Nonnewaug uniform donation to South Africa inspires others to give
When the first images were sent back of smiling school children in South Africa playing soccer wearing Nonnewaug jerseys, athletic director Declan Curtin could not have been prouder.
When the pictures of the smiling children and story of how they came to be wearing Nonnewaug gear was made public, a local non-profit group as well as other schools in the state began asking how they could get involved.
When the images hit social media, the project took on a whole new life and continues to grow.
Curtin was looking for a project the athletic department could get involved with back in October.
As it turned out, Region 14 superintendent Joseph Olzacki had connections to a South African community in Cape Town in need of athletic equipment.
As is the case at most schools, locked away in a closet at Nonnewaug were seasons worth of old soccer uniforms no longer being worn.
With help from Nonnewaug’s Athletic Council, Curtin packaged up the uniforms as well as some balls and cones which were sitting in storage and sent them to the children in the Khayelitsha neighborhood of Cape Town.
“A few days after the uniforms were sent, I got pictures of the kids in Nonnewaug jerseys and they were all so happy,” Curtin said. “We sent the photos to the Republican-American and once they did a story, the response was unbelievable. It kind of took off once the pictures were out of these kids wearing uniforms with Nonnewaug on them. We have had Lewis Mills,
in. It made sense to me right off the bat. There’s a lot to do with music therapy, people with head trauma. This album is a culmination of a lot of things. Me finding out who I am, falling in love with songwriting. A lot of the songs are kind of a diary of me trying to work through things. At the same time, it was so much fun to do.”
Cochran essentially is self-taught on the guitar, although he is quick to point out it’s incredible how much you can learn off YouTube. He picked songs he loved with easy chords and slowly chose songs he loved that were more difficult.
“The person who brought me into music was my mom,” Cochran said. “We always bonded over music. We had so many long car rides to different sports. We’d listen to music on the way. As sports became more competitive and serious, all I did was listen to music to chill me out or get me focused. Music has been a part of my life forever, although I never thought I could produce an album.”
He got better on the guitar. He started writing on his own. A lot of it wasn’t great, he said, but he grew more comfortable. For a time, he’d go over to Ledyard and work on songs in a home studio. He met people around Mystic and would play with them. A friend told him about Eric Lichter’s Dirt Floor Recording in Haddam, where he settled in for “Take It Slow.”
This was more than a year-long process. Cochran has his job. There was artwork. He said songs transformed themselves in the studio, different from what originally was in his head, as they were flushed fully to rock or country. His tastes run from Waylon Jennings to Jaime Wyatt, and you can hear that outlaw sound in his work.
“I wouldn’t define myself as a country guy,” Cochran said. “I listen to everything. If you ask my friends, one song to the other on a car ride is vastly different. I gravitated to (country) because of the song structure and the lyrics tend to have a little more weight.
“If I could be the guitarist and play the songs that were in my head, they’d probably sound a lot different. The songs I made, I’m really proud of them. I’m going to write songs the
rest of my life, probably. I’ve got the bug. I love it.”
There is the title track. There is “Family Table.” A piece he said is “about family, all the things he has gone through, drinking, whatever, so I could lay it out for myself chronologically where my life has gone.”
There is “Baseball,” an uptempo rocker, somewhere between John Fogerty and the Dropkick Murphys, about his love for the game.
“I think it should be the new seventh-inning stretch song,” Cochran said, breaking into a laugh. “There is a piece of me in all of it. Some is a deep dive into myself. Some is just what came out. A lot of people helped me, family and friends urged me on. It’s a dream. Something I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do. And I got to check it off my bucket list.”
Cochran moved to Mystic after he got his graduate degree at UConn in sports management. He didn’t have a real plan. The good news is football paid for his education. He had no debt and a few years to figure out. He got a job in a bar and a few guys there told him about the Mayflower II, a replica of the original, being restored at the seaport.
“I started three years ago next month and been there since,” he said. “It’s incredible to have these old wood ships come in, work on them and send them on their way. This past summer I got to sail on the Mayflower. It was an experience of a lifetime.
“Since it left, we’ve had two old schooners from New York City, Sherman Zwicker and the Pilot. They’re oyster bars in season and during the winter we’re working on them, replanking, patching them. It’s a cool job. I get to be outside. I get to work with my hands. I get to work with wood, be a carpenter.”
It’s not like Cochran comes from a family of shipbuilders and music hitmakers. Casey was a really good student and a really good quarterback. He learned about being a shipwright from the craftsmen. He is honing his music. He’s two steps toward becoming a Renaissance man.
“I’ve been kind of going with the flow and seeing what feels right,” Cochran said. “I found this really cool community in Mystic. The album on top of it, things are going really well. I’m happy where I am now.”
No Connecticut athlete deserves happiness any more than Casey Cochran.
“Concussions took over my life in college,” he said. “I had some dark years. Three years after playing football, I really struggled.”
He doesn’t get many headaches anymore. It’s a matter of maintaining mental health.
“Anxiety, depression that runs in my family, things that are genetic, and I’m more susceptible now (from concussions) if I don’t take care of myself. It would be much easier to go into a downslope. It’s something I’ll deal with forever. It’s definitely better now. But it’s slowed me down for sure. I have a new normal. I have to watch how much I sleep. How much I drink. Watch what I’m doing. It has made me more mindful because I’ve had to live this life.”
There were antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication for a time, he said, not anymore. Everyone’s mental health is different and the biggest thing for Cochran was therapy.
“It took me a while to find the right person and when I did, I was entirely comfortable and opened up,” he said. “They can dive into deep-rooted issues, professionally, analytically. Even with a really good friend you can only go so far, they have their own issues, too. It’s amazing. It broke down a lot of doors and barriers and led me to healthy alternatives.”
His relationship with football? It’s complicated.
“I watch it,” Cochran said. “I love college football. I follow it. I have friends playing in the NFL. I’m still very close to it in my heart, but don’t think I’ll ever coach it or be too close to it. If I see someone get knocked out cold in a game, I turn the TV off or walk away. It’s fresh for me and I feel too much for them.
“There are things about football I don’t love. There are things I do love. It’s one of the best ways to teach people lessons about hard work and overcoming obstacles. I’ve learned there are other ways to get those lessons in life. If my dad wasn’t a coach maybe I would have had a different path. Still, I wouldn’t trade my football experience. Some of my best friends in the world are teammates and coaches. At the end of the day, it’s a flawed game, really, with head injuries and some other things.” Would you let your son play? “No,” Casey Cochran said.