Survivor of crash that killed 3 teens works to honor friends

CAYUGA, Ind. (AP) - Every Saturday morning for six months, Ethan Lee and Braeden Hollowell made the 2-hour, 10-minute drive to Cowan, a tiny community 15 minutes south of Muncie.

The allure was young love. Braeden dated Caroline Clark, a sophomore at Cowan High School and talented gymnast with a positive personality and knack for saying what was on her mind. They'd known each other for years; their mothers were college roommates and the families vacationed together on spring break in Florida.

Through Braeden, Ethan met Annie Clark, Caroline's older sister and a senior at Cowan. It was in June, at the Vermillion County Fair. The North Vermillion football players, including Ethan and Braeden, were helping to serve a chicken noodle dinner. Lee hit it off with Annie, a cheerleader and accomplished student with a wide range of interests.

Every Saturday, the two young couples would find things to do - bowling, putt-putt golf, movies, going to a restaurant, eating frozen yogurt or just hanging out at the Clarks' house. Ethan and Braeden would say goodbye on Saturday night and make the long drive back to Cayuga.

Then they'd do it all over again the next week.

It was a rare occasion that the Clark sisters visited Cayuga. They'd made it down for two football games at North Vermillion, where Braeden and Ethan were senior players. Braeden, No. 47, was listed at receiver and defensive back. He'd packed on 20 pounds of muscle for his senior year and could - and would - play anywhere the coaches wanted him. Ethan, No. 23, was the team's leading receiver and made the Associated Press Class A all-state first-team at defensive back last season.

On Jan. 2, Cayuga was still basking in the glow of North Vermillion's Class A state football championship. The Clark sisters were in town. Their mother, Jill, drove them down. Ethan picked up the girls and Braeden at Braeden's house in his Ford F-150 at about 2 p.m. They were on the way to pick up Braeden's car at another friend's house, where he'd left it on New Year's.

The truck was traveling east into Cayuga on County Road 400 North. It hit a bump in the road near the intersection of 8th Street, went airborne briefly and swerved sharply to the right. Only Ethan was wearing a seatbelt.

"Then it just happened," Ethan told The Indianapolis Star (http://indy.st/1LxPve6 ).

The truck struck an embankment and crashed through an office wall of Colonial Brick Corporation. Ethan, who was speeding according to police, struck his head on the steering wheel but did not lose consciousness. He knew immediately the crash was bad. As he was rushed to an ambulance, he told paramedics to take the others instead. They needed help more than he did.

Over the ambulance radio, Ethan's worst fears were confirmed.

"Can't be," Ethan thought. "It can't be."

Braeden, Annie and Caroline were dead.

Three teenagers with bright futures were gone. That in itself was tragic.

Braeden, 17, was on track to be salutatorian of his senior class. He didn't like the attention, though, whether it was in athletics or academics, and joked with his stepfather, North Vermillion athletic director Marty Brown, that he might intentionally dump a class so he wouldn't have to give a speech at graduation.

"I'm going to give a one-minute speech and there's nothing you can do about it," Braeden joked.

There are pictures of Braeden all over Brown's office. On the walls, on his desk, everywhere. There are pictures of him as a kindergartner, playing tackle football for the first time and in a wrestling singlet with a medal around his neck. Brown's favorite is a framed photo of Braeden in his game uniform as a sophomore, before all of that time in the weight room had paid off. He's squatting, elbows on his thighs, and peering at the camera expressionless with a head full of sweaty brown hair.

He looks like a kid with his whole life in front of him.

"His mentality was to work really hard and stay under the radar," Brown said. "He didn't understand why people get attention for something they are supposed to do."

Like Braeden in Cayuga, the Clark sisters were similarly respected in Cowan. Annie, like Braeden, was on track to be the salutatorian of her senior class. The Clarks were members of the national honor society, involved in various school clubs and actively involved in their church.

Memories of them are forever frozen in time as high school kids on the verge of adulthood. North Vermillion retired Hollowell's No. 47 jersey during a moving ceremony at a recent basketball game. No one will ever wear it again.

"Braeden was such a great young man," North Vermillion coach Brian Crabtree said, "that it magnified the sense of sorrow about the whole thing."

Braeden was a big part of a dream season last fall at North Vermillion. The Falcons won sectional titles in 2011 and '12 but were pummeled by Scecina in the regional. When Scecina moved up to Class 2A in 2013, it was supposed to be North Vermillion's year. The Falcons went 10-0 but were upset by Attica in the sectional.

"That was supposed to be our shot," said assistant coach Dwight George. "It was sort of like, 'Dang, that was our chance.' "

North Vermillion, one of the smallest football-playing schools in the state (enrollment 251), steamrolled through the 2014 regular season with only Fountain Central (21-14) coming within five touchdowns. The Falcons took down Fountain Central again, 48-20, for the sectional title and defeated Linton-Stockton 31-8 for the program's first regional crown.

Braeden left an impression on the Linton-Stockton team, catching a 75-yard touchdown pass to put North Vermillion ahead for good. Linton-Stockton brought its team to Hollowell's funeral several weeks later in the North Vermillion gym despite the two-hour drive in a snowstorm.

"First class," Brown said of the gesture.

