Joe Smith and Marrio Golden became good friends in 2012 when they played freshman football at Horizon. (Photo: AZCentral.com/Courtesy of Phillip Lechter)
Another blow was dealt to Phoenix Horizon High’s still-reeling community on Tuesday when recent graduate Marrio Golden died.
Recent graduate Joe Smith was killed June 17 in a car crash near Quartzsite, Ariz., coming back with three of his fellow Horizon graduates from a California trip to see major league baseball games in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Michael Patterson coached both Smith and Golden on Horizon’s freshman football team in 2012. He said he was told that Golden, a running back and defensive back, had an asthma attack.
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Smith, who was a middle linebacker, moved on from football during his prep career and played on Horizon’s club hockey team.
Horizon has started a GoFundMe account to pay for Golden’s funeral. A memorial was held Monday for Smith.
“(Golden) was always a great kid,” said Patterson, now an assistant football coach at Phoenix Brophy Prep. “He was quiet, real shy, always worked hard. He did more with his work ethic. Even in football, he liked to work. He always worked.”
A shoulder injury prevented Golden from playing his senior year, Patterson said.
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Both student-athletes graduated in May.
On Facebook, Phillip Lechter, who was an assistant coach on Horizon’s 2012 freshman team, posted a team football photo of that team with arrows pointing to the two players who died.
He wrote on the post: “What is going on… a second incredible young man has passed away, who just graduated from Horizon and played on the same Huskies freshman football team in the last 2 weeks… Marrio Golden has left us way too soon. I spoke to Marrio just a few months ago, a warm, caring and respectful young man with an incredible smile, and he was super excited to start college… Godspeed Marrio ‘Butter’ Golden. Godspeed.”
Lechter said Golden was given the “Butter” nickname his freshman year, because “on the field, when he ran, it was like he was gliding through air.”
“As a staff we nicknamed him ‘Butter,’ because he ran as smooth as butter,” Lechter added.
Lucas Ramirez, a former Horizon student who helps with the basketball program and began his teaching career at Horizon, posted on Facebook a photo of Golden in his green graduation gown, holding his diploma. Ramirez wrote that he was “lucky to have him in class while I student taught.”
“Marrio was a tremendously nice young man with a kind heart and great spirit,” Ramirez said. “He had a very bright future in whichever route he took. Words cannot do justice to what he meant to his family and friends. He will be missed.”
Patterson, a Horizon graduate, said the Horizon community is very close.
“It hurts when someone passes away,” he said. “That group of kids I coached from Pop Warner to their senior year. I really care about them. They’re like my sons.”