Popular CHS graduates Reinhardt, Austin remembered and mourned at vigil
<p>A memorial was started at home plate of Ted Paige Field at Coeur d'Alene High for Devon Austin who was killed early Sunday morning with his friend Ryan Reinhardt in a crash near Twin Falls.</p>
<p>Classmates, friends and family gather on a grassy hillside between the Coeur d'Alene High School baseball and football fields Monday to remember Devon Austin and Ryan Reinhardt who were killed in a car wreck early Sunday near Twin Falls.</p>
<p>Alyssa Yarbrough, right, and Lizzie Armon comfort each other during the candlelight vigil while standing alongside Nikki Kraft.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - A huge huddle of grief-stricken students, parents, and friends formed Monday night in the darkness near the end zone on Coeur d'Alene High School's football field.
Nearby, on a grassy hill overlooking the baseball diamond on CHS's Ted Page Field, a similar group gathered.
They were all there to comfort and console one another as they remembered two Viking athletes, Ryan Reinhardt, 18, and Devon Austin, 19, who were killed in a car wreck early Sunday morning in southern Idaho.
Many of the hundreds of mourners first stopped at two memorials, set up on the football and baseball fields as tributes to the fallen athletes, before coming together, carrying candles, near the baseball field to pray and share stories about the two popular young men who graduated just last June from CHS.
"Yesterday at 7 a.m., my heart was broken," said Jake Matheson, a CHS senior athlete and close friend of Austin's.
Matheson read from a letter he wrote to his departed former baseball teammate, "I loved you like a brother."
The early morning, single-vehicle crash occurred shortly before 1 a.m. in Twin Falls County, not far from the College of Southern Idaho where Austin and Reinhardt were enrolled. Another CSI student and 2009 graduate of CHS, Jessica Duran, was in the vehicle. Duran was treated and released from St. Luke's Magic Valley Regional Medical Center.
News of the deaths of the well-liked teens rocked the high school community.
Football coach Shawn Amos, under whom Reinhardt was a two-year varsity letterman, said Austin and Reinhardt share many of the same friends.
"There are a lot of people hurting right now, the whole CHS family," Amos said earlier in the day on Monday. "As we process through this, our focus has got to be on those who are in need, those left behind, so to speak."
Reinhardt was, Amos said, "exactly the kind of kid we love to have in our program."
"He did everything we asked, waited his turn, stepped up and ended up becoming a very important part of our success last year," Amos said.
Matt Cade, another 2010 CHS grad, stopped by the school's baseball field Monday afternoon to spend a few minutes at the memorial near home plate honoring Austin. As Cade walked away from the field, his shoulders shook as he choked back tears.
"I've known him since I was 9. We played baseball together," Cade said. "I never got to say I loved him."
Austin, a former catcher and basketball player at CHS, was on scholarship at CSI. In June, he was drafted in the 45th round by the Chicago Cubs. He was the 2009 Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year and the Louisville Slugger Player of the Year.
"He just kind of attracted people to him," Coeur d'Alene baseball coach Nick Rook told The Press on Sunday. "His personality was almost intoxicating. He was someone who drew you in very easily. He was a spectacular person who probably had more positive influence than he ever realized."
Jordan Eborall, a 2010 Bridge Academy graduate, knew both boys.
"Those kids are in my heart forever," Eborall said.
Eborall said Austin couldn't be stopped by anyone or anything. He would help others with school, with sports, with anything they needed help on.
"He was the most will-powered person, a competitive guy," Eborall said. "He was the best at anything he ever tried."
He considered Reinhardt, whom he has known since they were both 5 years old, his best friend.
"There's no one better than Ryan Reinhardt," he said. "He was the most giving person in the world, the hardest-working person in the world."
Eborall recalled on Monday afternoon that he and Reinhardt enjoyed some "crazy times together." They would shoot Airsoft guns, drink Slurpees and hang out in a friend's garage.
"We'd do anything," he said, laughing.
Josh Haugan and Coty Cummings, also 2010 CHS graduates, also knew Reinhardt and Austin.
"Growing up, he (Austin) was the one person I felt I could tell anything to. I could trust him with everything," Cummings said. "I love him, and I love his dad, who taught me a lot about baseball. I love his mom. I'm just going to miss him. I want to send my wishes out to Ryan's family and the Austins."
Haugan said Reinhardt was one of the hardest workers he'd ever met.
"Everyone loved him. He had a huge heart," Haugan said.
Both Reinhardt and Austin loved to make people smile, he said.
"I want to make sure people know how good these guys were. They were top notch," Haugan said.
The Twin Falls Sheriff's Office is still investigating the crash, and reported Monday that Reinhardt, Austin and Duran left a party just after midnight Sunday morning, following a "verbal altercation with others at the party," and were at one point chased by several people from the party in another vehicle.
Following the chase, Reinhardt failed to make a curve in the road, and his vehicle, a 1998 Toyota Camry, rolled several times. Law enforcement received the call at 1:02 a.m., and both Reinhardt and Austin were pronounced dead at the scene.
Excessive speed and alcohol are believed to be factors, according to the sheriff's office.