Mesa football family grieves

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA -- On the most difficult day of his 28-year career, Costa

Mesa High Coach Dave Perkins stood before Mustang football players,

parents, students, coaches and administrators Saturday groping for words

of consolation to deliver to the inconsolable.

“There were a lot of red eyes, a lot of tears, a lot of kids who were

devastated,” Perkins said of the morning on-campus meeting prompted by

the death of Mesa senior Matt Colby.

Colby, a 6-foot, 185-pound transfer from Estancia High, was taken off

a respirator Saturday at UCI Medical Center per his family’s request. He

had been taken there after losing consciousness during the first quarter

of Friday’s 53-12 nonleague Mesa victory over Ocean View at Westminster

High.

“I had no idea what I would say,” Perkins said after the meeting, to

which no media were admitted. “I let the kids know Matt cared for them as

much as they cared for him. I told them we were a family.”

It’s a family in mourning, perhaps still too stunned to begin

discussing the memory of its quiet, yet affable defensive standout, who

made friends quickly after transferring from across town last summer.

“Even though Matt was at Costa Mesa for only a short time, he became a

huge part of our football program,” said Perkins, who, like Colby and six

other Mesa players, wore Estancia red and gold last fall. “He was a

tremendous kid, who got right into (his teammates’) heads and hearts.

Among those who made the move from Estancia to Costa Mesa before this

season is senior Mesa quarterback A.J. Perkins, the coach’s son and

Colby’s best friend.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to know Matt for four years,” Dave Perkins

said. “His first year at Estancia, he bonded immediately with my son and

they became like brothers. (Colby) was quiet, but he had a great sense of

humor and he was a very mature kid.

“I gave Matt a ride to summer school every day last summer and he

talked about saving up $500 to buy a car. He would have been a very

productive young man, a tremendous family man, who would have been an

asset to his community.”

Players and assistant coaches chose not to speak to reporters

Saturday, leaving Perkins, Principal Diana Carey and Athletic Director

Kirk Bauermeister to relay the events and emotional aftermath triggered

by Friday’s opening kickoff.

Colby, apparently shaken but hardly devastated by a collision on

kickoff coverage, remained in the game for approximately 10 defensive

plays, spanning two Ocean View possessions. He left the game under his

own power and spoke lucidly with coaches and trainers, who had no inkling

he would soon lose consciousness, never to regain it.

On Saturday morning, players left a handful of candles beneath a

wooden cross and a photocopied sheet of paper with photos of Colby

attached to the red brick wall near the entrance of the team locker room.

They also made plans to spend the night, as well as share their grief,

together at the school.

Soon after Saturday’s meeting, cheerleaders started work on a banner.

The paper tribute, which read “9 Matt Colby Lives On,” was displayed at

Saturday night’s Estancia road game against Santa Ana Valley.

“I’m heartsick,” said Carey, who, sadly, is enlisting procedures she

learned in 1999 at Fountain Valley High, where senior football lineman

Scotty Lang collapsed and died during a team practice. “I’ve lost one of

my kids. I’ve got to be strong, but I’ll still shed a tear.”

Carey, who announced she has canceled a rally, dance and other

homecoming festivities scheduled next week, helped bring together a

police chaplain and a psychologist for anyone who needed help dealing

with the tragedy.

Dave Perkins said the players will decide whether to play Friday’s

scheduled nonleague contest against Whittier Christian. Other decisions,

such as how to pay tribute to Colby and when and how to resume practice,

will be made after this weekend, he said.

“We’ll meet Monday morning to decide what we’re going to do,” Perkins

said. “I told the kids whatever decision they make will be the right one.

One of them asked me what Matt would have wanted, and I told them I

thought Matt would have wanted to play.”

Estancia football coach Jay Noonan, reached Saturday afternoon, said

his program also feels the pain of Colby’s loss.

“Our prayers, sympathies and thoughts go to Matt’s family and the

members of the Costa Mesa community who knew Matt,” Noonan said.

Colby’s death is the latest of several tragedies that have befallen

Costa Mesa and Estancia athletics in recent years, as well as other

schools within the Newport-Mesa sports community.

In a 1996 football game against Costa Mesa, Coronado High quarterback

Adrian Taufaasau died on the field after being tackled at Newport Harbor

High.

Former Costa Mesa boys basketball coach Jason Ferguson succumbed to

cancer at age 24 in 1996.

Beloved Estancia baseball and football coach and equipment man Paul

Troxel, who also coached baseball at Costa Mesa High, died of a heart

attack and brain aneurysm in the spring of 1999 at age 40.

Newport Harbor High running back Andre Stewart was killed in a car

accident in the spring of 2000, his senior year.

Former Corona del Mar basketball player Brad Evans died in a fire at

UC Berkeley last spring, a time that also saw the death of former Newport

Harbor softball coach Frank Talley, an assistant coach for the Sailors’

freshman football team.

The latest local sports death was Newport Harbor product Brian Sweet,

who collapsed and died Aug. 16 at the Orange Coast College football

stadium while running in preparation for the current crew season.