Remembering Zachary Young
Somber silence sits on the crowded church like a blanket as Robert Young collects himself on the podium. He continues his emotional eulogy, making people laugh and cry as he recalls stories from when his son was alive.
Zachary Young passed away on Sept. 9 at the age of 16. His memorial was held on Oct. 8 at St. Julie’s Billiart church, where friends and family gathered to share their memories of him. The heartfelt service began with his father describing his life with Zach, and how he should never be forgotten.
“There will never be another Zach, he was one of a kind and can never be replaced. We as parents loved every inch of him including his butt crack,” said Young.
Almost all who knew Zach describe him as a positive person, trying to spread happiness and laughter everywhere he went. Many people at his memorial expressed the warm friendliness Zach showered everyone with.
“It felt like every time you walked in you’d see a smile on his face and you’d get a smile on your face. It was just very positive, it was always happy. He’d always be cracking jokes, like he’d always try to make you feel comfortable,” neighbor and longtime friend Joshua Covington said.
Baylee Hubert, junior, knew Zach since middle school, and felt the same warmth Covington described.
“[He] just made everyone laugh and was always there for me, always love, we never fought. It was just constant love. He was like my brother, like my family,” Hubert said.
The 16-year-old was known for playing football and wrestling. His mother, Stephanie Young, said her favorite moments with Zach were watching him play sports.
“He just loved playing sports. That was his passion and he gave it 100%,” she said.
Playing left tackle in football, his team went undefeated their freshman year, and were league champions in his sophomore year. Still, after growing up playing football, he decided to begin wrestling on the off season of football, putting in hard work and effort, and moving up to varsity in his first year. Zach even made it to the end of season competition, CIF, representing the district against thousands of other high schools in the state.
“He put his fears aside and took on the challenge knowing it was going to be tough. It was another proud moment,” his father said about his development in wrestling.
Among the athlete’s other pastimes was his love of surfing. At the memorial, there was a surfboard signed by all of his friends to commemorate this passion. He loved anything to do with the beach, and shared this bond with his father and grandfather. His family was about to go on a surf trip up the coast when everything changed, and would never be the same.
It was the demon that Zach had continuously struggled with in his short life. His addiction to drugs first became noticeable in middle school, when he began doing marijuana. Zach’s father said it was his worst nightmare, but he tried to help and be vocal about it, never hiding anything from his son, or those around him.
There seemed to be recurring cycles; Zach doing drugs, becoming clean, then falling back into his deadly habits. In Oct. of 2015, Zack had ventured into the drug that took his life, heroin. Asking for help from the sheriff, Zach’s father learned that heroin use was on the rise, with very few survivors, and that the family should seek help and fight against it. Immediately, they enrolled Zach in therapy, but after five months of staying clean, he relapsed and overdosed, ending up in the ICU.
“I asked him one day in rehab, ‘Zach, I can’t wrap my head around this addiction you have with heroin. Why would you take it knowing it could easily kill you at any time?’ He said, ‘Dad, you’ll never understand. It’s something I think about every single minute every day. Unless you do it you’ll never understand, that’s all I can tell you.’”
“I began to realize this horrible addiction could take my son’s life. . . his mother and I did the only things we could do, and that was to keep him busy with sports, transfer him to a different high school in attempt to distance him from his temptations, and put him in outpatient rehab,” Young said.
Zach never fought going to therapy, and had actively taken on the challenge of ending his addiction. But despite all the hard work he and his family put in, it soon got the better of him, and altered their lives forever.
Like his outspokenness during Zach’s life, his father continues to stress the importance of getting help, and that Zach’s death could be a wakeup call for those who are addicted.
“Life is about decisions. Please remember Zach on this day and what he has meant. Use him as strength to make better choices in your life. If one person could be saved from Zach’s death, then that means he didn’t die in vain,” Young said.
While drugs led to the end of Zach’s life, they should not define it. The many people who crossed their paths with Zach treasured his warm and kind spirit. Mitchell Vansant, junior, who met Zach through football and had become close this past summer, echoed this sentiment.
“I don’t want people to look at him and just think that he was a bad kid because he made a bad choice. Everyone makes bad choices, some people just get caught up in the wrong place. Just know that he was a good kid,” Vansant said.
Zach accepted everyone as they were, and those who are close to him want everyone to do the same for him. They mourn his loss, but are happy they got to know him, and refuse to let go of his memory.
“I don’t want people to remember that. . . ‘Oh, he overdosed on drugs.’ I just want people to remember who he was and remember the good and the smile and the way he always laughed.,” Hubert said.
Visit his website, zacharyyoung.net, to learn more about Zach, read stories shared by those who knew him best, and keep his memory alive.
