Tributes to young athletes gone too soon

One played lacrosse. The other was into rugby. Both have left massive holes in the hearts of their family and friends.

And both were remembered this week.

Kip Taviano was a star lacrosse player at the Haverford School. The Concord resident was killed in a car crash not far from his family’s home, just a few days before graduation in 2013.

Mark Dombroski was an Archmere grad and rugby player at Saint Joseph’s University. He was killed in a tragic fall earlier this year during a tournament in Bermuda.

The legacy of both young men lives on in the actions of those who loved them.

His friends call it the ‘Kip Effect.’ Thursday night they gathered once again to raise money for the James K. ‘Kip’ Taviano Scholarship Fund. Saturday they took part in the Kip Taviano #10ve Lacrosse Celebration at 10ve Field named in his honor.

That Twitter hashtag, #10ve, is a play on the word love and the jersey number 10, the one Kip wore as a star athlete on the Haverford School lacrosse team, as well as on numerous youth teams.

That hashtag #10ve popped up all over the place again last week as his family and friends dealt with the pain of marking five years since Taviano’s death.

The ‘Kip Effect’ was out in full force in photos shared on social media, from South Carolina to Greece.

Much like Dombroski, Taviano was headed for college, where he intended to play lacrosse at national Division 1 power Furman University in South Carolina. He never made it. But his legacy continues to inspire young athletes across the region.

More than 100 people packed Barnaby’s in Havertown one night last week to benefit the scholarship fund that bears his name.

The scholarship goes to a deserving Haverford School student who otherwise might not be able to attend the prestigious school.

Someone like Bobby Gibson, a senior at the school. His vow is to live up to the standards set by Kip, or as the school points out, “a deserving student-athlete who exhibits strong character, friendship, citizenship and sportsmanship in all that he does, just as Kip demonstrated in his life.”

They are much the same attributes embodied by Dombroski.

Sunday Dombroski’s family gathered for the difficult task of attending the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester.

It’s where Mark Dombroski would have been as well, helping his Saint Joseph’s University team in a national competition. But during a similar tournament in March in Bermuda, Dombroski went missing. His body was eventually found in an empty moat. It is believed he accidentally tumbled off a 35-foot-high cliff.

On Saturday, they held a moment of silence before the competition began on the very same turf where Dombroski led his Archmere Academy team to a national rugby championship just a few years before.

Family, former teammates and this year’s competitors all flashed Mark’s signature, two thumbs up.

On Sunday they were back again, this time for another very special reason.

They were there to award the tournament Most Valuable Player Award, now officially named for Mark Dombroski.

For the first time since that fateful March weekend, the Dombroski family was able to find comfort and satisfaction in a rugby event.

No, Mark was not there, but his spirit was.

“I had to be here today,” his brother John Dombroski III said. “I would have loved to have seen him out there.”

His sister, Lisa, noted that the Saint Joe’s team had an advantage in the ‘sevens’ competition, comprised of sevenman teams. They had eight men on the field.

“Mark is the eighth man,” she said. “He’s with them in spirit.” As is Kip Taviano. Two outstanding young men gone far too soon. Both excelled – on the field and off.

And now they will be remembered in much the way they conducted themselves, stand-out athletes, and standout young men.

They’re both MVPs in our book.