Waterford — It was one of those crystalline, sun-soaked days with which April, and her hints of hope and renewal, treats us occasionally. A day just perfect for celebrating immortality.

By happy circumstance, we just happened to have such an occasion scheduled. Glorious, this. Ironic, too, that the once and future conscience of the town, who hated nothing and nobody except the spotlight, has this palatial playing province named in her honor.

Jody Nazarchyk Field. Yes, this is the place now where all the Waterford High softball kids in this five-time state championship program, will gather.

“From this day forward,” athletic director Chris Landry, who executed this splendid event with assistant Wendy Morris, “let this field be a testament to Jody’s enduring legacy — her love for softball and her love for the community.”

Nazarchyk, a 25-year member of the Board of Education, town Selectwoman and Waterford Sports Hall of Famer, died in Feb. 2023, taking with her the legacy as the town’s matriarch, a union representative for kids and as her daughter said during Monday’s ceremony, a woman who taught us all to “be real in a world full of fake,” and to redefine the essence of beauty.

It was quite a scene on the turfed lawn, this assemblage of current and former athletes, school faculty members and administrators, Board of Education members, politicians, family and friends.

“I kept seeing Jody,” Board of Education chair Pat Fedor said, alluding to the time during the process that featured a petition, letters of support and committee meetings, “and how she would be shaking her head, uncomfortable with the accolades. But today, I see her smiling because we are celebrating what mattered to her most. Family, friends, the town and the students.”

Nazarchyk wasn’t merely a Board member and Selectwoman. She was the friendly face in the concession stand at all the high school games, even long after her children stopped playing. In 1991, she became a founding member of Waterford’s first youth service bureau (now known as Youth and Family Services). She later inspired the town’s first full day summer camp (Camp Dash) for children with working parents. She was recognized with one of the town’s highest honors, a Champion for Children, in 2014.

She’s also taught CCD at St. Paul’s, served on the Southwest Elementary and Clark Lane PTOs, the School Building Committee, Parents’ Liaison Council, Waterford Week Committee and Friendship School Governing Board. She’s been a Little League coach and member of the booster club.

In 2012, when dimmer bulbs in town threatened to cut freshman sports at the high school, Nazarchyk, unaware if she had enough support from her colleagues at a Board meeting, made the motion to preserve freshmen sports during budget discussions. Maybe she waved the banner for sports because she played them as a kid (as did her children) and coached them as an adult. Maybe because she was still volunteering her time at the concession stand during Waterford games.

"Sports are part of the high school experience, like drama or music," Nazarchyk said at the time. "Children need something to do."

And yet in so many towns, the unwritten code goes like this: Children need something to do, so long as my taxes don't go up.

Nazarchyk’s motion was approved. Since 2012, the freshman sports Nazarchyk saved have supplied feeder programs for state championships in eight different sports at Waterford High.

Jody Nazarchyk stood for many things, but nothing more important than illustrating how everyone's quality of life increases, even if by a mere blip, when people in town are daring enough to connect others to a Greater Good.

“By naming this field after Jody,” First Selectman Rob Brule said, “we ensure that Jody’s support for girls’ sports, in a time when such support was scarce, is celebrated.”

And how ironic, indeed, that this woman who ducked the spotlight gets her name enshrined now because of a policy she helped change. There was a time when no building or field on school grounds could be named after anyone. That changed with Nazarchyk’s effort, later ensuring that the Francis X. Sweeney Fieldhouse bore the name of the town’s athletic patriarch. No other gym in the region has a nickname now except “The X,” which never happens without the woman for whom Jody Nazarchyk Field is named.

Superintendent Tom Giard called Nazarchyk “one of Waterford’s true legends.” Indeed. And it was almost as if the universe knew Monday to opt for sunshine over a cloudy day. A beautiful thing happened for a gentle soul.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro