Taking the Handoff for Her Son

Walking across the very football field where her son had been a sports legend, Sonja William on Wednesday accepted the young star athlete’s high school diploma in his memory.

“He was determined to graduate,” said William, dressed in the blue gown that Andre Stewart would have worn. “All the way over here I didn’t think I could do this, but I knew he was watching, so I found the strength.”

Stewart’s peers--the Newport Harbor High School Class of 2000--responded with a standing ovation.

“I had a couple of tears in my eyes,” Rebecca Bowler, 18, said later. “He was a great guy who will never be forgotten. Just knowing that he graduated meant a lot to all of us.”

Stewart, 18, died last month in an early-morning car crash on the Pomona Freeway.

One of the few African American students at the school, Stewart had come to Orange County four years ago with his mother to escape the drugs and violence of inner-city San Jose, where the family had been living. On the football field, he found a home.

A running back on the school’s championship team, the Sailors, he was named Southern Section Division VI offensive player of the year and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s most valuable player after being instrumental in the team’s 1999 Southern Section championship. In the crucial game, Stewart helped turn the momentum by making a 43-yard run, followed by an 18-yard touchdown run--his last--that helped spark a 19-18 come-from-behind victory for the team.

In his high school career, the young running back rushed for the county-best 2,380 yards, a school record, and scored 26 touchdowns.

Stewart made an indelible impression off the playing field too.

“He was an unusual kid,” school Principal Bob Boies said Wednesday. “His was a Cinderella story, but he wasn’t just a football star. He was a genuinely sweet kid who had tremendous charisma. He said ‘Hi’ to everyone.”

The young man’s death, Boies said, became a defining moment in the school year. “It’s been one of the central events of these kids’ lives,” he said. “Just as we were talking to them about being safe for graduation, we had this horrible thing happen.”

For all those reasons, the principal said, district officials decided to take the unusual step of awarding his diploma posthumously.

“This was for the senior class,” Boies said. “Andre’s death touched a heartstring. This is someone they will be talking about at high school reunions.”