Wild's death leaves a vast hole in the athletic community and the world in general

This loss of potential, of a great invigorating life force is a terrible thing.

Of having someone be so terrific at what he did and for simply being who he was and hoping that he would be around for a long, long time to just keep being himself is something that makes people smile, makes them feel better about themselves and about humanity in general.

But the God awful reality of having that great person stripped away from us very suddenly damages us all, even if we didn't know him directly, and it is something the communities of Brown Deer and of Naperville, Ill., are having difficulty wrapping their heads around and coming to terms with.

But that's what happens when someone as decent, kind, talented and driven as 24-year old Brown Deer graduate Shaun Wild was, when he is taken away from our midst as brutally and suddenly as he was Friday night in a stupid bar fight that he was trying to break up.

It is, as longtime Brown Deer basketball coach and athletic director Mike Novak noted, "You can't make sense of a senseless act."

The sense of loss for the former great football, track and baseball star and his loving and engaged family, is immense.

"Of all the kids who have been through the building, he was the one who just stuck with you, because of all that he was," Mike Donahue, Wild's baseball and football quarterbacks position coach at Brown Deer, said.

Great with young kids

And though some might argue otherwise, maybe the greatest thing that Wild ever did was make everyone feel involved, especially young kids.

Veteran Brown Deer/University School boys swim coach Bob Van Lieshout said he stared at the text message on his phone announcing Wild's tragic murder in disbelief and horror for long, long seconds Saturday morning and then decided not to tell diver Gerry Gilles about it until after the competition was done.

Because as a little kid, Gilles had run around and bugged his older brothers and their friends, including Wild, who was always at the Gilles house when he was in high school seven or eight years ago.

"He never even swam for me, but I would have loved to have had him on my team," Van Lieshout said of Wild. "Just to be around a person like that who made everyone else feel better just by being there would have been great. He would have made us better even if he didn't swim a stroke."

Donahue, who hired Wild as his varsity baseball assistant last season, is well known for having his small, entertaining children around the ballpark during the summer baseball games, including his often laughing son dragging around a fat, inflatable bat much to everyone's delight.

Those kids could frequently be seen clambering around Wild's ankles, with everyone, including Wild, giggling and laughing at the shear delight of just being around one another on a warm summer's night.

"There were times where I spent more time with Shaun than with them (his kids)," said Donahue, who was on the verge of tears. "I knew him for 10 years. He was just one of the most amazing people to be around. He would give the shirt off his back to make you feel better.

"He made me a better person because he looked up to me so much and that made me want to live up to what he thought of me.

"And he was perfect for his job."

What about his students?

Which his head football and track coach Rob Green thought of most intently on Sunday. Wild was just into his second semester teaching second-graders, more little kids, at a Naperville, Ill., elementary school.

"That is just another huge, sad part of all this," Green said. "Those second-graders. How devastated will they be not to have him in their class anymore? Not to be around to excite them about school and to help them make this a better world.

"I'd like to hope and think that his spirit will live with those kids for a lifetime."

You'd like to think so, because apparently there were a pair of conjoined twins in his class and the story was that Wild bent over backward to make sure the two felt engaged and involved no matter how awkward and difficult their circumstances were.

As noted, this is one sad feeling that is going to be hard to shake.

Novak recalled waking up Sunday morning with a strange feeling. The day before, as word of Friday night's horrifying events spread throughout the area, he spent a great deal of time helping organize the impromptu and well attended candlelit vigil that was held around the football field Saturday night.

"You had to follow protocol," he said sadly. "Let the police know. Let the administration know what was happening."

Because everyone just knew that the turnout would be huge.

And afterward, there was that feeling again.

"The sun was out, it was daytime," Novak said, "but it felt like night time had fallen over all of us."

For even more good reasons.

Quite a competitor

Because behind all of Wild's personality, decency and compassion was an immense talent and drive.

Wild was a NOW All-Suburban performer in football as a kicker (he was also a quarterback) and in baseball as an infielder.

The same qualities drove him no matter what sport he was involved with.

"He was an unbelievable leader," Donahue said. "He got other people to follow him and when times were tough, he would say what was needed to be said and do what was right all the time. … He was willing to be disliked if it would help the team get better.

"It was a trait he continued showing as an adult."

Green remembers one football game in particular. It was Wild's junior year in 2004 when St. Francis had a huge, powerful team that would eventually make the WIAA State Division 4 finals.

"That was the first of our back-to-back (conference) titles," Green said. "We were playing them and the forecast was, was that it would be dry at the start of the game but then turn into a rainstorm later. Prior to the rain, we just had Shaun launch pass after pass so we could build a lead and then try to hang on.

"It worked and we hung on. He and the rest of the team fought right to the end and we knocked them off. It just showed what a fierce, fierce competitor he was."

But now all that sweet memory and fond remembrance is fighting tooth-and-nail with anger, dismay and a searing sense of loss.

"I'm pretty much beside myself, in a haze," Green said. "It's just hard to think clearly. I can go in so many directions with him, because he was so multifaceted as a person. Just his strength of character. He was everything you wanted in a student/athlete. He just made others feel that they belonged.

"The world is not a better place without him."