‘Our love for Bryce is endless’: Family, friends, coaches remember Bryce Gowdy
They made their way to the stage Saturday at Deerfield Beach High School’s auditorium, one by one, and spoke of what Bryce Jaden-Lee Zane Gowdy meant to them.
He was a football player, an honor roll student, a friend, a big brother, a son. He went by the nickname “Simba,” and like his Lion King namesake became a leader as he grew up. He knew he was talented but wasn’t overly cocky.
Everyone had stories to tell.
There were the football coaches, two who watched him develop into the epitome of a student-athlete over the past four years and two who were going to help him further that title at Georgia Tech.
There was the teacher, the one Gowdy latched onto from his first days of high school in 2016 and whose classroom he still visited three years later.
There were his honorary mothers, who reflected on the “light, laughter and love” that he brought to any and all situations.
And there were the friends — teammates, classmates, neighbors, some of whom still referred to him in the present tense.
But the reality of the moment sank in when Christopher Townsel, a teammate who reflected on sharing cleats and $5 pizzas with Gowdy, looked down from the podium and stared at the marble white casket.
“I can’t believe that’s him,” Townsel said. “Out of all the people, why?”
It’s a question many are still asking since Gowdy took his own life on Dec. 30. He was 17.
His mom, Shibbon Winnelle, had explained the mental-health issues Gowdy was enduring over the past few months, problems that were exacerbated by the family’s unstable housing situation.
But Gowdy did his best to mask those problems to those close to him and keep the upbeat persona for which he was known.
“As we grieve, we have received support beyond our belief,” Gowdy’s mom said in a statement released by the family. “We always knew Bryce was loved and adored by many, but this level of support has been a true testament to his legacy. Our love for Bryce is endless.”
That love was reflected at Saturday’s memorial service. So many people came to the high school that a portion of the crowd had to funnel into the school’s gymnasium, where a big screen was set up for the overflow of mourners to watch the service.
It overall served as another opportunity for family and friends to gain closure on an unexpected tragedy.
A long procession made its way to the open casket at the foot of the stage. The Deerfield Beach football team, led by Townsel, recited the Lord’s Prayer. Winnelle played Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D on a double bass with a string ensemble.
And then, a cross-section of faces and people that were close to Gowdy’s life took their turn to describe Gowdy.
Like Jevon Glenn, his head coach for four years at Deerfield Beach. Glenn attempted to pre-write his speech about what Gowdy meant to him over the past few days, but he couldn’t.
So he spoke from the heart, a heart Glenn said “doesn’t know what to do right now.”
“I’m having palpitations of pain, palpitations of love, it’s all over the place,” Glenn said. “But I’m proud to have known him, to have mentored him.”
That extended beyond the football field. One of Glenn’s favorite moments with Gowdy came just a few weeks ago when he was recognized as one of the top students in the area by the Rotary Club of Pompano Beach.
At the ceremony, students spoke in front of the room. Glenn made a point early to ensure that Gowdy, who as Glenn said “looked like he had the lowest GPA in the room,” would go last.
When everything was over, Glenn knew Gowdy was “going to tear this down.”
“They were good,” Glenn said about the other students, “but they weren’t Bryce.”
One of the topics Gowdy’s speech focused on was homelessness among black youth.
As each student spoke, the rest of the room was jotting down notes and questions to ask after each speech concluded.
No pens moved when Gowdy talked, Glenn said.
“That’s the Bryce that I know,” Glenn said. “No one will ever be able to take that from me.”
Like Geoff Collins and Kerry Dixon, the head coach and wide receivers coach at Georgia Tech who were going to keep mentoring him both on and off the field.
Collins shared the story of the day Gowdy committed to Georgia Tech. The entire coaching staff was in their meeting room when Gowdy reached out on FaceTime to announce his decision. Collins was elated. The rest of the staff was elated as they got their turn to talk with their soon-to-be star wide receiver, a four-star prospect and the No. 54 ranked receiver in the country for this recruiting cycle.
“You just see that Simba smile that you all know and love,” Collins said. “I’m sitting there and thinking ‘That’s going to be my guy for the rest of my life.’”
Collins said Friday in a meeting with reporters in Atlanta that he and his coaching staff “knew a lot of what was going on” with Gowdy, but a school spokesman also told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Georgia Tech had not received any diagnosis of mental-health issues.
While up on stage, he looked Winnelle straight in the eye.
“I loved your son,” Collins said. “I’m blessed to have known him. The fact that he chose to play football for us at Georgia Tech, I’m honored that he wanted to be part of our family.”
Dixon remembered getting videos from Gowdy on a weekly basis, looking for ways to get better as a player, and remembered Gowdy researching out how Georgia Tech could help his family while he was at school.
“All he wanted to do was help,” Dixon said.
Like Jon Marlow, Deerfield Beach High’s principal, who referred to Gowdy as “a young man I personally looked at as my own son.”
And like Tonyshia Fletcher, one of Gowdy’s teachers as a freshman, in whom he confided during his four years.
“He became my shadow,” Fletcher said. “I would see Bryce every morning, every lunch and every day after school. It got to the point where he would knock on my door after school and other students would say ‘I think that’s your kid.’”
And while the mourning continues, the focus from his loved ones also shifts to keeping his memory alive. Both Deerfield Beach High and Georgia Tech will be planning ways to honor Gowdy during their next football seasons.
“We all grieve at our own pace,” Glenn said. “Take your time. But once you’re done, join the fight.”
A GoFundMe page created to help Gowdy’s family has already received more than $123,000 in donations as of Saturday.
Leftover money after paying for funeral costs will be used to provide Gowdy’s mom and brothers with “stable, long-term housing, something that they have been lacking for nearly 6 months,” according to the GoFundMe page.
“Through many donations and contributions of services from those I trust, I have faith that not only are those around me here in my best interest, but furthermore, to protect the integrity and hardworking regimen that Bryce himself carried in academics and sports,” Winnelle said in the statement. “Bryce was an exceptional student athlete, and I am blessed to have mindful people supporting me for things that I may not be able to process in pain of missing my son.”
There’s help available for those in need. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline phone number is 1-800-273-8255.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 5:05 PM.
.JPG)