Published on: Sep 10, 2015 @ 08:03
National Suicide Prevention week activities are taking place at Riverside County School District Middle & High schools this week. Ed Villarreal, the father of the MVHS football player Diego Villarreal who took his own life last month, is supporting the district’s National Suicide Prevention Week activities.
Kaylee Williams, a MVHS senior , is the 2015-2016 California SADD Student of the Year, organized the suicide prevention activities at MVHS.
Here’s what Mr.Villarreal had to say:
Diego’s life—Committed, polite, respectful good natured teenager you would ever meet. I couldn’t think of kinder soul that would put others needs before his own. Coach Zarate said a new player came to Murrieta Valley before the season started and Diego was the first to greet him and welcome him to the team. This is the kind of person he was.
He was a dedicated athlete that loved football, went to many training camps had personal trainers and would eat 6 meals a day to improve his play on the field. Diego, a devoted Christian was involved in his youth group at Gateway Church of the Nazarene here in Murrieta and last spring break went on a mission trip feeding the homeless in the Denver area.
He worked hard in the classroom; knowing he had to keep his GPA up for colleges to look at him.
He was doing well at 16 years of age He was 6’2 220 lbs and was stronger than an ox, but to Diego he wanted to be 6’4, 240 right now. He didn’t want to wait.
For him it was making a division 1 school or bust. Smaller colleges were already contacting him, but he seemed disinterested. We constantly talked about enjoying the journey and college is about getting an education and sports are secondary.
My wife and I told Diego experience and enjoy High School first. We talked to him all the time…Diego knew about every defensive end in the country at a Division 1 school. We believed we had the most committed individual athlete in the valley.
If you would have told me my son would commit suicide and my wife and would be holding on to him as he died in our arms, I would have told you that are from a different planet. The burden is tremendous…
His mom Bobbi is a preschool teacher at Hope Lutheran Church in Temecula. She has touched so many lives over the years that we had ongoing joke in our family. “Let’s see if we can go out to dinner or shopping and see if she will be stopped in her tracks by a parent or child she has touched”. She has been and is the best mom and wife a child or husband could ever ask for. She drops absolutely everything for her kids or a friend.
His sister Ava is now a freshman here at Murrieta Valley and was Diego’s consummate friend. They would try to make each other laugh and act goofy around each other. Ava was Diego’s biggest fan on the football field and Diego was her biggest fan on the volleyball court. He was so proud of her making it to Junior Nationals in New Orleans this last year. Sweetie Diego will always have your back and is your guardian angel!
Being a 23-year police veteran working a host of assignments…I have seen it all. Seen the worst in people, starred down the absolute evilest in humanity, but in retrospect, also seen the best man has to offer and seen the frailty and grace of life. Dealing with violent crime, suicide and ultimately death in my travels one thing has stuck out in at least my mind. When I talk to survivors their eyes are hollowed out as if their souls have been plucked out from them.
Now I see those same eyes when I look at myself. That is why I am speaking out to prevent this from happening to another child or family.
Here is my message to kids:
Please say something! Talk to your parents, friends, a pastor a teacher someone. Call me! My son was a chameleon at masking his emotions…he always said he was alright and things were well. Go to #playfordiego and see the love his family and friends have left Diego. Your actions will have a ripple effect beyond your scope of reality and imagination.
Message to parents:
Life is such a day to day event. One day you may win the lottery or get a job promotion, or in retrospect lose your job, get cancer, or lose a loved one. Cherish each day and tell the ones you love they are special. Memories are the best gifts you can give your family not material objects.
We had the perfect family…very wholesome, took plenty of vacations, saw Diego catch a salmon in Alaska, saw my daughter drive a boat on June Lake, to going cave tubing in Belize, and we even did a special father son trip to Houston to see Diego’s favorite football player J.J. Watt play last year.
My wife and I did everything right and talked about suicide to both our kids. Unlike many suicides my son showed none of the usual warning signs people may display. This is what is disturbing, you may be the best parents on earth, but fate may still find you. Before I said we had the perfect family. True, we are broken because of this, but we will persevere together through the thick and thin. As Christians we are all broken. I have learned to embrace the imperfect…'
This is where faith comes in. Without it my family and I would be lost. I know my son is with us and I see it in the continued support in our community, in Murrieta Valley HS, Principal Mooney, our church, our friends—too countless to name.
I constantly tell my wife if this is the cross we have to carry through the sand and snow to see our son again; we would do it for ourselves and others.
