'It was a hard day today': Somerset Berkley vigil honors student who died from cancer

SOMERSET — Zachary Deane would have approved of the venue. He loved the times he spent on the front soccer fields at Somerset Berkley Regional High School.

That is where friends, teammates, schoolmates, family members, teachers, administrators and more gathered at dusk on Wednesday for a candlelight vigil to honor the memory of Deane, the town resident and SBR senior who on Aug. 10 died of the rhabdomyosarcoma , a fast-attacking and lethal form of cancer.

As estimated 200-plus people took part in the vigil, adjacent to the scoreboard, which was lit up with Deane's soccer jersey number, 16. The event was also a fundraiser for both a scholarship and a memorial bench to be established in his honor.

“This just meant the world to me,” said Ashley Deane, Zachary's mother. “Just what I needed.”

'No one fights alone' Somerset Berkley student athlete dies of Stage 4 cancer. The community mourns together.

Wednesday was the first day of the 2024-25 school year at SBR, an especially challenging one for special needs teacher Chelsea Dorgan. She was to be Deane's English co-teacher in addition to working with him on specific special education goals.

While Deane's name had been removed from the class list, the students, like Dorgan, were acutely and painfully aware of their missing classmate.

“It was a hard day today,” said Dorgan, choking back tears. “As soon as the kids came in, they started coming in and checking in on me, and I was kind of checking in on them. It was that sense of he's not going to be there. It was tough. What I just said to them was, pretend he's here. Every day you just need to do your best. And what you're doing, you're doing for him, and you're doing for you also.

“I think that helped some of them get through the day.”

Somerset Berkley Principal Susan Brelsford and varsity soccer coach David Gleason spoke. An area in front of the scoreboard was stenciled with ZD and the No. 16, and many who attended laid there flickering electric candles in the stenciled area.

“It was a different setting at school, and obviously at soccer after,” said a somber senior soccer player Nick Scanlon, a friend of Deane. "We had a moment of silence in the morning, which is good. Yeah, it was definitely different.”

Bryson Cain is a junior goalkeeper on the soccer team who played the last two seasons of junior varsity with Keane. “It was definitely felt more after(school), during soccer practice, not having his presence there,” Cain said.

Considered a rare form of cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma four years ago claimed the life of another SBR student-athlete, Kyla McGarry of Berkley.

'Always put a smile on everyone’s face': Somerset Berkley mourns loss of track standout

The SBR community back then rallied around McGarry and her family, and it was a repeat this summer for the Deanes, parents Ashley and Jason and sister Emily, 13 and in eighth grade.

“It's overwhelming,” a grateful Jason Deane said. “It's just amazing, the support for my son.”

Donations to Deane's memory may be done through https://givebutter.com/IFTDi6 .

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'It was a hard day today': Somerset Berkley vigil honors student who died from cancer