported to be an innocent bystander in an attack against the rival Bristol Street group.
For the crime, 18-year-old Shawn Shea was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
***
When Brower reconnected with Nate Shea, he immediately knew he had a job. He felt it his task to make sure Nate stayed on the right path.
“I knew right then and there,” Brower said. “I remember saying, ‘Ok, this is my guy.’”
While tough home situations aren’t necessarily rare in Springfield schools, Nate Shea’s story is the extreme.
Through the years, Nate Shea always looked at his grandmother — Sally Rivera — as a rock. She was was there through thick and thin, good and bad.
After the Shea siblings lived in Northampton with the Browers, they moved in with their grandmother. All of the children — including Shawn — kept a close relationship with her.
“We were all very close,” Nate said. “I called her my mom.”
She would urge the kids to excel in the classroom and in life. When Shawn took a bad turn, she tried to help him while making sure the others didn’t follow in his footsteps.
After Shawn was arrested in the shooting, Nate kept close tabs. He remembers visiting his brother in prison and attending the many meetings and trial dates in the lengthy case.
Through the tough time, Nate’s grandmother remained as strong as ever. And the strength filtered down to her grandson.
Throughout the trial, Nate would often release his stress and feelings in the weight room. In fact, that’s where he was when he was told to come home one December evening.
It was the day Shawn’s verdict was handed down.
“I broke down,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. But my grandmother was right there to lift me up.
“She said everything was going to be okay.”
Nate remains as close to his brother now as Shawn’s incarceration allows. Shawn is in MCI-Cedar Junction Maximum Security Prison in Walpole and Nate visits often.
“I love him. Love him to death,” Nate said of his brother. “(You) can’t break that bond. I try to move forward and not be like him and make his mistakes.”
***
The tragic news didn’t stop there for Nate Shea.
This past summer, his beloved grandmother passed away after a two-year battle with cancer.
However painful the loss, though, Nate believes she is still with him.
“I just keep striving to do what she would want me to do,” he said. “It’s hard most of the time. I wake up every day an say the same thing.
“I always try to do well because she’s looking down on me.”
***
Through the loss and heartache, Nate Shea has formed an unbreakable bond with his football coach.
The two, according to Central High School principal Tad Tokarz, are inseparable.
“You talk about the impact coaches have on kids and students and (Coach Brower) has saved his life,” Tokarz said. “Just by showing him the proper way to live and by being a positive role model in his life.
“He lets him know that brighter skies are ahead with everything he has gone through.”
Nate feels the same way.
“We’re like brothers, but in a different way,” he said. “On the field, he’s my coach, but off the field, we’re friends. We talk a lot and he just helps me with all of the things I’ve been going through.”
Indeed, the Coach Brower has been there for Nate Shea through the hard times. But the learning, coping and growing goes both ways.
“He’s just an unbelieveable person for the way he’s handling his situation,” Brower said. “He has shown so much character through these tough times.
“I try to learn from him and the stuff he’s going through. He hasn’t missed a step. He just takes care of everything and wants to be somebody.”
Nate is currently having his best year in the classroom and has goals of going to college next year. He would like to one day be a veteranarian.
When he gets to college, football will most certainly be in the picture.
You can bet his old coach and the unbelievable story they have shared will be there too.
