Players are often told that what happens during competition will create memories that will last a lifetime.

When those moments are some of the lasting images you have of someone, it becomes less about sports and more about life.

The power of the memories can keep a lost loved one alive in your heart. Like an old video player keeping animated impressions safe in your mind forever.

It can keep you connected to a dear friend, a teammate turned brother and beloved classmate.

People from Crestwood still mourn Kevin Porco.

They miss him deeply.

They remember his remarkable football achievements and his blistering speed on the track. There was nobody quite like him, they tell you.

And they are right.

But it applies just as much to his athletic abilities as it did to his loving and accepting personality.

“Honestly, I truly don’t think you could find anyone that did not like Kevin,” classmate and football teammate Mark Richards said. “He got along with everybody and everybody got along with him.”

Crestwood’s Class of 1991 was displaced emotionally by the tragic death of Porco, and their hearts still hold onto him intensely because their arms can’t.

AN UNTHINKABLE TRAGEDY

Porco suffered critical injuries and died after a car crash on Mantua Center Road and Ohio 82 on June 4, 1991 — just four days after graduation — when the Trans Am he was riding in sped through a stop sign. There were three others in the car with Porco that day, a driver and two other passengers, and all suffered serious injuries, but Porco was the only one to die.

“When Kevin died, a little bit of all of us died on that same day,” classmate and friend Kristi (Echelberry) McKenney said.

McKenney, who has spent the last 25 years teaching in Cincinnati, said it took her 15 years to fully grieve the loss of Porco. The whirlwind of events that surrounded the tragedy made it difficult for her to mourn. She looks back on the seven-day timeline and can detail it without effort.

Friday afternoon was the state qualifying track meet at Kent Roosevelt, which led into Friday evening’s graduation ceremonies — an event that Porco missed because of his state-qualifying race. By the time he had arrived back at the school, graduation was already over. The crash happened on Sunday, and Kevin died on Tuesday.

“By that next Friday, I was in Columbus and won the state championship in the discus (139 feet, 8 inches),” McKenney said. “Then it is almost like we all went away. Some stayed home, some went off to college, and we were all on our separate ways. It was almost like we all ran away from (the tragedy). That summer, I worked long days, sometimes 15-hour days at Geauga Lake. I just didn’t know how to mourn, and then I went off to Youngstown State on a basketball scholarship, and I never came home again.”

THE BOYS OF FALL

The 1990 Crestwood football team was the story that movies are made of.

A large, talented senior class stormed through the season to a perfect 10-0 record, winning the Portage County League championship.

Most games were won with ease, with only a 7-0 overtime victory over Field and narrow wins over Rootstown (16-14) and Mogadore (18-12) the anomalies in a season where the Red Devils won by an average of almost three touchdowns (20.4) each game.

Porco, who was 6-foot and 195 pounds, set rushing records along the way, including a pinnacle performance that featured 276 yards and six touchdowns in a 48-27 romp of Streetsboro. Porco earned the game ball, which was placed in his casket with him when he was buried.

“I think football was something that came very easily to Kevin. But make no mistake about it, he worked very, very hard at it too,” said former Crestwood football head coach Jerry Berton. “Kevin was everything you would want in a player because he never stopped working hard, he was very coachable, he was a nice person.”

Berton said Porco’s game had just about every skill box checked off.

“He had power, he had speed. He had agility and balance, he had vision. He had a great knack for the game. Simply put, he did not fail very often,” Berton said.

Porco had earned a starting spot as a sophomore and showed some talent, but Berton said it was when Porco returned for his junior year that it appeared he was on the precipice of something special.

“To me, that is when Kevin went from being a good player to being a great player,” Berton said.

For Richards, as great as Porco was with the ball in his hands, what stands out more is how he was the team leader, undeniable star, but just like everyone else.

“Our entire team was unselfish, but so much of that was a tone set by Kevin,” Richards said. “We all knew that Kevin was the man, but everyone also knew what their job was for the team and everyone did their job. Kevin never changed who he was. We just knew we all had each other’s back. When you made a mistake, Kevin would be there to pick you up — and it was like you were more mad at yourself for letting your team down, letting your friend down, than anything else.”

Porco had committed to play football for Kent State University in the fall of 1991.

“A ton of crying. I remember crying a lot,” Richards said. “It was hard to believe that it was real. Kevin could do it all, so I think a lot of us, myself included, thought he would spend some time at the hospital and then be OK. When the reality sunk in, I did not want to believe it. Kevin was going to go on to do something special. It wasn’t just that I thought that; we all did. And there really was no denying it.”

SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT HIM

Porco is remembered for having the kind of personality that friends gravitated toward.

He dealt with the loss of his dad, who died during his freshman year in a tragic accident when he was trapped under a car he was working on after the car jack collapsed.

“When that happened, it was an awful thing,” McKenney said. “The coaches, teachers, his friends, everyone grabbed onto him in some way to help him through it. Everyone loved Kevin.”

It was a support system that became synonymous with the class, who by the time they were seniors, were as close of a group as you could imagine. And they remain close.

“Some class reunions from our ages may have 20 to 30 people, and we have close to 100,” Richards said. “Nobody says it, but I feel that one of the reasons why we all still get together is because of Kevin. We were close to begin with, but we grew even closer.

“We still miss Kevin.”

The emotions are as real now as they were then. Thirty years later, and memories that will last a lifetime. Some that bring smiles. Some that bring laughter. Some that bring tears. Sometimes all three at the same time.

There are stories living inside them all. Stories that keep Kevin Porco with Crestwood forever.