James, who was only 17, was one of the top football recruits in all the land, and signed in February to play football with Brian Kelly in South Bend, Ind., a move that seemed logical since Kelly recruited James at Cincinnati before leaving for Notre Dame.
James’s story has been widely publicized since Friday evening. ESPN’s SportsCenter ran a story on James yesterday and a short package even appeared on Good Morning America about his tragic death.
It’s a story that still shocks me, even as details still slowly file their way in. James was a great kid, described as a “huge teddy bear” by numerous faculty, staff and coaches at St. Xavier. Kyle Bedinghaus, a classmate of James’s, told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “It’s hard to believe it happened. You hear it happens all the time, but when it’s someone you know, it’s scary.”
It goes beyond football too. Sure most Cincinnati Bearcat fans were unhappy that James picked Notre Dame over UC, but when I heard the news, football became irrelevant.
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly told Bill Koch of the Cincinnati Enquirer, “I really haven’t thought about how it affects the team. It’s more of a big-picture thing about how precious each day is and to take advantage of the great opportunities that you have…In my 20 years (of coaching) I’ve lost players to tragic events and I’ve had to give eulogies. This one is different because of his age and the suddenness of it. This one hits me a little differently.”
Kelly considered James the top recruit he got in his first class at Notre Dame (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Kerry Coombs, UC defensive backs coach, was also shaken by the news, saying on Saturday, “You get to know a kid and his family, sit down at their table with them … it just doesn’t get any worse than this, to see a young life lost. Matt was more than a great player. He was a challenging conversationalist. He would talk about things unrelated to football. Even when he made the decision to pick Notre Dame, he called me straight up and was a man about it. And that's not easy.”
Coombs, the Cincinnati area recruiter at UC, was heavily involved in courting James (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Perhaps the most difficult thing to think about is how quickly lives were altered. One week ago Matt James was sitting in classes at St. Xavier, planning a vacation with some friends to Florida, and thinking about his future as a football star at Notre Dame. Now, everything has changed.
Everything.
Also this weekend, 12-year-old Jared Douglas, a student at St. Bernard Elementary School in Taylor Creek was found dead after an accident. According to reports, Douglas had gone to get some firewood on an ATV and when he didn’t return in a timely fashion, his family went looking for him.
While the situations are completely different, the sting of the tragic death of Douglas makes me think about the fragility of life. It was only a decade ago I was twelve, traipsing around the backyards of neighbors, playing every sport imaginable (and even more). I enjoyed it.
Likewise, it’s easy to remember the events of high school. It’s easy to remember feeling fantastic about myself and my friends as we planned our futures—both exciting and scary.
For the families and friends of James and Jared Douglas, their deaths will not be easy to grieve about. For those of us who may not have known one or both of the young men, their deaths should serve as a reminder that life shouldn’t be taken for granted. Life isn’t as easy and carefree as we assume it to be from time to time. Life isn’t a game.
Even though I hate to force faith and religion on anyone, I will close with my favorite Bible verse, and one that might memorialize both of these young men who have grown up in Catholic grade schools.
Ecclesiastes 3 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”
--------------------------------------
Hopefully this week gives me some time to write a few fun pieces. I’ll look back at what happened in Phoenix last April as well as anything else that comes to my mind. In the far off future there will be an opportunity to write about what one of my most frequent readers called, “the greatest moment of my life.” More on that when the time comes.
Enjoy your first day of baseball. Go Marlins!
No comments:
Post a Comment