When I first heard about Rusty Mack being beaten up by three
people a couple weeks ago, it reminded me of how long it had been since I had
last seen him. I think it was probably in his senior year wrestling for Colonial
Heights. As a sports reporter and with a son on the same team, I came into
contact with him relatively often.
As many people have stated, and perhaps no one better than
his former wrestling Coach Tommy Coon, Rusty was not the sort of wrestler you remember
as being particularly talented or particularly bad at the sport. He worked
hard, did what he was told to do by the coaches, and had moderate success.
But his work ethic and his willingness to continue despite
the setbacks set him apart from many other wrestlers who filtered through the
program in and out in a week or month, because they didn’t like the idea of
having to wear a singlet or were afraid that a female wrestler on another team
might beat them. Wrestling is hard stuff, even for those blessed with talent
and skills and the drive to pursue a sport that doesn’t rise very high on the
charts of most fans. It’s not like football or basketball or baseball where one
is hailed for their part in a team effort.
Wrestling is extremely personal. On the mat you are alone
with an opponent and a referee. Everyone in the gym, or so it seems, is
watching you. No matter what happens that lurks in the back of your mind for an
instant before you are thrust into a match and have to grapple to try to eke
out a win. And for many eke is exactly what it amounts to. For Rusty eking had
become a way of life on the mats. But outside of the mat, he seemed a gentle
soul ready to help out wherever he was needed.
So it seems incomprehensible to me that anyone would have
taken issue with this young man or for that matter any person to such an extent
that it seemed the right thing to beat him to death. In the courts, when this
sad episode works its way through the system, we will likely hear about all
kinds of personal situations that involve some of those involved. I am sure any
defense attorney would try to make this into some kind of extended domestic
crime, or a crime of passion. But when you are grasping at straws you have to
take the straws that are available.
Regardless of the situation that sparked this event, no one
deserves to be treated in the manner that Rusty was. A fist fight, a black eye,
maybe even a broken nose to carry with you into posterity, but to go to the
extent of actually beating someone to death is beyond belief. It’s one of those
“that didn’t really happen here” moments in your life. And then you’re hit with
the shocking reality that it did happen and that you know the kid on a personal
level.
As a parent, I can’t imagine what his family is going through.
From experience, I know that regardless of how the case works out, there is no
relief for them. Time only puts distance between the pain and the reality. It
never goes away, never really subsides, and at times will be hard to set aside.
There is no closure as some might say, and even the conviction of everyone who
inflicted the beating won’t give his family any piece of mind.
Still there is some resolution in convicting the
perpetrators. The community and the court system will garner justice, and for
anyone with a like mind the result may serve as a reason to think of some
alternative. But in the end everyone loses in a case like this. The guilty
parties will get whatever they deserve from the court system, and unless I am
mistaken about this community it will and ought to be quite harsh a punishment.
But for the rest of the community, and especially for his family, the loss is
beyond words.
Monday night, my wife and I went to pay our last respects to
him and his family. It reminded me of how people move through your lives at
different periods. People who are friends get lost in the hubbub of getting
through the next day and the next week, and before you know it years have
passed. What happened to Rusty should never happen to anyone. It’s inhuman to
think there are people in this city who could conduct such a vicious and
hateful act.
Rest in peace, Rusty.
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