Classmates Mourn Loss of Star Athlete
Huntington Beach High School students paid tribute Monday to Jordan Connolly, the popular senior and talented football player killed last week in a spring break car crash.
“He worked real hard,” Mark Kleinpeter, offensive coordinator for the school’s Oilers football team, said of Jordan, whose dream was to play professionally. “He was definitely a leader on the field and the guy that was definitely going to play somewhere.”
Under a tree in the campus quad, Jordan’s No. 74 practice jersey and a large photograph of the young man, smiling broadly, were surrounded by candles, roses and lilies, and a large football-player doll. A card from his teammates read “You were #74 but you’ll always be #1 in our hearts.” Classmates also put flowers and candles on the 50-yard line of the football field. Many wore lapel pins with Jordan’s jersey number on orange bows.
Julie Connolly-St. John remembered her son as a big boy who “filled the doorway. But he was sensitive and caring.”
Chelsea Fee, 17, Jordan’s girlfriend for the last two years, said he was “the nicest guy.” He brought smiles to everyone who knew him, she said. “He was funny, and that’s what everyone loved about him.”
He enjoyed making up nicknames for friends, she said, and often repeated his favorite mottoes such as “Don’t tell me my business” and “Know your role.”
Jordan, a tackle and right guard, planned to play for Orange Coast College in August. Teammates voted the 6-foot-4 fitness buff offensive lineman of the year.
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The tragedy that ended his life began as a long-awaited spring break trip to Lake Havasu for a weekend of water skiing, boating and sunbathing. Jordan and three other athletes were to meet six classmates at the Arizona resort.
As the four teammates set out across the desert, Russell Oschman and Brett Flowers led the way in Russell’s Mazda truck. Brandon Hay and Jordan, 17, followed in Hay’s Ford Explorer. About 16 miles north of Desert Center, in Riverside County on two-lane State Route 177, Hay tried to pass a slow-moving recreational vehicle and his friend’s truck. He lost control of his vehicle, which slammed into a big rig, then rolled.
Jordan died at the scene. The truck driver suffered minor injuries. Hay, 18, whose nose was broken, said Monday: “It was excruciating. I just remember Jordan putting his hand on the dash before we hit. Then I was knocked out, and all of a sudden someone was wiping my face. I kept thinking, ‘What did I do?’
“I can’t find the words,” the teen said, his voice trembling with emotion. “This whole thing is unreal. It’s so hard.”
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the accident, which happened about 11 a.m. Thursday. Excessive speed may have been a factor, CHP Officer Laura Quattlebaum said.
Besides his mother, he is survived by his father, Jeffrey; brothers Jerad and Anthony; and sisters Joannah, Jessica and Lindsay.
Jordan is also survived by his stepmother Lorie, stepfather Ronald, grandparents Roger and Audrey Deno and brother Gregory.
Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at St. Wilfred Episcopal Church in Huntington Beach. A reception will follow at the Huntington Beach High School gym.
