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Thomas Jakelich was laid to rest in his Loyola blazer. That says a lot about the impact Loyola School had on the 16-year-old sophomore soccer player who died Oct. 26 after a seemingly routine collision while trying to score a goal for his new school. It is also indicative of the influence he had on the prestigious Park Avenue Jesuit institution, though he had been there only a few weeks.
“He was a terrific young man, who was with us but eight weeks,” said Tony Oroszlany, the school president, of the well-liked student-athlete. “The family decided he would be buried in his Loyola blazer because he loved the place so much. But he had a similar impact on all who surrounded him. He really impacted our student body. Usually when a relationship grows that quickly, it’s not a one-way street.”
More than 1,000 people, including almost every Loyola student and teacher, friends, family and members of the Jesuit community, attended the Funeral Mass Nov. 2 in St. Ignatius Loyola Church, which shares one wall with the school on Park Avenue. Father Michael Sehler, S.J., who teaches theology and foreign languages at Loyola, was the main celebrant at the Mass, which included 10 concelebrants.
Jakelich died late Monday evening Oct. 26 of internal bleeding in the Harlem Hospital Center after being injured in a game against the United Nations International School on a play that no one on the scene described as out of the ordinary.
The death left the Loyola community in a state of shock and grief.
“On Tuesday in the morning, we gathered together as a community sharing our thoughts and offering a significant amount of counseling for our students,” Oroszlany explained. “At the end of the day, we came together in song and prayer, and then during the course of the week, we continued to offer counseling to our students, and at the same time, we gathered our parent community together on Thursday evening to explain to them what happened and how we were responding.”
Oroszlany said prayer and counseling would continue to be offered in the upcoming days as the mourning process continued. He said Loyola principal, Dr. Kristin Ross, himself, a team of guidance counselors, the school psychologist, the dean of students and the director of campus ministry would all be available and reaching out to the grieving students. He stressed prayer would be a vital component of the mourning process.
“I’m extremely proud of our student body. How much they’ve been there for each other,” Oroszlany said. “I’ve witnessed every teacher checking in on students, and I’ve witnessed students checking in on teachers to see how they’re doing. A group that we’re particularly worried about, of course, is our soccer team. They were there when the injury happened.
“At the same time we were talking about mourning the loss of Thomas while also celebrating his life,” he added.
He conceded, “It is very hard to celebrate life at this point because the mourning is extremely raw.”
Jakelich is survived by his mother, Jeanine Sieja; his father, Thomas Jakelich; his grandparents, Rick and Julie Bagshaw; his brother, Robert Newman; his sister, Jessica Newman; and his stepfather, Rick Newman.
