When Roan Gouws returned to his home country in June, he left behind hundreds of new American friends, including dozens in Bowling Green. By late January, the South African former men’s rugby coach was dead, murdered on his way home from a cricket match. BG Captain Vinny Staropoli had stayed in touch during the intervening time.

“I had talked with him Wednesday afternoon [three days before his death],” Staropoli said. “He was managing a coffee shop, just trying to get things in order.”

Staropoli and his teammates will be holding a memorial service for Gouws today at Proute Chapel. A benefit concert on the 20th will raise money for Gouws’ family.

When he was fatally shot, Gouws was with a friend — a common situation for a man whose funeral was attended by 700 people.

According to the Pretoria [South Africa] News, Gouws and his companion, Pierre Fourie, were in a car getting ready to leave the local cricket stadium when an armed robber demanded cell phones and money. In the ensuing conflict, Gouws was shot.

Fourie rushed for help and took Gouws to a local hospital.

Gouws had two emergency surgeries and was expected to recover — partially because of his excellent physical condition, according to the News, but attempts failed.

It was the third time Roan had been robbed since returning to South Africa.

“He’d told us a lot about the crime there,” Staropoli said. “It’s something you never really get used to.”

Staropoli has seen the situation in person.

He and teammates visited South Africa in 2002 during an international tour.

“There’s obviously not enough work to accommodate all the people, so there’s just miles and miles of shantytowns [around Johannesburg],” Staropoli said. “Aside from that, it’s an incredible country. Rich in culture, beautiful landscape … but lots of crime, of poverty.”

According to sources, Gouws made quite a positive impression on the Bowling Green community. Rugby coach Roger Mazzarella says he was glad to have Gouws in the United States, even if he was not allowed to compete on the team.

“I had originally met Roan in 2002 when we played in South Africa, and he originally wanted to play for us, but with 9/11 things got tightened up with security.”

“He was basically a consultant,” said Jake Puhl, a senior fullback with the club. “He played with us too [in practices and scrimmages] — he was a player/coach. He was like a best friend. He ended up moving in with one of the guys on the team whose roommate had gone home.”

Assistant Coach Chris Hopps said Gouws was unusual in his ability to bond with sometimes-cloistered cliques of senior players.

“It was hard because he was older and he got thrown into the older group on the team. And immediately he was just one of the guys.

“I’ve never seen that happen before.”

Staropoli says Gouws helped facilitate that bonding by staying friendly off the field.

“We went on some road trips,” Staropoli said. “We got to know him pretty well.”

Damien Clarke, a younger player, says Gouws was eager in helping less experienced team members as well.

“He helped us get a feel for the basics,” Clarke said. “Like a lot of the new guys, I’d never played rugby. He was one of those guys who had the perfect balance of being firm but also accommodating.”

The team members worked to accommodate Gouws, by helping him find odd jobs for money to keep coaching and traveling.

“He loved to travel,” Puhl said. “Had visited San Francisco, Vermont, Georgia … It’s really bad because money always had to be an issue and he hated that.”

Money is now an issue for the whole club as it works to help the Gouws family, which owes more than $20,000 in medical and funeral expenses. Players hope to gain some closure from tonight’s service and a benefit event scheduled for Feb. 20 at Howard’s.

“We’re all pretty devastated,” Puhl said. “People from out of town came up this last weekend just to talk about it.”

Staropoli says the team is working to make the event a fitting tribute.

“It’s a great loss, but you’ve got to take it all in stride.”