Washington-Steel will be missed on, off athletic fields

Sadness knows no boundaries.

It spans throughout communities, drifts beyond borders.

It bleeds through many school colors.

While elite high school athletes across the nation spent Feb. 3 signing national letters of intent to seal their college choices, one of DuPage County's top athletes fought for his life at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.

Glenbard West senior Pierre Washington-Steel's fight ended the next day when he passed away as a result of injuries suffered in a Jan 29 automobile accident in Glen Ellyn. He was 17 years old.

The day after Washington-Steel's death, Glenbard West students were notified in class through the simultaneous reading of a letter written by school administrators. Counselors were brought in to work with grieving students.

The grief, however, spread well beyond Glenbard West's walls.

Washington-Steel spent his sophomore and junior years at Driscoll Catholic High School in Addison and transferred to Glenbard West when Driscoll closed last June.

The Driscoll community is now scattered, but they grieve as well for the young man who lit up the school hallways with an infectious smile. And they certainly remember Washington-Steel honing his athletic abilities in three varsity sports - football, baseball and track and field.

In so many ways Glenbard West received a gem when Washington-Steel transferred to the Glen Ellyn high school.

Last fall he quickly meshed with a senior football class that powered the Hilltoppers to a 13-1 record and a second straight West Suburban Silver title. Helping Glenbard West advance to the state title game for the first time since 1983, Washington-Steel rushed for 717 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Washington-Steel was expected to make a big impact this spring for the Hilltoppers' baseball and track and field squads. At Driscoll last year he placed second in the state in the Class 1A 100-meter dash, blazing a time of 11.09 seconds in the finals.

That same speed flashed for Driscoll's baseball team. Watching Washington-Steel lace a ball into the gap was a joy to behold as he effortlessly glided around the bases to stretch singles into doubles, doubles into triples.

Athletically, Washington-Steel had few rivals in DuPage County.

To countless friends and family, however, it was his life away from athletics that proved so endearing.

News of the automobile accident spread like wildfire through phone calls, text messages, online message boards and social networking Web sites as hundreds of people came together in support of Washington-Steel and junior classmate Demarco Whitley, who also was involved in the accident. Whitley suffered undisclosed injuries but was recently released from Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital.

Several Facebook pages were created in support of and in memory of Washington-Steel, some groups bursting with nearly 5,000 members. The weekend of the accident, 500 people gathered for a candlelight vigil at Glenbard West's Duchon Field.

This upcoming Sunday and Monday, expect to see even more people gather to remember Washington-Steel.

According to Glenbard West's Web site, visitation will be held from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Midwest Memorial Chapel in Chicago and continue from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday at Progressive Life Giving Word Cathedral in Hillside. The funeral will follow at Progressive Life, along with a processional to Oak Ridge Cemetery in Hillside. The day concludes at 4 p.m. Monday as a gathering at St. Petronille Parish Life Center in Glen Ellyn comes to an end.

The gathering, a celebration of Washington-Steel's life, is a fitting conclusion to services that wind from Chicago to Hillside and back to Glen Ellyn.

Washington-Steel left a lasting impression in his few months at Glenbard West, but his legacy lingers among the many lives he touched throughout the area.

That legacy won't fade any time soon.

The sadness may ease, but his memory will live on.

kschmit@dailyherald.com