Photos by Charles McKee
National Suicide Prevention week activities are taking place at Riverside County School District Middle & High schools this week. Ed Villarreal, the father of the MVHS football player Diego Villarreal who took his own life last month, is supporting the district’s National Suicide Prevention Week activities.
Kaylee Williams, a MVHS senior , is the 2015-2016 California SADD Student of the Year, organized the suicide prevention activities at MVHS.
Here’s what Mr.Villarreal had to say:
Diego’s life—Committed, polite, respectful good natured teenager you would ever meet. I couldn’t think of kinder soul that would put others needs before his own. Coach Zarate said a new player came to Murrieta Valley before the season started and Diego was the first to greet him and welcome him to the team. This is the kind of person he was.
He was a dedicated athlete that loved football, went to many training camps had personal trainers and would eat 6 meals a day to improve his play on the field. Diego, a devoted Christian was involved in his youth group at Gateway Church of the Nazarene here in Murrieta and last spring break went on a mission trip feeding the homeless in the Denver area.
He worked hard in the classroom; knowing he had to keep his GPA up for colleges to look at him.
He was doing well at 16 years of age He was 6’2 220 lbs and was stronger than an ox, but to Diego he wanted to be 6’4, 240 right now. He didn’t want to wait.
For him it was making a division 1 school or bust. Smaller colleges were already contacting him, but he seemed disinterested. We constantly talked about enjoying the journey and college is about getting an education and sports are secondary.
My wife and I told Diego experience and enjoy High School first. We talked to him all the time…Diego knew about every defensive end in the country at a Division 1 school. We believed we had the most committed individual athlete in the valley.
If you would have told me my son would commit suicide and my wife and would be holding on to him as he died in our arms, I would have told you that are from a different planet. The burden is tremendous…
His mom Bobbi is a preschool teacher at Hope Lutheran Church in Temecula. She has touched so many lives over the years that we had ongoing joke in our family. “Let’s see if we can go out to dinner or shopping and see if she will be stopped in her tracks by a parent or child she has touched”. She has been and is the best mom and wife a child or husband could ever ask for. She drops absolutely everything for her kids or a friend.
His sister Ava is now a freshman here at Murrieta Valley and was Diego’s consummate friend. They would try to make each other laugh and act goofy around each other. Ava was Diego’s biggest fan on the football field and Diego was her biggest fan on the volleyball court. He was so proud of her making it to Junior Nationals in New Orleans this last year. Sweetie Diego will always have your back and is your guardian angel!Being a 23-year police veteran working a host of assignments…I have seen it all. Seen the worst in people, starred down the absolute evilest in humanity, but in retrospect, also seen the best man has to offer and seen the frailty and grace of life. Dealing with violent crime, suicide and ultimately death in my travels one thing has stuck out in at least my mind. When I talk to survivors their eyes are hollowed out as if their souls have been plucked out from them.
Now I see those same eyes when I look at myself. That is why I am speaking out to prevent this from happening to another child or family.
Here is my message to kids:
Please say something! Talk to your parents, friends, a pastor a teacher someone. Call me! My son was a chameleon at masking his emotions…he always said he was alright and things were well. Go to #playfordiego and see the love his family and friends have left Diego. Your actions will have a ripple effect beyond your scope of reality and imagination.
Message to parents:
Life is such a day to day event. One day you may win the lottery or get a job promotion, or in retrospect lose your job, get cancer, or lose a loved one. Cherish each day and tell the ones you love they are special. Memories are the best gifts you can give your family not material objects.
We had the perfect family…very wholesome, took plenty of vacations, saw Diego catch a salmon in Alaska, saw my daughter drive a boat on June Lake, to going cave tubing in Belize, and we even did a special father son trip to Houston to see Diego’s favorite football player J.J. Watt play last year.
My wife and I did everything right and talked about suicide to both our kids. Unlike many suicides my son showed none of the usual warning signs people may display. This is what is disturbing, you may be the best parents on earth, but fate may still find you. Before I said we had the perfect family. True, we are broken because of this, but we will persevere together through the thick and thin. As Christians we are all broken. I have learned to embrace the imperfect…'This is where faith comes in. Without it my family and I would be lost. I know my son is with us and I see it in the continued support in our community, in Murrieta Valley HS, Principal Mooney, our church, our friends—too countless to name.
I constantly tell my wife if this is the cross we have to carry through the sand and snow to see our son again; we would do it for ourselves and others.
Photos by Charles McKee
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