Prep column: Grieving Mustangs will play on

Barry Faulkner

The Costa Mesa High football team voted, 42-7, Monday morning to

play Friday night’s nonleague game against Whittier Christian, as the

school and community continue to mourn the death of Matt Colby.

Colby, a 17-year-old senior defensive standout, collapsed on the

sideline after taking himself out of Mesa’s game Friday against Ocean

View. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead Saturday.

At a team-only meeting Saturday, which began about an hour after Colby

was taken off a respirator at UCI Medical Center, Coach Dave Perkins

asked his players to think about whether playing this week, or any time

soon, would be appropriate as they grieved, each in their own way.

Perkins told his players that whatever decision they made would be the

right one. In the aftermath of the unthinkable, there would be no wrong

answers.

The most pressing answers, now, have yet to be provided. An autopsy

Monday failed to establish a cause of death. Tests will continue, the

coroner’s office said, as will speculation in the media, the community

and beyond, as to what really happened. How could this have happened? And

what can be done so that it never happens again?

As experts are consulted and statistics on football deaths are

presented, debate will be generated over cause and effect.

Parents will ponder the wisdom of allowing their children to collide

forcefully with padded peers.

The ideal of indestructibility, or at least a high pain threshold,

which permeates the sports culture, particularly football, will be

examined with contempt.

Red flags will be waived and pleas will be waged, as if identifying

and quantifying the dangers could somehow insulate others from their

severe, even fatal, consequences.

Football players will be urged to disclose even seemingly innocuous

ailments and coaches and trainers will be encouraged to more stringently

restrict those players’ activities.

Some players will decide football is no longer as important to them as

it once was. Some will have that decision made for them. Some uniforms

will go unworn this week, next season, maybe even years down the road.

As I eavesdrop on these debates, or wage them in my own mind, the

words Perkins delivered to his players Saturday seem to ring truest of

all.

There are no right answers, no inappropriate responses. There are only

individual choices, each deserving of respect.

Perkins told players Monday that those who were not up to competing

Friday, may choose to watch. The same option was given concerning

Monday’s practice, which, Athletic Director Kirk Bauermeister estimated,

about 10 players elected only to observe.

Plans for a memorial service could be finalized today, said

Bauermeister, who also announced a patch honoring Colby will be worn on

the front upper left portion of game jerseys (over the heart) by Costa

Mesa and Estancia players. Colby transferred from Estancia to Costa Mesa

for his senior season. The patch, in the shape of a football, will

display the Nos. 9 and 56, which he wore at Mesa and Estancia,

respectively.

The Colby family has established the Matthew Colby Memorial Fund, to

help cover funeral costs, and Costa Mesa High has established the Matt

Colby Scholarship Fund. Contributions to either or both may be sent to

Costa Mesa High, 2650 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa, 92626.