Year in review: In remembrance

Barry Faulkner

Still immersed in the physical demands of competition, high school

and college student-athletes are often the ideals of health. Yet,

tragically, 2001 proved otherwise as Costa Mesa High senior football

player Matt Colby, Orange Coast College sophomore rower Brian Sweet and

former CdM basketball player Brad Evans, a student at UC Berkeley, were

among those whose deaths were mourned by the Newport-Mesa community the

last 12 months.

Former Newport Harbor High football star David “Bucko” Shaw and

Newport Harbor freshman football assistant coach Frank Talley, who had

also coached softball at the school, also died in 2001.

Colby collapsed on the sideline after removing himself from the

Mustangs’ Sept. 28 nonleague football game against Ocean View at

Westminster High and never regained consciousness.

The coroner later ruled multiple blows to the head triggered Colby’s

death, which shocked his teammates, coaches and classmates at Costa Mesa

High, as well as crosstown Estancia, where he attended three years,

before transferring to Mesa.

A memorial service was held at Estancia and another later at Orange

Coast College, as the Mustangs and Eagles played on, wearing

commemorative patches on their jerseys. Costa Mesa dedicated its season

to Colby and tributes to his memory were observed by players throughout

the Pacific Coast League.

Sweet, 19, collapsed Aug. 16 while running the bleachers at OCC’s

LeBard Stadium during an informal offseason workout in preparation for

what would have been his sophomore year on the Pirates’ crew.

The Newport Harbor High graduate was remembered as a well-liked

teammate with a zest for life and a positive attitude.

Evans, a starter as a senior at CdM, died Jan. 28, in a house fire in

Oakland. A 23-year-old psychology major, he was remembered by fellow Cal

students and co-workers, as well as former CdM teammates, as gregarious,

friendly, caring and always upbeat.

Shaw, an All-Orange County senior safety on the Sailors’ 1974 Sunset

League championship team, who later became defensive coordinator at

Harbor under Coach Mike Giddings, died of liver cancer May 13. He was 44.

The “undisputed life of the party,” Shaw’s enormous appetite for life

earned him countless friendships, which extended well beyond the athletic

arena.

Talley, an energetic supporter of Newport Harbor athletics, died March

8, a little more than a week after suffering a massive stroke. He was 52.

He coached Newport’s softball team in 1998-99 and had been a walk-on

assistant for the freshman football team for four seasons.