In the first half of Monday’s College Cup women’s soccer national championship at Stevens Stadium in Santa Clara, California, BYU fans had to be nervous as All-American midfielder Mikayla Colohan had gone down and wasn’t getting back up.

The Cougar trainers were on the field talking to Colohan as she writhed in pain. At one point the announcers on the ESPNU broadcast noted that there were crutches on field and said, “Whether she will even be able to put any weight on it or not will tell us a lot.”

Colohan ended up being carried from the field but, fortunately, was able to fight through the deep bruise and return to the game.

“I think I had a little bit of shock, to be honest,” Colohan said after the match on Monday evening. “I know that was kind of a 50-50 ball and I beat her to it. The next thing I know, I felt like cleats up to my shin and I couldn’t feel my leg. So it was tough. I didn’t know if I’d be able to return but I definitely didn’t want to go out that way. Luckily my leg fell OK, and I was able to finish out the game.”

What only the most astute BYU supporters noticed was that the crutches on the field in that moment weren’t for Colohan at all.

They were for Carolyn Billings, director of sports medicine and the women’s soccer team athletic trainer, who had come out to check on the fallen Cougar star.

Not only was Billings valuable in keeping the BYU team healthy but she was invaluable in terms of motivating the Cougars as she continues to fight her own battles.

“Carolyn is awesome,” Colohan said. “We all love to joke around and hang around Carolyn. She’s a big part of our team, bigger than any other athletic trainers to a team I would imagine. She’s a great mentor to all of us.”

Colohan talked about how when the team found out that Billings was battling cancer again (something she has had to do at various points in her life), it brought everyone together and put everything into perspective.

“Honestly, I think that’s a tribute to a lot of our successes here,” Colohan said. “I think we kind of realized that there’s more to life than soccer, there’s more that we’re playing for and that we’re fighting for every day than soccer. When we stepped on the field on game day, that’s what we were focusing on. We kind of had this deeper perspective and something that we were all focused on together and collectively fighting for. The way to kind of show that was on the soccer field. So, so much of what we do is for Carolyn and the rest of the staff. It’s just been so fun to be able to come together as a team and celebrate her and help encourage her through what we’re doing.”

During the grind of a season, particularly when things aren’t going well, perspective can be difficult to find.

Colohan had moments where she wasn’t sure if returning for the extra season (made possible because of the COVID-19 pandemic) had been the right decision.

“Playing for the national championship is exactly what I wanted to do,” Colohan said. “We set that goal at the beginning of the year but I actually talked to (BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood) a few weeks before the season was supposed to start and told her I was questioning my decision of coming back to BYU. She was like, ‘Kayla, you can take us to the national championship. You have an opportunity to win a national championship or do something that no one’s ever done that at BYU.’ That was everything that I needed to hear and everything that I wanted to play for. I am just super grateful for that opportunity and proud of my team for getting here.”

While the players and the members of the staff certainly have many reasons to be proud of what the Cougars accomplished in coming within one penalty kick of winning the title, no one has the perspective that Rockwood does.

She is the architect of one of the most consistently successful programs at BYU, having coached the Cougars since 1995. She has seen teams with the talent to reach the highest level of the sport come up just short on a few different occasions.

This year, however, she finally got to see her team reach the last game of the season.

“It’s just phenomenal,” Rockwood said. “These girls really had a commitment from the very first of the season to do something that no other BYU soccer team has done. And they lived up to that. They had really high expectations. They appreciated those who have come before and we had a lot of alumni in the stands, supporting them. I’ve been blessed to be a part of it for a long time but this group just had a commitment.”

She smiled as she talked about how now the bar has been raised.

“What it does now is it creates an environment for younger players to aspire to do even more things,” Rockwood said. “I think those girls that are returning, they have a little taste of it now. I guarantee you that will motivate and inspire them to spend a little more time in the offseason. It’ll inspire our incoming new recruits who will be joining us in January and I’m sure also the future Cougars who are out there, younger girls to whom these girls have been a great role model and someday will wear the BYU jersey.”

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