Athlete of the Week: Brycen Widhalm

CHATHAM – Brycen Widhalm doesn’t remember his father, Ken Owens.

 Born and raised in Chatham, Owens was a Navy diver who died in 2009 at the age of 27 as a result of a skydiving accident in Hawaii, when Widhalm was 19 months old. The Ken Owens Memorial Soccer Jamboree has been held to remember him in Chatham for more than a decade. 

 While Widhalm — now 17 and living in Virginia Beach, Va. — was too young to remember his father, he has Owens’ athleticism, according to his mother Alahnna Sanchez, Owens’ fiancee at the time of his death. That was made entirely evident last Saturday during the 2025 jamboree, an eight versus eight tournament of co-ed teams that competed for the “Kenny Kup” trophy. 

 The tournament at Veterans Field raised money for a scholarship awarded to a local student-athlete that best personifies the qualities Owens demonstrated during his life. Owens loved soccer, which Widhalm plays.

 “It's frustrating that he doesn't have those memories,” Sanchez said. “All the memories he has are what we breathe into him.”

Widhalm’s team, Kickin’ it for Kenny, won the jamboree. In the deciding match of the long-running event, Widhalm scored two goals to secure the trophy bearing his father’s name. He wore a tournament shirt that read “Never Forget” and the number 14, Owens’ number when he played soccer.

“I did not know him, but I’ve heard amazing things about him,” Widhalm said.

After that final game, he held the Kenny Kup as the team, which also included Owens’ nephew Vance Bates, posed for a photo. In addition to playing soccer, Widhalm is a state award-winning high school punter and placekicker. He’s entering his senior year. 

Athleticism also isn’t the only thing he got from his late father, according to Sanchez. She said Widhalm is funny like Owens, can’t dance the same way his father couldn’t and hates tomatoes like he did.

“It's hard that he doesn't have his own memories,” Sanchez said Saturday before the tournament started. “But Ken did a good job of creating so many with so many people that they can help him —”

Widhalm finished the sentence. 

“Live through them,” he said.