43
Hundreds pay respects to Sharon crash victim
Photo
Members of the JFK football team walk in together to pay their respect to Corey Swartz at J. Bradley McGonigle Funeral Home in Sharon - mourners paid their respects to Corey who passed away during a car crash Friday Night. Corey was a football player for the Sharon Tigers.
Photo
Corey Swartz
Photo
Evan Gill
Photo
John Zdelar
By JEANNE STARMACK
SHARON, Pa.
In the chill of late afternoon Tuesday, people waited in huddled groups outside J. Bradley McGonigle Funeral Home on State Street.
The line to get into the building trailed out the door. Inside, it wound slowly around the foyer then up a long hallway to the room where the family of Corey Swartz, 17, accepted condolences from hundreds of people who then filed past his coffin.
Calling hours were beginning for Corey — one of three people who died Friday night in a car crash that stunned the community.
Police are still investigating the wreck, which happened on East Connelly Boulevard. It also killed Evan Gill, 17, and John Zdelar Jr., 50, of Brookfield. Corey and Evan were varsity football players at Sharon, and Zdelar was a husband and father.
Police said Corey was driving an SUV that crossed the center line and hit Zdelar’s pickup. Evan and two other football players, twins Craig and Greg Osmon, were riding in the SUV. The Osmons were injured and taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown. In the pickup, Evan Wallace, 10, and Blake Yenderak, 12, both of Brookfield, were not seriously hurt.
Corey’s calling hours were the first of the three crash victims. His family accepted condolences from hundreds of people.
Among the mourners who waited as the line slowly inched its way forward were many teenagers — classmates and friends who wore the orange and black of the Sharon Tigers, and even football players from other schools.
Players from Kennedy Catholic, Sharpsville, Wilmington and Hickory high schools were planning to help by serving hot chocolate and coffee to mourners.
On tables alongside the hallway were pictures of Corey and friends.
“Ah, Corey!” said Sharon sophomore Jordan Templeton, his eyes lighting up when he saw them.
A slide show on the wall above the tables told the tale of a teenager whose life was like that of any other. There was Corey with three other friends in Santa hats. A group shot of boys in football jerseys included Corey as a sophomore. His friends pointed him out in a photo of happy couples dressed up for homecoming.
“Corey was one of my best friends,” said Sharon senior Dan Templeton. “He always knew how to have a good time.
“He always had a smile on his face, always saw good in things. We love him,” he said.
“He was a great kid,” said senior Kody Daugherty. “He had his whole life ahead of him.”
Corey would have been 18 next month.
The group of friends said the Osmon twins, whom some of them have visited, are continuing to recover at St. Elizabeth.
In a room next to the mourners passing by the coffin, people sat near two easels that held more pictures.
Cheerful baby Corey sat in his high chair, smiling through food smeared over his entire face.
As a child, he posed for the obligatory school pictures:
A big brother, Corey and his little brother were caught in time wearing matching Hawaiian shirts.
A proud mother stood with her sons.
Teenager Corey was ready for a formal in a tux.
Next to the easels, childhood friend Dallas Taub sat on a couch.
“He had a hell of a smile,” Taub said.
The smile and the sense of humor are what Angela Scott, who taught Corey in health care at the Mercer County Career Center, remembers most.
“He was funny, outgoing, the class clown,” she said. “Definitely a great kid.”
The city of Sharon has asked PennDOT to evaluate whether a median barrier should be installed on the freeway where the crash occurred Friday night, and PennDOT will conduct such an evaluation, said Jim Carroll, PennDOT spokesman.
“Anytime there would be an accident like that, we would do an evaluation anyway,” Carroll said.
However, he added that no construction is currently scheduled for that section of the road.