The Springboro junior lineman hoped to win a college scholarship through his play next year for the Panther varsity football team, according to family members.
“That was his life. Football was his big thing,” stepmother Angela Kulling said Friday. “His big dream was to be an NFL player.”
A moment of silence and prayer will be said before Frechette’s teammates take to CareFlight Field against Lakota East High School.
“He loved his team. They loved him,” Kulling said.
Frechette is the 19th victim and fifth teen to die in 17 fatal crashes this year in Warren County, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol. It was the second fatal crash in the past two weeks in the Springboro area.
Statewide, 917 people have died in 835 crashes this year, including 102 teens, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.
Frechette died of blunt force trauma after his 2005 Crown Victoria crashed into a utility pole on Ohio 741, south of Springboro High School, according to the Warren County Coroner’s Office.
Police said he apparently battled for 700 feet to regain control as the car first veered gradually off the east side of the road into a ditch, then briefly back on, before driving into the pole at a curve in the road in Clearcreek Twp.
After the crash, flowers and artifacts began collecting around a makeshift roadside memorial set up beneath the pole, north of Pekin Road.
Out of sympathy, Lakota officials sent flowers to Springboro High and planned to present Frechette’s family with flowers and a card at the game.
On Thursday, a Clearcreek Twp. officer, on routine patrol at the end of his shift, drove up on the crash site. Despite efforts to revive him, Frechette was pronounced dead at the scene at about 6:30 a.m.
It was still dark and roads were slick. However investigators remained unsure Friday what caused the crash.
“I wish I knew what happened. It could have been a thousand different things,” said Doyle Burke, an investigator for the Warren County Coroner’s Office.
Family members are planning a memorial service at the school and private funeral. To benefit the family, helmets will be set at stadium entrances and a Shaun Frechette Memorial Fund is being established at National Bank & Trust.
Frechette was raised in Miamisburg and moved to Springboro as a 7th grader. He worked at Cassano’s restaurant in Springboro and spent much of his spare time with friends, family members said.
He and his father, Chris Frechette, planned to attend Sunday’s Bengals-Broncos game in Cincinnati. Instead his father and another relative plan to go to the game in keeping with Shaun’s wishes.
“They think Shaun would have wanted them to go, not miss it,” Kulling said. You couldn’t ask for a better kid.”
Anderson Funeral Home in Franklin is handling funeral arrangements.
Frechette is survived by his mother, Jill, and father Chris, a brother, Aiden; sisters, Savannah Frechette, Kaitlyn and Danielle Kulling. He also leaves his paternal grandparents, Mark and Shanna Frechette, maternal grandmother, Melissa Adams, and grandfather Tom Adams.
He was preceded in death by a brother, Jacob Adams. A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the Springboro High School Auditorium. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 pm at the high school.
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