Students Mourn Loss

Estancia and Costa Mesa, traditionally the fiercest of high school rivals, came together as one campus Monday, united in an outpouring of grief over the death of Costa Mesa football player Matt Colby.

Colby attended classes at Estancia for three years before transferring to Costa Mesa earlier this year. Monday, Estancia students who knew Colby since childhood left their classes sobbing and drove in convoys across town to Costa Mesa High, where they joined his new teammates in the library.

There, they wiped each other’s tears and wrote letters to Colby’s mother, Kelli, telling her how much they cared for her son.

Estancia and Costa Mesa students also made bunches of balloons in their school colors and tied them to the Costa Mesa goal posts, where they fluttered softly in the warm breeze.

Earlier in the day, Estancia history teacher Jon Williams erected an impromptu memorial to his former student by placing roses, a candle and a sign on Colby’s former desk. Others hung a large sign, and jotted down their memories of Matt.

“He was one of those wonderful, positive kids,” Williams said. “He never had a negative thing to say about anybody .... He was someone you knew would have a positive influence for his whole life. So full of possibilities.”

Colby collapsed Friday night after walking to the sidelines a few plays into a game against Huntington Beach Ocean View at Westminster High. He never regained consciousness. A cause of death has yet to be determined.

On Sunday night, grief-stricken football players from Estancia and Costa Mesa went to Colby’s apartment to comfort his mother. They ended up cleaning his bedroom.

“It’s hard for his mother to go into his room,” said Estancia football player Mario Macias, a friend of Colby since seventh grade.

Players crowded into the bedroom and took turns folding Colby’s clothes and sorting through his backpacks, papers and mementos. Macias said he nearly cried when he saw how many photographs of friends Colby had collected.

“I found a picture of me,” Macias said. “It was hard. It still hasn’t hit us that he’s gone.” Colby loved computers, even repairing his home computer himself. He spent hours each night e-mailing friends. “He never slept,” said Raymond Romua, a senior at Estancia. “He was always online.”

Family members also struggled Monday to deal with Colby’s death.

Gathered inside the apartment he shared with his mother, they recalled the 17-year-old senior as a respectful, mature teenager. They took comfort in the memories others shared.

Players from both teams first came together Friday night at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Estancia players, many of whom learned the news while they were at a school dance, drove to the hospital.

Matt’s uncle, Deron Colby, described a steady stream of current and former teammates walking in to kiss the athlete’s forehead and leave items of remembrance, including their football jerseys.

One player placed a bottle of Colby’s favorite juice near his bed. “When you see things like that, it’s very touching,” Deron Colby said. “A family member doesn’t always know all the stuff going on behind the scenes.”

Macias recalled grabbing Colby’s hand as Colby lay in a coma. “I told him I needed him,” Macias said, tears welling in his eyes.

Colby was pronounced dead Saturday morning. That night, most of Costa Mesa’s football team went to Estancia’s game against Santa Ana Valley.

At the end of the game, Costa Mesa and Estancia players gathered in the end zone, where they embraced and cried.

Soon, they were joined by players from Santa Ana Valley.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Estancia Principal Tom Antal.

Larry Cabico, father of Costa Mesa player Nick Cabico, said Colby came to his house last Thursday to do chores, including breaking stones in the backyard, to earn money for the homecoming dance that was to be held this Friday. After learning of his death, Larry Cabico wrote Colby’s name on one of the rock piles. “He seemed like a normal, ordinary kid,” Cabico said. “With this happening, I’m like, ‘Uh, I don’t even want to touch the backyard.”’

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Times staff writer Rob Fernas contributed to this report.