Remembered for His Courage
Soledad Canyon Road has seen more than its share of makeshift memorials, those heartbreaking assemblies of flowers, candles and crosses that bloom along a road where someone died in a traffic accident. But the shrine that appeared last week near the landmark Saugus Speedway must have struck Santa Clarita Valley residents especially hard. It honored a young man the community had rallied around during an earlier disaster, first to support his recovery, then to celebrate it.
Nolan LeMar, known for being a survivor, became a victim Monday night. The 19-year-old co-captain of the College of the Canyons baseball team was eastbound in a sport-utility vehicle when an alleged drunk driver crossed the wide road’s median and struck him head-on. LeMar died at the scene.
The young athlete who hoped to play for the Dodgers one day was a well-known figure in a community where his parents had themselves gone to school and where he’d played on a championship high school baseball team.
He was also known for a freak accident that occurred his senior year at Hart High School. On the day before Thanksgiving 1998, LeMar and another student were seriously burned when a science experiment went awry. An explosion seared the left side of his body, including his ear, scalp, face, nose, neck, chest, forearm and hand.
The community responded to the Thanksgiving tragedy with an outpouring of holiday spirit. Friends and strangers alike donated blood, prepared food and lent moral support to the boys and their families. Even Canyon High School, Hart High’s longtime rival, rallied; students, parents and teachers delivered a turkey with all the trimmings to the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks, where the boys underwent painful surgeries and skin grafts.
LeMar worked hard to overcome his injuries and return to baseball, batting .431 in 1999 and helping his Hart High team win that year’s Southern Section Division II championship. He was being courted by four-year colleges after playing in a junior college all-star game in November.
It is his example of courage and optimism the community will remember, even as Santa Clarita, regretfully, draws together once more.