WARNER: Tragedy throws community a curveball
Maple Mountain's Arik Mack poses for a portrait on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, at Brent Brown Ballpark at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. JORDAN STEAD / Daily Herald
Maple Mountain's Arik Mack takes a swing during the fourth inning against Salem Hills at Maple Mountain High School in Spanish Fork on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. Maple Mountain won, 2-1. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald
Maple Mountain's Arik Mack throws a pitch during the sixth inning against Salem Hills at Maple Mountain High School in Spanish Fork on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. Maple Mountain won, 2-1. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald
Maple Mountain's Arik Mack pitches during the third inning against Timpanogos in the first round of the 4a state baseball tournament at Kearns High School on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald
Maple Mountain's Arik Mack pitches the ball during the third inning against Timpanogos at Maple Mountain High School in Spanish Fork on Tuesday, May 15, 2012. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald
Maple Mountain's Arik Mack pitches during the fourth inning against Provo at Provo Baseball Field on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald
I imagine I’m a lot like you. I instinctively tense up at the sight of flashing red lights and when a headline in the newspaper says “Mapleton man dies in crash,” I hold my breath until I’ve scanned the story to see if the victim was someone I knew, like somehow it makes it OK if I didn’t know them.
Eventually, we can play this game of tragedy dodgeball for only so long before we are blindsided with a shot to the heart.
On Tuesday afternoon Arik Mack, a 19-year-old, who was a baseball star at Maple Mountain High School, was killed in a head-on collision with a semi-truck in Spanish Fork Canyon.
When news like this breaks, the size of the waves left from the impact depend on how close you are anchored to the source.
For some it will be a mild wake like that from a distant boat on a lake, and for others this is a tsunami that will take an army of life guards around the community to help them survive the flood of emotions and heartache.
Mack was a good baseball player; he bordered on great. I remember when Danny Pawelek, his pitching coach of four years, told me there was freshman pitching prospect that I had to see.
I saw one of Mack’s first varsity starts (against Timpview) in his freshman year. I followed his career since and was lucky enough to be covering the game when he threw a no-hitter against Salem Hills in 2013. He led the state in strikeouts in 2012 and 2013. He was the Daily Herald’s 4A Pitcher of the Year in 2013.
Mack accepted a scholarship to play for BYU but after a year transferred to Salt Lake Community College, where he was redshirting this year.
I saw him at the BYU/UVU baseball game on March 10. We waited in the concession stands line together. He smiled as he gave me and update on his career and told me about his plans for the future.
All of that changed on Tuesday afternoon. It was a typical spring day for the Mack family. The weather was pleasant and they were in Heber to watch Maple Mountain play Wasatch in a sophomore game. Arik’s younger brother Jeff (a freshman) was pitching in the third inning of a game when his parents got a call.
None of us ever know when we will get a call like that one. In an instant, the sweetness of life can turn bitter.
Now the family will be tested in a way that they could never imagine, and those who have been impacted by the Mack family must balance their sympathy with trying to find a way to help.
“It’s a tragic loss. I’m worried about their family and I’m worried about their son,” said Maple Mountain coach Gary Miner. “We want to honor and recognize him and want the family to know how important he was to all of us.”
Maple Mountain’s sophomore game with Wasatch, scheduled on Wednesday, was cancelled, something Wasatch coach Mike Shoell was more than willing to reschedule.
Wednesday, the seniors on the team turned their grief into action. They put their arm around Jeff and took him to lunch in a show of support. A team activity was planned for later that night to help the players deal with their loss.
Meanwhile, Salt Lake Community College coach DG Nelson broke the news to his team.
“When I talked to our team there was just an overwhelming feeling of shock. It just doesn’t feel real. We just can’t believe that we won’t see him again,” Nelson said. “It’s going to take time to process and figure out how to learn from it. He has a great family and I know it’s going to be a really hard thing for them to handle. They’re great people — hopefully in time they will continue to see Arik’s legacy and I know they will always keep him in their hearts.”
The burden of grief is heavy for all those who are forced to face it when we are left with no time to prepare, but for students, who spend no time thinking about death, a tragedy like this one is a pop quiz. The subject of mortality is a foreign language they don’t understand, so losing someone so young may not cause some to question the existence of a God but certainly of God’s wisdom.
But even while we ask why, we see that question answered in a small way. We find ourselves embracing those closest to us a little longer and the words, “I love you” flow more freely from our lips and without much hesitation.
When enough time has passed and some of the hurt begins to heal, it will happen again. The lightning strikes that are so far off in the distance, too far away to hurt us, move closer to impact, with the warning we will once again become a lightning rod to tragedy.