Parents of Steilacoom ballplayer hope to raise mental health awareness after son’s death
The morning of Reese Widman’s death, he sent his parents a text message. Corey and Kelly rushed to him as fast as they could, but when they arrived at his car, he was already gone.
Widman, a student and standout baseball player at Steilacoom High School, died by suicide on Saturday, Jan. 7.
“We are literally living our worst nightmare,” Corey Widman told The News Tribune on Tuesday morning.
Now, they’re making it their mission to raise mental health awareness and prevent other families from living the same nightmare.
“We never would have known,” said Widman, who is the head baseball coach at Steilacoom High School. “He was the happiest kid. I can’t say enough good things about my son. We just want to raise awareness. We just want others to know it’s OK to not be OK. You don’t have to put on a smile and carry your hurt inside.”
Widman, a 17-year-old Steilacoom student, died in a car crash around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday on DuPont-Steilacoom Road, about two-thirds of a mile north of the intersection with East Drive. Military Police and Fire Emergency Services from Joint-Base Lewis McChord first responded to the scene, a spokesperson from JBLM confirmed.
Widman will remember his son’s warm smile and infectious personality.
“When he would smile, it literally warmed your heart,” he said.
He loved baseball more than anything else. When he was on the pitcher’s mound, Widman was in his element.
“He loved the spotlight of the pitcher’s mound,” his father said.
Widman was selected to The News Tribune’s 2022 All-Area baseball team in his junior season and was a first-team all-league selection in the Class 2A South Puget Sound League as an infielder. He hit .696 with runners in scoring position for the Sentinels last spring and led the team in hits and RBI. He was voted the team’s most inspirational player.
He was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2020 and was put on medication that had side effects, including depression. He never told his teammates about his diagnosis, Widman said.
“He didn’t want them to think he was different or weak,” he said. “He didn’t want their sympathy. He just wanted to be one of them.”
Corey and Kelly knew their son dealt with depression, but they didn’t know the depths it had reached.
“It is a burden and guilt that I am going to carry for the rest of my life, that I wasn’t able to help him,” Widman said. “I just feel like as a dad, I should have seen more signs. I didn’t know. He was just so happy all the time. We played video games, would goof off, go play catch. I never knew. I just thought it was just regular teenage ups and downs.”
Before his death, Widman left messages for his parents and his teammates, imploring them to seek the help he couldn’t bring himself to ask for.
“He left behind some instructions for me and Kelly,” Widman said. “He points out that he’s been struggling with this. He’s begging us and his friends to get help when they need it, to do what he couldn’t do.
“We’re going to try to touch as many lives as we possibly can. We’re going to do this for him. I’ve got a whole community of his baseball brothers. I don’t want this to happen to another family. If mine and Kelly’s pain can help somebody else, then I guess that was why we were put here.”
A GoFundMe has been organized to assist with funeral expenses and to help the family. A prayer vigil was held at the Steilacoom baseball field on Sunday. A meal train has also been organized for the family. It has already been booked through the end of March with people signing up to bring meals to the Widman family.
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 10:10 AM.
