A year of tragedy has tested East Central Indiana like never before

As a sportswriter, my job is to find the words that adequately capture some of the biggest moments in the lives and careers of young athletes.

And yet — time and time again this year — I have found myself unable to come up with any. There simply aren't enough words to express the sadness felt by so many throughout East Central Indiana in this year where tragedies seem to keep piling up, one after the other.

In May, Ball State football player Gavin Yates-Lyons — a talented defensive back prospect who had enrolled early at Ball State and looked primed to make a quick impact — returned home to walk across the stage at his high school graduation. At a party later that night, Yates-Lyons was caught in the crossfire of a shooting and passed away days later. He was 18 years old.

In July, Hannah Rapp — a former Yorktown soccer and track star who went on to become a rising star in the world of women's boxing — was killed while cycling in Texas with her soon-to-be-fiancé when a man slammed on his brakes and reversed his car into her. She was 26 years old.

Then came August, and with it, historic floods throughout the area that brought catastrophic damage and took so much from so many people. Seven people died throughout the state as a result of the floods, and among them was former Delta football player Matthew Morey. He was 19 years old.

A month after the floods, Monroe Central student-athlete Charli Siekmann was airlifted to a hospital in Indianapolis after a car accident on the way to school. After a week in intensive care, she passed away at 16 years old.

And then came Monday morning. I got home from the weekly Ball State football press conference and sat down to being posting the videos of it when I got a text that shook me to my core.

Chris Wilson was gone. The Yorktown senior defensive end had been found dead Monday morning from multiple gunshot wounds. He was 17 years old.

Wilson had such a bright future. He was a 4-star recruit — believed to be the highest-rated football recruit in Delaware County history — and had committed to play college football at West Virginia. He was set to graduate early from Yorktown and enroll early at WVU before the end of 2026.

Now, another family is planning a child's funeral, and another community is grieving a young life cut far too short.

I got to know Wilson a little over the last year through watching him play and the occasional postgame interview. At 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, he was tough to miss on the field, and his physical talent became obvious once the ball was snapped.

But what always struck me about Wilson in our interactions was how quiet he was for someone of his status. He was a very humble, soft-spoken player, and what little he did have to say was never about him but about his teammates.

After Yorktown's win over Muncie Central earlier this season, I bumped into Derrick Price, Wilson's stepfather, as I was leaving the game. I mentioned that I wanted to do a story profiling Wilson as the best football recruit to ever come out of this area, but Price chuckled and told me I might have a tough time with that because Wilson didn't care for the spotlight or talking about himself. He just wanted to give everything he had to his team.

I wasn't surprised to hear that at all — that's just who Chris Wilson was.

When I heard the news of Wilson's death, I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I asked myself, "How could this be happening again? How much tragedy can one area handle?Why do these awful things keep happening here?How many of these stories can I possibly write?"

It almost feels selfish to ask questions like that. None of these things are happening to me. They are happening to five young people and their families. Even as my heart breaks for each of those five families left mourning, my heartbreak is nothing compared to what they must be feeling.

But even if I don't know these athletes on the same level as a parent, a sibling, or a teammate, I have come to care deeply about each and every one of them. To lose so many in such a short span, and to watch other kids I care about being forced to grieve, is gut-wrenching on a level I can hardly wrap my head around anymore.

I don't know if I'll ever find answers to those questions I asked myself, but what I do know is this — the way that I've seen people come together in the face of these devastating events has been healing for me to witness.

Over 40 members of the Ball State football team traveled to Florida to attend the funeral services for Gavin Yates-Lyons, and the team has retired his No. 22 for the next four years.

Candlelight vigils for Hannah Rapp were held in her hometown of Yorktown, her college town of West Lafayette, and her second home of College Station, Texas.

When high school football season kicked off, team captains from both Delta and Muncie Central carried Matthew Morey's Delta jerseys to midfield before the coin toss.

And while Charli Siekmann was fighting for her life in the hospital, her Monroe Central girls golf teammates played in a sectional in her honor, then kept on playing in the regional round after Siekmann's death.

Since Wilson's death, the outpouring of support and tributes from local communities to the national stage has been overwhelming. The tragedy itself is still fresh, but I feel confident that we will see the Yorktown football team and community honor Wilson by leaning on one another, supporting his family, and playing for him.

Because when words fail, what else can you do?

Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@usatodayco.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: A year of tragedy has tested East Central Indiana like never before | Hampton