Joel Lemus is the boys’ soccer coach and counselor for Lexington High School. Lemus shared how he has seen his players and students camaraderie change since the Tyson plant closure.
Did the number of students who went out for soccer this spring change with the Tyson plant closure?
No, our numbers have been pretty much the same since I’ve been here in Lexington. I came here in the 2018-19 school year. Soccer continues to be a very popular sport here. We have had a little decline in enrollment. But I think that as far as our spring sport, I think it continues to be one of the most, if not the most popular sport. I haven’t really seen a decrease. We still have about 70 guys who tried out this year.
You mentioned a little bit of a dip in the enrollment. How much of a dip are you talking about?
I’m a school counselor at the high school. But at the high school we’ve seen – I don’t have exact numbers, but I’ve slowly started to see a few students at a time transferring out. I think for families – we have a lot of families who Tyson was the employer – but I think families who were in a situation where they were able to move a little quicker, like maybe they were renting versus owning a home, or they didn’t have as strong of ties in the community, or weren’t here as long. We’ve seen some of those families move, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty of what’s going to happen. Moving forward, especially over the summer, and so it’s kind of a guessing game, and all we can do is try and do our best to continue to serve the students and families that we have here.
How have you seen the students’ camaraderie change since the closure?
As you can imagine, this is a big shock to our community. You look around town, and there was not a sign to anybody, at least from my point of view, that something like this was gonna happen. There wasn’t like months leading up to it, certain things were happening. As a town, we were continuing to build a new overpass to accommodate a lot of things that led to Tyson, our biggest employer. We were building new homes and new apartments in town and near Tyson to accommodate those employees. A new gas station just went up right across the street from Tyson, a new Jimmy John’s. We’re a small town. So those are big talks in our community, and those things were happening, and then literally within days, the announcement came. So, I think after we all got over the shock and maybe the disbelief that something like this was real or that it was a dream or that it was just like – well, maybe they’re just doing that to motivate us to do something. You play out all the scenarios in your head, and you hear all the different things. But now that all that shock has kind of worn off, and reality has set in, I think as a student body and as a community, I hope that I’m right in saying this because this is what I believe. I guess it’s my truth that this is the next thing. That’s life, and a lot of our family members have overcome something way bigger than this. I’m not trying to minimize or trivialize a very difficult situation, and at the same time, life will continue past Tyson. A lot of people are scrambling trying to find ways to make ends meet, and I know it’s a difficult thing, but there is life after an employer closes.
How have you seen that reflected amongst the students you see on a daily basis?
Yeah, it’s hard, man. I think it’s very easy to put numbers to things and just say, well, this affected 3,200 people. It’s actually more than that because those are the direct employees, right? There’s a lot of connections that are or people indirectly tied to Tyson that it affected. So I think, I think it’s easy to talk numbers, but when you get into relationships, when you get into actually meeting and talking with students and families, it’s a difficult thing. But again, I think that we are a community of people who persevere. We’re a community of people who have fought to get to where they’re at, and as a team, we embrace that mentality of, “Hey, at the end of the day, this is a game. It’s a beautiful game. It’s the most beautiful game in the world.” While it’s just a game, it can teach us a lot about life, and that’s, I guess, our approach as coaches. (It) is to say at the same time how blessed, how blessed we are to be nervous about a game tomorrow against Kearney High. How blessed are we to be, for me to be game planning for a high school soccer game, and comparatively to other people across this country or across the world, that those are the things that are taking up, consuming my mind and are making me nervous when other people are dealing with so much worse.
With the closure, how do you feel the team’s season has or will impact the community of Lexington?
The mentality has been since before I’ve been the head coach of the next game is the big one. The next big thing is the next big thing. So you try to move on from the well, you try to learn from the mistakes that you’ve made, obviously, but you also don’t dwell on it. You just focus on whatever’s coming next, ’cause that’s the thing that you can have an impact on. Whatever has happened is kind of in the past, and you move on to the next challenge.
For as long as your program has been successful, of course, one of the best programs in Class B, how do you think the program and school will be affected in the long term with the closure?
Yeah, that’s a very good question. It’s a very difficult question because it’s unknown. Here I am as a school counselor, we’re talking about numbers and classes and how things will work for next year, right? That’s an unknown. A couple kids have expressed to me that they’re going to be there’s a really good chance, or they’re 100% sure that they’re going to move this summer. So we’ll miss those kids first and foremost just as people and their families. I think that things don’t change as far as our approach. As far as our approach of even the season, yeah, we’ve had some injuries, we’ve had some different things that have come up, and it’s the next person up. As much as we love every guy, we’ve talked about there’s going to be somebody along later down the road that’s going to wear your number, right? You’ve got to be very, very exceptional for us to retire your number at the high school level. Like that just doesn’t happen, and so we’re gonna love you. We’re gonna embrace you. We’re gonna try to do everything to prepare you for the next step while you’re here for those four years, and hopefully I as a school counselor, we as a coaching staff can help you get the tools to get for the next – get ready for the next level, and at the same time, the guy changed, but the program needs to. There needs to be some constants within the program, and so I think a lot of things will stay constant after whatever happens here in the next few months or the next year or so.
What kind of messages have you told your team about handling the adversity of the Tyson closure? I know you’ve touched on it a little bit.
We’re a very high immigrant refugee population, and thinking about the sacrifices that they themselves, or their parents, or their ancestors have made just to get to where they are now. And again, I’m not trying to trivialize this thing, but again, there is life after all this, and whether you’re here in Lexington, whether you move to another community. You’re always going to be a part of our hearts. You’re always going to be a part of our community and our program, and so those things don’t change. It’ll be a difficult thing if we see a guy move and then next year they’re wearing a different color jersey, but I’m going to approach him and give him a big hug and continue to tell them I’m proud of them, that those things won’t change. We want them to stay in orange and black, but the reality is families have to make things work, and if years down the road I can say I helped in some little part to get to where they are now. That’s a blessing.
Is there anything else you want to mention about the Tyson food plant closure, and just in general?
I don’t want this to sound negative, but we’re not looking for sympathy in Lexington. We’re not looking for people to say, “Oh, we’re sorry about what’s happened to you.” I think we continue to pursue and push for what we’ve always pushed for is respect. This thing does not define us. We’re going to keep battling for what we believe is where we stand as a program is one of the best, if not the best, program in the state in Class B high school soccer. We’re looking to be a respected program. I think that we’ve made a lot of strides in getting there. Some people have talked to me and (been) like, “I don’t know how to approach you about it, don’t know how to ask you.” Man, I don’t need sympathy from anybody because again, one, we’re very blessed to have the things that we have, and I don’t think we need sympathy from anybody. I think we’re look – we’re going to keep – I’m not looking for respect to be given to us. I’m looking for us to keep working to earn that respect from our opponents and from people across the state.
