So last Saturday, I was at Country Day to cover the Orchard Lake St. Mary's-Saginaw game and I walked by a framed pair of jerseys in a hallway outside the Yellowjackets' state of the art gymnasium and immediately experienced an eerie flashback. The two jerseys that I saw and that are framed and perched on a wall prominently just a few feet away from the DCD locker room once belonged to former Yellowjackets athletes, Corey Jones and Paul Bradley.

Tragically, Jones and Bradley, both only 16 years old, drowned to death in June of 1992. Jones was a basketball player and a member of DCD's 1991 state championship team (C-Webb's third and final wooden mitten). Bradley was a football player and both were very popular amongst the Yellowjacket student body.

I knew Corey Jones as a casual acquaintance back when I was a teenager and I remember the horrible incident very well. Despite being one year younger than him, Jones and I had played some AAU basketball both against and with each other the previous summer. I was not very close friends with him by any means, but I knew him and I thought very highly of him.

I can recall hearing about the tragedy the morning after it happened. I was working at a summer day camp with one of Corey's cousins and she called and told me. It shook me, if only for the fact that I had never known anyone else personally who was my age and who had died before.

The story goes that some DCD athletes were having a party to kick-off summer vacation at one of their family's residences located on a lake in West Bloomfield and Jones and Bradley were in a canoe on the water that capsized. Neither could swim very well and both perished that afternoon – two, young and vibrant young man taken from us too soon.

Seeing those jerseys last Saturday evening as I walked down the hallway at Country Day made me remember Corey and Paul and how much they are missed. I remembered how I felt that day I heard about their passing – burdened, contemplative, sad, sympathetic. I was only 15 years old. I had never thought much about death. At that point in time, I still had all four of my grandparents alive and well.  

Several different forms of a "That could have been me" scenario played in my head over the next few weeks. I knew some of those other DCD athletes from that period too and I know how much that one incident affected them as well as the years went on. Like myself, Corey and Paul would be in their 30's right now. As I was driving away from the game and heading home to write my game story, I wondered what the two of them might be doing now as adults. I couldn't believe that over 17 years had gone by. I felt bad for not having thought about Corey or Paul since probably 1997 – possibly even longer. Tragedy is a term used far too frequently these days and this was a tragedy of epic proportions.   

Corey and Paul never got a chance to finish out their prep playing careers. Not to sound overly- schmaltzy or Mitch Albom-like, but on this week of Christmas, if you play high school sports and you're reading this, try to think of Corey and Paul a few times over the next few days and appreciate the gift that is your own high school playing experience.

R.I.P

Corey Jones 1975-1992

Paul Bradley 1975-1992

You are missed!