Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
THAT’S TEAMWORK:
Family of Chris Hixon kicks off scholarship fund for ex-athletic director
Pompano Beach-Cardinal Gibbons baseball game raises money for scholarship fund honoring Douglas victim Chris Hixon.
POMPANO BEACH — They put an arm around each other, the Hixon family and Pompano Beach High coach Joe Giummule. And they began walking onto the baseball field Friday night in the manner Chris Hixon had for decades on Broward high school fields.
“At this time,” the publicaddress announcer said, “we would like you to join us in welcoming to the mound, Chris Hixon’s wife and son, Debbie and Corey, to throw out tonight’s first pitch.”
Slowly, people began to clap. First a few, and then some more, and then few hundred people in the stands covered the field with an ovation as Debbie and Corey stopped in front of the pitcher’s mound.
The family wore T-shirts that read the “Chris Hixon Scholarship Fund” on the front and the name “Hixon” with No. 17 on the back, for the 17 students and teachers killed at Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.
After the Hixons stepped forward, after Corey and then Debbie threw a ceremonial pitch home, they walked off the field through a tunnel of Pompano Beach players and friends’ hugs.
This night was to kick off fundraising for a scholarship fund in the Douglas athletic director’s name. It also was, in part, a community hug for the
Hixon family in the manner each of the 17 is finding hugs.
Because the community can. Because people care. Because no one really knows what else to do to help the hurting — if there can be help at all.
For a dancer like Jaime Guttenberg, that meant dancers wore orange ribbons. For a Dwyane Wade fan like Joaquin Oliver, that meant the Heat star wrote Oliver’s name on his sneakers.
For Hixon, a Broward athletic director and wrestling coach, that meant a ceremonial first pitch at the High School Baseball Network’s game of the week between Pompano Beach and Cardinal Gibbons to kick start the scholarship funding.
A plastic jug was set up for donations at the entrance to the Four Fields Complex in Pompano Beach. Students walked through the crowd with #MSDStrong wristbands for donations.
Debbie Hixon wants to provide scholarships in Chris’s name for a student at Blanche Ely, South Broward and Douglas — the three schools where Hixon was athletic director.
Giummule, who worked with Hixon at South Broward, said area coaches started throwing out ideas to help however they could. This was just one way, this idea of throwing out the first pitch. Giummule mentioned it to Debbie last week when visiting her home.
“Chris was the kind of guy who gave you the shirt off his back if you needed it,” Giummule said. “It was always about the kids. Whatever you needed, he was there to help.”
This is how it works in high schools, one person helping another. Hixon, for instance, became a mentor when Jason Frey became Pompano Beach’s athletic director eight years ago.
“I’d call him for anything and he’d always help,” Frey said. “If you need a bus [for a team], he’d get one, or if you needed a case of tennis balls, he’d get them. If you just needed someone to talk to, he was there.”
“He was always at school going out of his way to make sure everyone was OK,” said Keven Pare, who graduated from South Broward with Hixon’s older son, Tommy. “He was the guy making sure kids had rides home, then waiting for the rides, then shutting the gate.”
What really hurts is this: Friday was just the kind of night Hixon would have gone into overdrive planning. Something to help someone else? To try and comfort a hurting family?
“He was always there for people,” Giummule said.
So the community was there for him Friday. This was one way. There will be others. The ovation as his wife and son threw a first pitch didn’t change anything. It just said the sports community stand with the family, too.