Remembering Carey Couch-Emotional Commemoration

ANHAYTE GUAJARDO
KAYIU WONG
Staff Writers

On Aug. 30, former AHS student and athlete Carey Couch was honored during the halftime ceremony of the varsity football team’s first home game. Couch had passed away during his senior year of high school on Jan. 1, 1995. With the football team receiving brand new jerseys this season, Couch’s former varsity football coach Lou Torres and Athletics Director Gerald DeSantis decided to retire Couch’s No.10 football jersey in honor of him. The jersey was presented as a gift to his parents during the ceremony.

“It was very difficult to see his jersey retire, after [Couch made] such an impact to the program and the team. He was special and we don’t want anyone else with the No. 10,” Torres said.

While attending AHS, Couch was a four-year athlete in football, baseball, track and wrestling. A few days prior to his death, Couch suffered a knee injury after winning a wrestling title. However, he began to coughing up blood the next day and his parents took him to Kaiser Permanente in Hollywood. Tests showed no visible sign of injury but rather that the flow of oxygen in Couch’s body was being clogged. During exploratory surgery the next morning, Couch went into sudden cardiac arrest, and doctors quickly began catheterization to diagnose the problem. He then died during the procedure from arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, with no history of heart complications.

The news of Couch’s death devastated his parents as well as his second family at AHS. To those who knew Couch, his constant enthusiasm made him stand out and leave behind a legacy to the programs he was a part of.

“He was the type of kid who ran 100 miles all the time. There was never a ‘slow’ for him. It was like there wasn’t enough that he couldn’t do,” former AHS athletic trainer coach Luis Brambila said.

During his senior year, Couch was the first athlete at AHS to receive the Blue and Gold Award. DeSantis and Torres initialized this award to recognize Couch for having outstanding character and for his accomplishments during football season. After his passing, the two renamed it the Carey Couch Award and it is still awarded every year to acknowledge a varsity football player with the most spirit and positive influence on the team.

“When [Couch] wasn’t there, you noticed difference. Because of his enthusiasm, many kids [were] inspired to be just like him,” Brambila said.

During Couch’s halftime honoring, his parents, brother and former teammates gathered to celebrate the impact Couch made during his high school career. Retiring his jersey epitomizes how much Couch’s passion moved his coaches, peers and the whole school.

“[Couch] was a good student, [a] good athlete and an outstanding young man,” Coach DeSantis said.