One year later, tragedy still providing spirit

I sat in my bed about this time last year and powered up my PlayStation 3 for what was going to be a lazy Sunday afternoon of fun before church.

As I lounged back to recline myself onto a pillow, I felt my phone buzz, symbolizing I had just received a text message.

What the message said I’ll remember for quite some time and I’ll share with you now.

“It was them,” the message read followed by a frowning smiley face. “They’re gone.”

I obviously had no idea what the message meant, so I kept going about my business.

Then I got another with a similar tone and connotation.

Then another.

And yet another, this one even more pointed.

“I can’t believe this,” this one read. “Why do things like this have to happen? They are kids.”

What started as an annoyance to my relaxation had now caught my attention, because obviously something was wrong among my circle of friends.

So when I replied back to one of the messages and my phone buzzed again, the news was bleak: on their way back home from the previous night’s LSU football game, Vandebilt Catholic students T.J. Cantrelle, Ian Haydel, Megan Hitt and Gabrielle Hebert were killed in a tragic car accident.

Immediately after I heard the news, I sort of went into a journalistic bubble. My main goal was to fulfill my job, to relay the news to you accurately and fairly about this topic.

I grinded to find every detail unscathed and tried to talk to every coach, teacher or student possible to get information about the students’ lives that readers at home wouldn’t know.

With a Sunday afternoon story and a Monday afternoon deadline, I didn’t have any choice but to focus. I didn’t have any time to step back and just be a citizen of the Tri-parish area.

I did my duty and covered the story as best I could, even though it was probably the single hardest event I’ve ever had to cover in my entire life.

Tears were shed, classes returned to normal and headlines eventually faded from the school.

Life, sort of, was normal again.

It was then that the journalistic crust protecting me from real life began to erode and I realized just how tragic this entire series of events was. The purpose of this column today is to share, for the first time in print, my thoughts about how special these four young ladies and gentlemen were and how their memory will last forever in both the Vandebilt community and the Tri-parish area.

I’ll start out by saying that I only met two of the four kids involved in the incident, although I had seen all four around at various sporting events at the prestigious school.

I met Ian from football. I knew him like anyone else, as a young player who was talented, but not quite yet ready to make a full-fledged impact at the varsity level.

The talent was apparent, he was seeing a few reps as a sophomore on a predominantly upperclassman Terrier defense.

His teammates seemed to like him and all talked about how he’d be a solid player because of his work ethic.

My only encounter with the gentleman came at a preseason practice.

I was walking around the field house area looking for Vandebilt coach Laury Dupont when Ian asked me if I needed help with anything.

I told him my dilemma at the time, he pointed me in the right direction and we both went about our day.

A kid that age walking out of his way to help a stranger who looks lost, that’s character.

I was never able to meet Megan and Gabrielle, although anyone who did is sure to tell you that these, too, were great kids.

Gabrielle was one of the Terriers’ head cheerleaders. Those around her will always be quick to say she was colorful and always full of life, even when dealing with high school adversity.

Her friends and family say she loved fashion, music and all of the typical teenage fixings.

Likewise, there was Megan, who was a campus minister. School officials and classmates say she was the “teddy bear” of the group, the person anyone could go to for a hug and a few kind words when they were down and needed a pick-me-up.

She was the person that everyone could count on, the person who did her best to keep everyone happy.

Then there was T.J., the one in the group I’d gotten to know the best because of his place in athletics.

He was the senior quarterback of the Terriers’ football team.

He was in line to be the senior starting point guard for the Terriers’ basketball team.

He was, simply put, a role model for any young high school student.

T.J. played hard, harder than most anyone I’d ever encountered.

The famous story you’ll hear around Vandebilt is the one about how Cantrelle injured himself just days before the Terriers’ season opener against rival E.D. White.

Through what he called unquestioned faith in God, Cantrelle did more than just play, he excelled, throwing a touchdown pass on the last play of the game to lead the Terriers to victory.

“It truly was a miracle play,” Vandebilt president David Keife said. “I guess the Lord was looking down on T.J., because the receiver caught the pass as he was lying in the end zone. But after that, I was reminded of T.J.’s comments in the paper afterward about how he prayed the Lord would give him an opportunity to play. And he did. T.J. was a fighter and a remarkable kid.”

The on-field achievements are one thing. But Keife hits the nail on the head when he says “remarkable kid.”

It’s easy to have a giant ego when you’re the big man on campus. Heck, it’s darn near impossible not to become satisfied, complacent and/or downright arrogant.

T.J. never did any of those things.

He always was the guy trying to help his classmates feel wanted or loved. Likewise, on the field, he was the player going out of his way to pick opponents off the ground.

Anything to keep the game going.

His spirit carried Vandebilt on and off the field.

This week marks one year since the terrible tragedy took all four of these great lives from us too soon.

But the one thing that became apparent even from the earliest days following the tragedy is this, the bodies no longer have life, but the spirit and passion live forever.

Little bits and pieces of T.J., Ian, Megan and Gabby live in everyone’s lives throughout the Vandebilt students and entire Tri-parish community.

These kids represented everything youth should be about.

Mark me down as one who will never forget the Vandebilt Four.

The things these teens stood for will never fade.