OCEAN CITY – Late coach and teacher Mikenzie Helphenstine was honored with a bench dedicated in her memory during the annual fight cancer game between the Ocean City High School and Egg Harbor Township girls lacrosse teams May 3.
Helphenstine was a standout athlete while a student at OCHS and as a college athlete. She became a teacher and coach in the Ocean City School District and was involved with students and student athletes until cancer claimed her life in 2022.
“Last year we lost Coach H – Mikenzie Helphenstine – after a long battle with cancer and we wanted the chance to honor her and her life and her legacy, especially with her daughter Andi as a senior captain on our team,” OCHS girls lacrosse coach Lesley Graham said. “We had a bench dedicated in her memory and in her honor and it will be at the Tennessee Avenue field.
“So, whenever you need to have a quiet moment to reflect or feel Coach H’s presence on the sideline, it will be there,” Graham said.
“It is really special to have it at our home field,” Andi Helphenstine said. “It means a lot.
“I’m speechless,” said Jane Custer, Mikenzie’s mother. “It is so nice that these girls who she coached remember her so fondly. My family is in awe of the love this community, especially this school community, has shown Coach H.”
Although Mikenzie’s memory brings tears to her eyes, Custer said she loves to reflect on all the things that her daughter meant to her and others.
“I try to celebrate Mikenzie every day and I’m so happy that other people celebrate her too,” she said. “I try to find something to celebrate about my daughter. I love it when people mention her name because it means she left a mark in a positive way. I try to make it a celebration of her life.”
At the ceremony, which took place at Carey Stadium before the Wednesday evening game, Graham’s players carried the bench out to the field and then they all placed red roses on it.
The 1997 OCHS grad died at age 43 on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, nearly a year to the day before the ceremony. At the time, Cathleen Smith, principal at Ocean City Primary School where Mikenzie taught, put it this way: “She didn’t lose a battle with cancer. Heaven won her.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
