Deer Park grieves for athlete

Matt Hjelm, a Deer Park junior varsity baseball player, had hit a game-tying, two-run double against Colville and was back in the outfield on defense when he collapsed.

The game, being played in Colville the Tuesday of spring break, was halted and Hjelm was transported by ambulance to the hospital, then air-lifted to Deaconess Hospital.

“The wait for the helicopter was an eternity,” his mother, Linda, said. “We were in the emergency room when we heard it land. It was awful.”

Matt had suffered a series of strokes, she said. Doctors held out hope that the strapping youngster would get better. But another stroke left him incapacitated and the family made its decision to let him go and donate his organs so others might live.

On Saturday he was taken off life support. The “teddy bear who loved to play football,” died at age 17, leaving Gary, Linda and 14-year-old sister, Carly, to wonder why.

“He was strong and healthy as a horse,” said his mother. “He had been in weight training. To be a kid so strong and healthy and to be knocked down by a stroke is so senseless. I don’t understand what happened.”

None of us can understand. Why is a youngster whose future lies ahead taken like this? It is a question I have pondered when high school athletes I’ve known have had their lives ended by accident in their youth.

“It makes you realize how fragile life is,” said Keith Stamps, Matt’s football coach and first-period teacher.

Matt’s best friend, Kellen Johnson, has come to the same conclusion as I have.

“I’ve lost three friends in my high school career and they were all nice people,” he said. “God works in strange ways. It’s my belief He takes the good ones because He needs them.”

Johnson met Matt in eighth grade when they started playing football together. They’d hung out together since.

The Hjelms have been overwhelmed by their town’s support. Students came in droves to the hospital to visit.

“There must have been 100 kids there to say their final good-byes,” Linda said. “They filled the lobby and spilled out on the lawn. The people at Deaconess were so good about it.”

They haven’t been left alone at home, neighbors offering help and providing them with meals. Deer Park students, upon their return to school, wore green ribbons, Matt’s favorite color, by way of remembrance.

When the Hjelms moved from the Renton, Wash., area in 1995, such caring was the attraction in their decision to live in Deer Park.

“It was so beautiful and had a strong community. It was a blast from the past like the 1950s. They were wonderful people,” said Linda. “We felt so at home when we moved here.”

Matt was a gentle giant who stood nearly 6-foot-2 and weighed 263 pounds.

“He had an unbelievable off-season and was bigger and stronger than he’d ever been with an unbelievable amount of potential,” said Stamps. “He’ll be a huge, huge, huge loss from a teammate standpoint, was fun to coach and had a great personality. I think a lot of us are still in shock.”

There will be a memorial service at Deer Park High April 22.

His mother said it will be the only place big enough to accommodate a community coming to help the family grieve.