Friends and teammates said goodbye Monday to Shaun Frechette, the Springboro junior killed last week in a one-car crash on the way to school.

“His impact on me and this team will never be forgotten,” Brendan Hogarth, a teammate on the champion Panther football team, said during a service at Springboro High School.

Students and supporters waited in lines stretching from the school auditorium out the door “to pay their respects and demonstrate their love” for Frechette, Principal Ron Malone said.

Frechette, 17, of Springboro, died Thursday morning while driving to school, after his 2005 Crown Victoria crashed into a utility pole on Ohio 741, south of Springboro High School.

He was a lineman with plans to play football in college and the NFL. The crash came two days before the Panther’s play-off game with Lakota East.

On Monday, flowers and photos flanked his casket on the auditorium stage. Two screens flashed photos of Frechette and his teammates in action.

Head Coach Ryan Wilhite remembered Frechette as a team player before comforting those in grief at his loss.

“As bad as it hurts today, there’ll come a time it won’t,” he said.

Team Chaplain Shawn Acry’s recollection of Frechette’s red-faced, curdling laugh brought laughs and smiles.

“He loved to laugh,” Acry said.

Teammate Sean Welsh described the 5-foot-9-inch, 240-pound Frechette as “a 17-year-old Santa Claus.”

Before the service, three of Frechette’s classmates huddled around a makeshift memorial near the crash site.

A football helmet and football balloon symbolized Frechette’s love for the sport. More than a dozen bouquets of flowers were crowded beneath two crosses.

“I didn’t know him personally,” said Hannah Bakosh, adding that the tragedy had unified the school and community. “Our whole school has come closer together.”

Also Monday, the Clearcreek Township Police Department said Frechette’s car was traveling 61 mph, six miles over the speed limit, when he lost control in the dark on the wet two-lane road, went into a ditch, then struggled to regain control for about 700 feet before striking a utility pole.

Sgt. Wallace Stacy said the investigation is continuing, but police found there was sufficient tread on the car tires to steer safely.

On Sunday, the crash victim’s father, Chris Frechette, was presented with a Cincinnati Bengals jersey with the number 70 on it. The Bengals representative presented the jersey to Frechette in the stands during the Bengals-Broncos game, family members said.

“Chris was thrilled. He loves it,” stepmother Angela Kulling said.

Mike Van Den Broek, Chris Frechette’s friend and co-worker, was behind the jersey presentation. Van Den Broek attended the game in place of Shaun Frechette.

In Shaun Frechette’s memory, the number 70 also was painted on the field before a play-off game Saturday at Careflight Field in Springboro. There was also a moment of silence and a balloon release before kick-off, as well as the memorial service Monday.

“Know this one’s for you,” Teammate Austin Tarantino said in a poem also read before the game.

Springboro lost 45-38 in overtime, their first loss of the season, but the tragedy filled the auditorium and rallied the community.

“You can tell how much everybody loved him. It really does mean a lot to us,” his father said.