BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – There will be an emotional scene on Friday night when the Bishop Timon-St. Jude football team hosts Akron in week two of high school football. It’s the first home football game for the team since the death of Paul Humphrey.
Humphrey, 17, was shot and killed in Buffalo’s Schiller Park neighborhood at Briscoe Avenue near Walden Avenue on July 13. He was supposed to be in his junior year with the Tigers.
Buffalo Police have not announced any arrests in connection to Humphrey’s death.
Two days after he died, his friends and school community remembered him with an emotional ceremony in front of the high school. Two months later, the pain is still there for those who knew him best.
“He was a good guy to me,” Brandon Laury, a senior on the team who was close with Humphrey, said. “He loved the team. We had ups and downs but Paul always found a way to make pride, good, and joy in it.”
Joe Licata, the head coach of the football team who is also the school’s athletic director, has preached to his players to play with emotion but to not play emotional. His players didn’t follow that advice for the first game, a loss.
“For the first death to be from someone their own age is life altering,” Licata said. “It’s a powerful, powerful thing. They’ve handled it well. Some have handled it in different ways than others but I think just by relying on each other and sticking by each other, everyone’s been great.”
Each week, a player will get to don Humphrey’s old jersey number. Laury gets the honors this week.
“It’s really an honor,” Laury, one of the team’s wide receivers, said. “Paul’s mom and Paul’s family knew how I felt about Paul. We were close. Before games, we would go to my house, each sandwiches, and play the game before we have the real game. Afterwards we’d hang out too for a little bit.”
He hopes that his classmate will be remembered as a loving guy who was funny, with a unique smile.
“We mourn him” Laury said. “It’s been tough but we’ve got to find the joy of it. We’ve got to get through it because life goes on with or without him. We’ve got to find pride. But we’ll never let him die. His legacy will live on.”