His dad died saving a relative’s life. Now, SLO County teen turns to football for comfort
Everyone would have understood if Adrian Sanchez quit high school football this year.
Just a few months ago, the Arroyo Grande High School sophomore lost his father in a tragic drowning accident at Lopez Lake that devastated his family and left them searching for solace.
But coaches and teammates encouraged the younger Sanchez — who plays running back, kick returner and cornerback — to stick with the sport he loves and use it as a source of healing.
The team attended the funeral in October, with players and coaches lined up two rows deep, after David G. Sanchez died when he jumped into the water to save his struggling brother-in-law.
Since then, the gridiron has served as an outlet and escape for the 16-year-old as he copes with the aftermath of a tragedy that changed his family’s life forever.
“It was getting really rough, thinking about everything that was going on outside (of football),” Adrian said. “Plus, it was hard to catch up (with the new season). But my coaches really came for me, to help me, and it showed me how much this sport really means to me and how much my team really does care.”
His coach, Mike Hartman, echoed those thoughts.
“We often talk about football being a family. That’s easy to say when it’s all sunshine and rainbows,” Hartman told The Tribune. “I’m so proud of the kids for supporting Adrian and his family at a time of tragedy. He has great friends on the team. As time goes by, his family and he will reflect on the bonds he’s formed and the lifelong friendships he’ll have.”
Arroyo Grande man died trying to save relative
Adrian’s mother, Melissa Sanchez, remembers Oct. 18 started out as a pleasant fall afternoon among family members who gathered to chat and laugh, eat sandwiches and have fun tubing at the lake.
David G. Sanchez, 39, drove the boat, taking five family members on the water as relatives took turns riding on the large inflatable tube towed by the vessel.
Nothing was unusual until his sister’s husband, Lolesio Tonga of Tulare, fell off the tube and into the water in the middle of the lake.
“It was a really good day until all that happened,” Melissa Sanchez said. “If something could go wrong that day, it went wrong.”
Tonga was wearing a life jacket but quickly showed signs of distress, splashing and yelling in the water.
Adrian was the first to jump in first to help “LT,” as they call his uncle, but without a life preserver himself. Realizing his son and brother-in-law were in trouble, David then dove in as well, wearing a life jacket.
“Things started getting worse, and that’s when my husband jumped in,” Melissa Sanchez said. “... (Tonga) took off his life jacket because he thought it was choking him. That’s when my husband took his (life preserver off) and gave it to him. (Tonga’s) legs had cramped up and he couldn’t swim. My husband put his jacket on him so he could stay afloat.”
With nothing to hold on to as the boat drifted away in the wind, David and Adrian, suddenly without life jackets or anything to hold on to, were forced to stay afloat on their own for several minutes.
Adrian recalls the entire sequence as “scary” and “shocking.”
As the boat carried away toward shore with David and Melissa’s niece still clinging to the tube attached by a tow line, Adrian’s 19-year-old sister Liz, still on board with David’s sister, tried unsuccessfully to start the engine.
Melissa said they later learned a fuel line somehow had broken.
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Wife watches tragedy unfold from the shore
Melissa said she watched from the shore, seeing her son, husband and brother-in-law fight to stay above water.
“I could hear LT yelling and screaming,” Melissa said. “Once I saw my husband jump in, I knew something was wrong because I knew he wouldn’t leave the boat alone with no one to drive it. ... I saw the boat floating away toward the rocks. I ran to it because I knew I could get back on and get it started and go help.”
Melissa said the boat drifted off to the edge of the lake about 300 yards away from her family members. But it was a long distance from where she observed the scene and it took several minutes to reach it, she recalled.
“I was just running and got on (the boat), and tried to start it, but couldn’t start it,” Melissa said.
As David and Adrian treaded water, another boat on the lake arrived to help. They threw Adrian a life jacket, but the wind blew it off course, forcing Adrian to swim after it.
“Nobody was talking,” Adrian recalled after the other boat arrived. “It was more quiet because everyone was trying to stay afloat. They swung around, because LT was already splashing, and they got LT. They threw a life jacket to me and I left Dad to get the life jacket, but when I came back, he was gone.”
Melissa estimates they were in the water for at least 15 to 20 minutes before the other boat arrived to help.
“By the time the (Good Samaritan) boat got there, I showed up a bit later because I had to go all the way around the lake,” Melissa said. “I didn’t know what was going on with the boat. It wouldn’t start. I ran back and saw his dad was no longer with him.”