The Falcons took down Lutheran 37-19 in the semistate to set up a championship matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium with Pioneer, a perennial small school power. For several years, Braeden and Ethan had made the trip to Lucas Oil Stadium for the Class A championship game.

"I never thought in a million years we'd be there," Ethan said. "It seemed so unrealistic."

The coaches asked Braeden - all 5-9, 180 pounds of him - to move to defensive end for the state finals.

"Pioneer did some things that put us in a tough position from a personnel standpoint," defensive coordinator Justin Fisher said. "We got to thinking, 'Who is a tough, strong kid who can fight?' Braeden fits that bill. You knew if you put him out there he'd fight and give it everything he had."

Braeden did his job. He made six tackles and recovered two fumbles.

Late in the game, Pioneer led 26-20. North Vermillion drove deep into Pioneer territory, at the 4-yard-line. Quarterback Cody Wright passed to Ethan on a designed hook-and-ladder play. Ethan, standing at the Pioneer 1 when he caught the ball, could have fallen into the end zone. But he flipped it to running back Jacob Earl, as designed, for the game-winning touchdown with 2:49 left.

"As long as we win, I don't care if I score or not," Ethan said after the game.

It was a great ending to a remarkable story. North Vermillion, a 1964 consolidation of Cayuga, Newport and Perryville, had always rallied around its school but the support had reached a climax with the football title.

"Some of the best people I've met in my life I met right here," said Crabtree, 37, the third-year coach. "More than being a small town in a small rural area, it really is a special place. There are a lot of great people in this community."

But it's not the end of the story. For Ethan, it's just the beginning.

It would have been understandable if Ethan had holed up in his bedroom for weeks after the accident, shielding himself from the outside world. He had an excuse - two fractures and torn ligaments in his neck - in addition to his anguish over the accident.

He made the decision early on, while he was still in the hospital, that he was going to live his life for Braeden, Annie and Caroline. On the day of Braeden's visitation, George, his position coach, visited Ethan at home.

"We talked for a while and then I said, 'OK buddy, I need to get ready,' " George said. "He said, 'I'll see you there.'"

For 6 1/2 hours, Ethan shook hands, hugged and talked with people. It was the least he could do, he said, to support Braeden. The two had grown so close over the years, going all the way back to kindergarten. They'd logged many miles on the road together, going back and forth from Cayuga to Cowan.

They were brothers.

"If it was me," George said. "I don't know how I would have handled it."

Ethan also attended the visitation at the Clarks' church in Cowan, which lasted 11 hours. He'd become friends with many of Annie and Caroline's friends and was close with their family.

"I just felt like I couldn't forgive myself if I wasn't there," he said. "They treated me like I was one of theirs."

The North Vermillion community has wrapped its arms around Ethan, which is mostly a comfort to him. Right away, Braeden's parents, Marty and Jennifer, reached out to Ethan and told him they loved him. In Cayuga, there are few strangers. His friends were Braeden's friends. He keeps it positive, getting back to normal as much as possible.

"If I was in their situation, would I want them to moan and groan all the time and not live their life?" he asks. "No, I'd want them to live their lives to the fullest. That's easier said than done. It's not easy. Believe me. But I try to do that every day."

Ethan catches himself asking the "What if?" questions occasionally.

They can't be answered. He knows that, but can't help it at times.

"It will always be there," he said. "It will always be a hurting point in my life. It will probably be the worst thing that ever happens to me. It will be. It's never going away. When reality sets in, it's just there and there's nothing I can do about it."

That's reality, which is where Ethan lives. He doesn't want pity. In fact, that's one of the few things that has bugged him since he returned to school.

"There are a few people who've tried to get in my life because of the tragedy," he said. "I don't want that pity."

Crabtree, Brown and other adults check in on Ethan while also trying to give him the space that any 18-year-old requires. In a few months, life will change again. Ethan plans to study pre-dentistry at IUPUI, where he'll meet a new group of friends.

"When I came here three years ago, he was a kid who was easy to talk to," George said. "It was easy to relate to him and have a conversation. He was an easy kid to like, and not all of them are."

Ethan's bedroom walls are covered with photos of Braeden, Annie and Caroline.

"Those girls were so special and Braeden was a part of the family forever," said Ethan's mother, Janda Lee. "It was rough. It still has its rough moments. But I'm very proud of Ethan. He's showed a lot of courage."

Ethan was back in school three weeks after the accident. He and Braeden had just about every class together. They were lab partners in chemistry.

"It was tough," Ethan said. "That first week was really tough."

There is no getting back to "normal." Not for North Vermillion. Not for Cowan. Not for Cayuga. Not for Ethan Lee.

Braeden's No. 47 will always mean something at North Vermillion. It will represent a state championship season and a life gone too soon. It will represent a young man who did his work in athletics and in the classroom without expecting anything in return. It will represent the spirit and unity of small town Indiana.

North Vermillion can also take pride in the courage of No. 23. There's nothing that can prepare one for dealing with tragedy. Ethan Lee is doing it the best he can.

"You just don't know until you get to it," he said. "I'm not saying I'm the best at it or even if I'm all there. Who knows? I don't know. I just try to do my best every day."

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com