Honoring an athlete whose life was cut all too short

They filled the pews and sat in the balcony Wednesday to say goodbye to Megan Myers.

More than 800 mourners, many of them jersey-wearing schoolmates, crowded into Aliso Viejo’s Coast Hills Community Church to remember the 14-year-old Dana Hills High School soccer player and cross-country runner who died last week after a 3-mile race.

“Megan was a gift from God,” family friend Stewart Goetz told the crowd. “She was a jewel, and like a jewel, she sparkled. She was a wonderful, playful little girl who became a wonderful, playful young lady. Megan was the daughter that every family wants.”

Patric McNeff, Megan’s soccer coach, spoke of her other side: “A lot of people have called her sweet and gentle,” he said, “but they obviously never saw her play soccer. She was tenacious, she was strong, she was fast. She was a kid who would run through a wall if you asked her to, then come back and ask if there were any more walls.”

Some of that tenaciousness was on display last week as Megan competed in the run against Capistrano Valley High School at Laguna Niguel Regional Park. Witnesses said the Dana Point freshman was about two miles into the race when she began feeling faint and had to be helped by her classmates. After drinking some liquids, they said, she got up, collapsed and later died. An autopsy performed the next day was inconclusive as to the cause of death.

On Wednesday, though, there were plenty of reminders on display of who Megan was.

Laid out on a table in the lobby was a soccer ball bearing her name, several athletic medals she won and the shoes she wore in her final race.

A printed program featured pictures of her as a smiling, freckle-faced little girl and a determined-looking runner in blue jersey and shorts. And a video tribute, showing her as a toddler playing in the snow, drew sobs from the crowd.

“She was a multifaceted young woman,” John Williams, a neighbor, said. “She never strayed from her inner character, which was calm and perceptive. I think she had an inner strength and the ability to perceive other people’s emotions.”

As mourners streamed out of the church after the nearly three-hour service, there were hugs and tears. “God gave us a true gift for a short time in the form of Megan Myers,” Williams had said.

One of her cross-country coaches, Marni Cota, had spoken of how it would be with her gone.

“When we’re lucky enough to have a race where our feet feel like they have wings,” she said, “we will know that Megan is there being our helpful teammate again.”

The video ended with a note from the girl’s grieving father. “I am running through life,” he’d written to her, “so I can walk with you in heaven.”

david.haldane@latimes.com