Friends remember teen as outgoing, determined
Parking lot where youth died Friday becomes gathering spot, memorial
Elias Agioritis has known his best friend longer than he can remember.
Athan McEwen grew up in the house next door, and 15-year-old Agioritis thought they’d always be neighbours.
“(We) were talking about how we’re going to get a huge house and it’s going to be connected, and half of it’s going to be my side and half of it’s going to be his,” said Agioritis.
“I know this probably wouldn’t happen, but I planned my whole life with him.”
That plan ended on Friday night, as 15-year-old McEwen was run over by a friend’s truck in the South Leisure Centre parking lot.
The spot where he died has been transformed into a memorial and gathering spot for friends, who have spent hours at a time there.
Inside a heart spray-painted onto the pavement, there are bouquets of flowers, photos, a rosary, and some of McEwen’s favourite things: Froot Loops, drinks from McDonalds, a motocross stand and vape juice among them.
Friends have signed their names and the words “gone but never forgotten” in spray-paint.
About 16 teenagers gathered there after final exams early Monday afternoon, while others, like Agioritis, stopped by throughout the day.
Sophie Maroudis, McEwen’s mother, visited the tribute, where she knelt sobbing near a photo of her son.
Agioritis said he and McEwen, both in their final week of Grade 10 at LeBoldus High School, talked about attending Arizona State University at Lake Havasu City, where McEwen’s family had a house.
“Before we came here (on Friday), he was talking to me about where we’re going to go for the Grade 12 trip,” added Agioritis. “He was talking about going to L.A., Venice Beach, Lake Havasu … Miami. I’ve just got to do it for him now.”
McEwen — long known as Rocker, a childhood nickname — was an outgoing and easygoing guy, and was determined in everything.
“Somebody who was beefing with him or something, he’d just make jokes about it and he’d taunt the person and just have fun with it. He was always such a nice guy,” said Demitri Yannitsos, who counted McEwen as one of his best friends.
An avid BMX biker and motocross racer, said Yannitsos, “He’d always (try). ‘Oh, do this.’ ‘OK,’ and he’d do it, hurt himself or something, but then he’d just get back up and keep going. He’d try it again.”
“The guy loved motocross,” added Agioritis. “I’d go over to his house every day and he would just sit in his garage, just sitting on his dirt bike, talking about how he was going to hit the next jump or win the next race.”
With a dad, Sean McEwen, skilled in construction, Athan McEwen “could literally build a house by himself,” said Agioritis. “Me and him would go help his dad build houses every week.”
“He had all the skills. He had everything going for him, that’s for sure,” agreed Chad Sylvestre, Sean McEwen’s colleague at United Roofing and Spray Foam, and an honorary uncle to Athan.
“The kid could out-perform me on a Bobcat or any type of machinery.
“I remember the times when Rocker would be sitting in the back of my spray-foam rig helping me out, on roofs with some of his buddies,” added Sylvestre. “Hard worker. If he wanted something, he worked for it.”
Though he was little more than five-feet tall, McEwen played on his high school football team. He tried hard to get good marks. “He grinded just to have the best summer of his life,” said Agioritis. “His dad got him a beautiful truck, the truck that he always wanted,” a white Toyota Tundra.
With McEwen’s 16th birthday on Aug. 4, Agioritis said his friend was really excited to be able to drive it.
The incident that killed McEwen “happened so fast,” said Agioritis, who was present at the time.
As friends gathered in the parking lot Friday night, listening to music, McEwen reached up to get his bag from a friend’s truck. With a lift kit on the vehicle, Agioritis believes the friend didn’t see McEwen.
“He started going forward and it rolled over him ... (McEwen) was a little guy too,” said Agioritis.
Yannitsos added, “He stood up from the front of the truck, ran around, took one look at us — just the look on his face — and then just collapsed onto the ground. And then he was pretty much dead a few minutes after that. He didn’t suffer much, which was good. “We just kind of hugged him.” The Regina Catholic School Division brought in extra counsellors and teachers to LeBoldus, to support the students.
Barry Rogers was one. The substitute teacher also visited the parking lot memorial on Monday.
“It touches the kids in a really, really hard way when they lose a friend like this,” said Rogers.
“And the key thing is to make sure they understand that they have to talk to people and not shelter it, because then that creates more hardship down the road in their thoughts, and it makes it easier if you talk.”
The kid could out-perform me on a Bobcat or any type of machinery. … If he wanted something, he worked for it.