Kirby Smart was busy talking about Georgia‘s latest big victory on Saturday against a ranked Mizzou team when he had to pivot from something wonderful to something tragic.
When a reporter in the postgame press conference asked the Bulldogs head coach about Friday’s passing of Georgia commit Marcellus Young Casario at the age of 18, Smart immediately became emotional and reflective.
Young Casario was an in-state defensive lineman commit out of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. He passed away following a sudden medical emergency, according to the school and a report by the Athens Banner-Herald.
He was on an unlikely path toward playing for Smart at Georgia, having originally been from far away Halifax, Nova Scotia. Young Casario spent 2 years at Rabun Gap and set to play for arguably the best current program in all of college football.
Smart was set to coach him, too, with the 3-star Young Casario on track to graduate in December and become an early enrollee at Georgia.
“One of the toughest calls I’ve ever gotten, right there with, you know, one other call and it was heartbreaking because I know his mom, know his dad, know his family,” Smart said on Saturday night. “He’s been down here for like every game. … It’s just tragic. I mean, to have lost a life at that age. Can you imagine if that’s your child? He was such a great kid. I mean, he was always smiling, always positive and had a great future in front of him.”
It made Kirby Smart take stock in everything.
“It puts things in perspective for me,” he said. “What good is worrying gonna do and you think about relative to what they’re going through and what this team did (Saturday night). It just makes it, you know, irrelevant compared to what that family’s going through. So, I have a lot of respect for him and his family, and we’re praying for him.”
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
