![]() ![]() But he came back for one last appearance, in a shocking way. ![]() When the day came for Jessica’s first game, her father had been gone for over a month. The picture was taken before she played up against Wales’ rugby team. Jessica (third from left) is seen on Team Canada in Ottawa. Jessica said those moments when she looked to the crowd and saw nothing, were the hardest of the whole trip.Ī month after Geoff passed away, his daughter was named to Team Canada’s under-20 women’s team. king hard… She kept looking for him on the field.”.“She was so stoic,” said her mother Erin. As her dad would have been right by her side before to help her along the way. In light of everything that happened, Jessica packed her bags and went to tryouts. I knew I should do it, because it’s what he’d want me to do.” “My dad is the reason I started playing rugby. “A week before he passed, he said, ‘I know you can make Team Canada,’” she said. But something occurred to her while she was mourning, and almost dropped out of the competition. Jessica was stricken by her father’s death. “Never underestimate the power of a strong female rugby player,” was the last message he sent to his girls’ team at Mark Isfeld. A message he sent one day before relayed exactly what he had learned from his daughter before he passed away: Two weeks before taking his daughter to tryouts, Geoff died of cardiac arrest in his yard. “Which makes it even more heartbreaking, that, he didn’t get to see her play.” “He forwarded me the email because he was like, just over the moon,” said Appelbe. He planned to travel with Jessica to tryouts, and if she made the team, he’d be there with her in Ottawa, too, at the games. She was invited to tryout for the U20 team, and quickly told her father. Team Canada reached out to Jessica during her first summer break. Mom and dad dropped her off the following year, and it suddenly occurred to Geoff that Jessica was, as he put it, “living my dream.” Outside her new dorm room at Central Washington University, Jessica and Geoff say goodbyes as she begins her first year of post secondary school. She left highschool with a full scholarship at Central Washington University. Under dad’s coaching, Jessica became a solid rugby player. “(He) was a tough coach with a soft heart.” The girls’ rugby team at Mark Isfeld celebrates as they run toward coach Geoff. “The first practice, they were like, ‘Dad, can you be a bit nicer?,’ and he was like, ‘Nope,’” said Erin. “He was so committed to making it work.”īut there was one thing that Geoff would not compromise on. “He just jumped right on (as coach),” said Appelbe. It inevitably follows what the dad did when his girls signed up. The sisters advanced to Grade 8, and they both signed up to play rugby as soon as they could, at Mark Isfeld Secondary School. They’d be asking him all about what’s going on, and he’d be telling them with an involuntary smile.Īs time passed, the rubber met the road. Geoff and his two daughters could often be found huddled in front of the TV, with a rugby game paused. “They’d sit together on the couch and watch (rugby) games,” said Geoff’s wife, and the mother of the family, Erin. (Photo: Erin Postle/Facebook)Īs the daughters grew up, a strange event kept repeating itself. Geoff said he always thought he and Jessica had a special bond from the start. It’s something family and friends laugh about. With the arrival of a second daughter, it felt like dad was never going to see his kids follow in his footsteps. He was all about rugby, and he played while in the Canadian Armed Forces. Geoff already had a daughter, and he wasn’t convinced that girls were going to take the torch from him. “When they had a second girl, he was like, ‘Oh! Great! A second girl!,” said family friend Mimi Appelbe. He was wishing for a boy - but he got baby Jessica. When Geoff and Erin Postle were awaiting the birth of their second child, Geoff had his fingers crossed. In order to understand the relationship between Geoff and his daughter, it’s important to know how it started, 19 years ago. “I knew I should do it, because it’s what he’d want me to do.” “A week before he passed, he said, ‘I know you can make Team Canada,’” said Jessica. It almost stopped her from going to tryouts, but she remembered one thing he told her. Instead, she would learn just a month before, that her father suffered an unexpected heart attack and died. Jessica wishes her dad had a chance to see her on Team Canada. ![]()
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