'He was a good kid' Cd'A man dies in motorcycle accident

COEUR d'ALENE - Of all the lives Justin Allen touched in his 20 years as an athlete, student, coach, son and brother, the people he had just met will miss Allen as much as the ones who grew up with him.

There are his family and friends from Coeur d'Alene High School and his wrestling teammates and pupils. But there are the new teammates he befriended this year too.

"He was always dedicated, always attentive and always willing to learn," said Aristo Arana, head recruiter for the North Idaho club rugby team, the Osprey, the sport Allen began playing this year after wrestling all his life. "We're all pretty close on the team, we're a pretty tight-knit bunch of guys, and to lose one ... it's just a loss for words."

Allen died Monday night in a motorcycle accident in downtown Coeur d'Alene. He was thrown from the Suzuki motorcycle he was riding on driven by his friend, Garrett J. Kienke, 20, around 7:20 p.m. near Lakeside Avenue and Ninth Street.

Friends and family, trying to cope with the tragedy on Tuesday, remembered Allen as a fun-loving man with an affinity for life that was cut too short.

"He was a good kid," said David Allen, Justin's father. "I think he was going to be a good American and a good person. A lot of good things were coming his way."

A North Idaho College student after graduating from Coeur d'Alene High School in 2008, Allen was heading to Boise State University next year to study construction management. He was going to live with his brother, Ryan, also a BSU student.

"He was the best brother you could ever ask for," said Ryan, 23. "He was a great kid. I know he'll be missed. Everybody loves him and he was my best friend."

The family spent Tuesday with friends and loved ones at their Coeur d'Alene home.

"It was really awe-inspiring," David Allen said of the community support. "I want to thank everybody. I want to say how much we appreciate the love and support that we have from all of his friends and anybody who knew him who showed up at the hospital."

Faculty at CHS, where Allen wrestled varsity for three years and took fourth at state his senior year, said the whole school admired him, not just for his athletic feats, but for his personality.

Assistant wrestling coach Kelly Moffat said he was most impressed with Allen's desire to coach the next generation of wrestlers for the youth Buzzsaw wrestling program.

Volunteer assistant coach Bob Siegwarth remembered the friendship and support Allen gave his daughter, Carly, "as a protector and as a friend," after she needed multiple surgeries to recover from an injurious accident.

"He had a big influence on a lot of those younger kids," Moffat said of Allen's volunteer coaching. "That was something he loved doing, being a part of those kids' lives and going to their tournaments on the weekends and being in their corner."

Police reports said the motorcycle was traveling west at 40 to 45 mph in a 25 mph zone. Both were ejected when the driver lost control when braking for northbound traffic at the intersection. The accident remains under investigation.

Kienke was listed in fair condition at Kootenai Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon.

If there's one thing the family wants to come from the tragedy, it's to raise awareness for motorcycle safety and wearing helmets, which neither occupant was.

"It just kills me," David Allen said. "He was the youngest and our baby and I was always very, very proud of him."

Funeral services are being arranged, and a memorial service will be at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls at a date to be announced. The family has established a scholarship fund in Justin Allen's name at Mountain West Bank.

And there were the lives Allen touched who he had just met. He turned out for rugby this year, becoming a fine player in his inaugural season which wrapped up last weekend in Boise, his new teammates said.

Those Osprey teammates met at the Iron Horse Bar and Grill on Tuesday evening to sign a rugby ball they'll give to the family, and to share stories and the grief they're feeling about the man they had just come to know.

"He had a good spirit and a good heart and he never gave up on anything," said Cale Coast, co-captain on the team, who roomed with Allen on the road, and picked up Allen's fascination with architecture.

Coast drove back to Coeur d'Alene from Boise with Allen on Sunday, a game Coast said he was thinking about ditching, but is now glad he didn't.

"It's just so hard to believe," he said. "I still haven't processed it all. I was just shoulder to shoulder with him in the car and now 24 hours later this happened. That's the last time I got to see him and I'm glad I did. It was a positive thing. A positive memory."