If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text “Hopeline” to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
Owen Vaughn would have had a chance to start for the Kewaunee baseball team this year.
He was a good teammate and kid, a little bit of a goofball, very social and liked by many.
The junior always was busy with one sport or another. Football in the fall. Wrestling in the winter. Baseball in the spring.
Kewaunee baseball coach and athletic director Dan Spranger talked to Vaughn in late January about his possible role this year.
Vaughn was looking forward to the opportunity to earn a starting gig, either in the outfield or at third base. He was excited.
But along with the fun-loving and happy vibes Vaughn often gave off to those like Spranger, he also was dealing with a pain that isn’t always easy to recognize in a picture or an interaction during the school day.
On Feb. 3 this year, Vaughn took his own life. He was just 17.
Spranger was at school the following morning when a call over the loudspeaker told all teachers to report to the library.
When that has happened in the past, it’s never been for something good.
Spranger and the rest of the room were informed that a student had died by suicide the night before. They were told it was Vaughn. There were audible gasps.
Owen? It just wasn’t possible. There was no way it could be Owen.
“It was not someone who I would have thought, and that is what everybody thought,” Spranger said. “Total disbelief.”
The last few months haven’t been easy. Processing, and accepting, doesn’t happen overnight. Trying to figure out answers to the lingering questions of why it happened and what they could have done.
“Because we miss him,” Spranger said. “In trying to figure that out. … I had 10 minutes after we were told what happened to go to class and then try to figure out how we tell kids. My son is best friends with his brother, Drew, so he was dealing with that. There was a whole range of emotions of how do we figure this all out? How do I handle this myself? It was not good.”
Owen Vaughn provides motivation for Kewaunee
It’s clear the impact Vaughn continues to have on the baseball team, serving as the inspiration for a program that qualified for the WIAA state tournament for the first time in school history.
The Storm had its fair share of stars this season, including Packerland Conference player of the year Brett Paulsen, but it would be hard to dispute who the real MVP is on this team.
There has been a constant reminder of Vaughn in the dugout, thanks to a special pair of cleats designed by 23’s Cleats for Kidz, an organization dedicated to providing children the opportunity to participate in sports and outdoor activities by giving them access to cleats.
Vaughn’s father, Chris, was a Green Bay Preble classmate of James Gerczak, whose son runs 23’s Cleats for Kidz.
When Gerczak heard about what happened, he reached out to Spranger and told him they have an artist from Green Bay and asked if they could make a pair of cleats in memory of Vaughn to raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention.
They arrived at Kewaunee’s home game against Oconto on April 15. The contest was paused after the third inning for a presentation to the Vaughn family.
There was a set of cleats for the baseball team, and a size 17 pair with another design for Vaughn’s bedroom.
Kewaunee brings its pair of Vaughn’s cleats to every game. It finds a place to display them, sometimes on a shelf behind the bench, up on the wall or at the end of the row next to his teammates.
The cleats and the protective bag they are stored in always are grabbed first when players take out their equipment.
The cleats are currently the same foot size as Drew Vaughn, who will be a freshman at Kewaunee this fall. If he wants, he can wear those cleats next season in honor of his big brother.
“It brought us closer together,” Spranger said. “It gave us awareness that we need to take care of each other. That we need to be there for each other. If we see something that’s just not right, to say something. It kind of gave us some motivation like, ‘Look, some things are bigger than baseball or any sport. It’s about each other.’
“I think they kind of rallied around that theme. We want to do this together. I think we are closer because it happened. They finally realized it’s not just about me or certain things or stats. There is something bigger than that. We can use that as motivation to do this together for him.”
Owen Vaughn’s presence still felt
Spranger is not a deeply religious person, but it has been difficult for him not to sense some divine intervention this season.
During the cleat presentation speech, everyone looked up to see a bald eagle flying around home plate. Nobody had seen a bald eagle circle that field in years. They haven’t seen one there again.
It was a cloudy, cold and windy day June 10 at Chilton High School when Kewaunee played its sectional games against Chilton and Wittenberg-Birnamwood.
As the Storm received its championship plaque after a 6-5 win over W-B in the title game, the sun finally came out.
And Kewaunee making the state tournament for the first time, at least a year before most would have thought it was likely possible? Come on.
Coincidences or not, it’s cool for them to wonder if their teammate isn’t helping a little.
The Storm has only three seniors on its 18-player roster, but the young team never had a losing streak while going 17-5 and winning the Packerland Conference title.
It has won seven of its last eight games entering a Division 3 state semifinal against Fennimore at 2:30 p.m. June 17 at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.
Kewaunee has gotten contributions all over the field, from a rookie infielder in Diesel Bosdeck to junior outfielders Alec Carlson and Connor Kilgore and senior infielder-pitcher Brady Pribek.
At the center of everything is Paulsen, a dominant left-hander who entered sectionals 8-1 with a 0.68 earned-run average in 51⅔ innings before helping his team beat Chilton 1-0 in the sectional semifinal with five scoreless innings and 12 strikeouts.
He even serves as the team’s top hitter with a .400 average and a 1.098 OPS.
Kewaunee will turn to Paulsen to start against Fennimore, hoping for a little more magic.
Win or lose, the Storm’s theme for this season has been “Play for Owen.”
His teammates have done it well. He’d be proud.
“It’s just kind of an aura of Owen around us,” Spranger said. “Play for Owen, and that’s what we are doing.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Kewaunee baseball team makes first WIAA state tournament, inspired by teammate Owen Vaughn
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
