Pius X junior collapses, dies

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BY CORY MATTESON / Lincoln Journal Star

Just hours after John Liescheski died Thursday, about 20 Lincoln Pius X football players sat in the stands at Aldrich Field as the sky grew dark.

One promised to dedicate the coming season to their fallen teammate.

It still hasn’t set in, another said.

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John Liescheski

As they talked about Liescheski, about the guy who always came to class late but always gave everything he had, more than a hundred members of the Pius X student body slowly walked past them on the track. Many cried as they prayed.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee ...

They made sure not to step on a bouquet of flowers with one green balloon and one white one tethered to the stems.

It had been placed where Liescheski, 17, collapsed at the end of a 30-yard sprint Thursday afternoon, as a spring conditioning drill winded down. He was rushed to BryanLGH Medical Center East, where he was pronounced dead.

As emergency workers tended to Liescheski on the field, the boys, about 40 of them, knelt at the 50-yard line and prayed.

“It’s hard to understand,” said Father Jim Meysenburg, the school’s superintendent.

“I don’t have an explanation as to why these things happen,” said football coach Tim Aylward, who performed CPR on Liescheski. “God has a plan for everybody, and that’s not for us to know.”

Liescheski was an offensive lineman, even though he weighed about 215 pounds, tops, Aylward said.

“Wasn’t the biggest,” Steve Anderson, his freshman football coach said. “Certainly wasn’t the best.

“But he never stopped, and he’s gonna be missed.”

His attendance at weight lifting and conditioning sessions was one of the best this spring, Aylward said.

“He had really made up his mind that he was gonna dedicate himself to football,” he said.

Liescheski had a problem with making  it onto the field in time for extra points after touchdowns, but he’d get after it in the weight room, Travis O’Connell, a junior teammate, said.

“John was always happy,” he said. “Always made people laugh.”

He also seemed to have a plan after he graduated next year, his guidance counselor said.

“He just had his junior interview,” Jan Frayser said. “We should go look at it. Then you’ll know.”

She headed into her office, past a desk with the ’06-’07 yearbook open to his Page 58. He took the same photo every year, Frayser said. 

She’d written down that he was very interested in the ROTC program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and was thinking about a career in engineering.

“Big math and science kid,” she said.

He loved trapshooting, and was on the school team, Aylward said. He was interested in the military as well, Frayser said.

Friends, teammates and faculty gathered at the hospital at about 5 p.m. Thursday, Principal Tom Korta said. By 7, they were at the school, praying, he said, “together, as a Pius family.”

Thursday was the last day of classes for seniors. Names were written in chalk on the sidewalk outside the school’s front entrance. A station wagon parked out front was filled with balloons.

But inside, students held each other. Tears streaked the eye black of baseball players who’d just finished their season.

“Is the chapel open?” asked a girl, whose friend was weeping beside her.

“Of course it is,” Korta told her.

They held Mass Thursday night, with Father Meysenburg telling 250-plus students, parents and staff that Liescheski has been turned over to Christ.

“It’s powerful,” he said later, after a moment alone in the chapel. “It’s sad. It’s powerful.”

Classes will go on Friday, but counselors will be available for students who need them. More will be done to remember Liescheski, Frayser promised.

“We’ll pray together again,” she said.

Reach Cory Matteson at 473-7438 or cmatteson@journalstar.com.