Sheriff’s Office officials reported a “possible drowning” had taken place at 3:40 p.m. Two days later, on Oct. 20, sheriff’s divers found Sanchez’s body in 47 feet of water, they announced in a news release.
Melissa said her husband wouldn’t have wanted it any other way than to try to help: “He couldn’t have lived with himself if he hadn’t.”
Family copes with the loss
David Sanchez, a former California Men’s Colony correctional officer, had retired early due to job-related injuries he suffered to his neck, shoulders and back, Melissa said.
The injuries may have contributed to his difficulty staying afloat, his family believes.
“It caught us by surprise because he would teach the kids how to float if they were ever struggling,” Melissa said. “We think it was because of his injuries that maybe he just couldn’t move his arms.”
Melissa said David was not drinking alcohol, which was a major family safety rule while boating.
Melissa has four additional children besides Adrian, the middle child. Three live at home, and 19-year-old daughter Liz lives on her own.
The mother said the tragedy has left a hole in their hearts.
“When I would walk in from work, (David) would be sitting on the couch,” said Melissa, who works as a legal assistant. “When you come home, you expect someone to be there and when they’re no longer there, it’s just hard. It’s just hard getting use to not having him.”
But she added it has brought her closer to her children and sister, Vivian Rivera, who came from Tulare to help out and live with their family in Arroyo Grande. They go on trips to places like Shaver Lake or plan family outings to try to get their mind off things.
“As close as we are, we have each other to lean on,” Melissa Sanchez said. “When I’m having a bad day, they’re here for me. When they’re having bad days, we’re all here for whichever one of us is down.”
David was a big fan of his children’s athletics (Liz also used to play football), as well as being their protector and a strong family presence, Melissa said.
“He could be very serious depending on the situation,” Melissa Sanchez said. “He was sunny, though. He liked to repeat lines from movies. He’d have us cracking up.”
Adrian remembers his dad for taking them on family trips; watching their favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers, on TV; and going on spontaneous drives.
“Mostly, we’d just do stuff around here,” Adrian Sanchez said. “He’d randomly say, ‘Let’s go on a drive.’ Then we’d get in the car and just go for a drive.”
Rediscovering football
Adrian Sanchez played youth football and then had a gap without playing for five years before joining the Arroyo Grande freshman team last school year, saying “getting back to it was nice.”
“After that, I felt the drive again,” Adrian said. “I was like, ‘Yeah.’”
Coaches bumped Adrian up to varsity this spring, after junior varsity was canceled due to COVID-19 disruptions.
Hartman, the coach, said that this school year has been challenging due to classes being held on Zoom and students facing social isolation studying from home.
“I’ve been through a couple of (deaths in the family) as a coach in my career, and one of the main things is to give a kid a sense of normalcy,” Hartman said. “Football gives Adrian something else to think about for two hours a day when his mind just focuses on what he needs to be doing at that moment and not reflecting on anything else.”
Hartman said he talked with Adrian and told him: “I know you’re going to have good days and bad days. Don’t let a bad day lead you to a decision that affects the rest of your life.”
The coach said the big picture of his role is to teach student-athletes life lessons that will stick through adulthood.
“The true test is 10 to 15 years later when they come back and you know they’ve accomplished some great things and taken some of those lessons and applied them to their life,” Hartman said. “That’s our goal.”
Hartman said for Adrian, “it’s about being our here and having fun with his friends” and learning to deal with adversity that a young person his age “shouldn’t have to deal with,” adding the team and coaches are there to help support him.
Adrian is in the rotation as a cornerback on defense and also returns kickoffs. He has seen limited play as a running back, getting four carries so far on the season.
His father was a high school football player himself in his home town of Tulare, and an avid fan of the sport in general.
Adrian still remembers his dad’s words as they’d watch NFL games, telling him to watch how running backs would wait for openings from blockers and then accelerate forward with rapid bursts of speed: “See the hole and go fast” and “hit it with speed,” David would often say.
Adrian has three more games this shortened season and then two more years of high school football.
“Next year, we should be pretty good because we’ll get our team back,” Adrian said, noting some players chose to play other sports this spring. “This year, we have a smaller roster. ... I would like to play football in college. That would be cool.”
Melissa added the games have been a huge joy to Adrian and to her as an outlet for everything they’ve gone through.
“He loves being out there,” she said. “He loves the camaraderie. I like it because it keeps him out of trouble. We get to cheer him on and his friends too. I lost my voice last week. It’s really fun.“
A GoFundMe page for the Sanchez family is available at bit.ly/3wBn90i.
This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
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