SAN ANTONIO – Under dreary skies, students arrived for classes at Winston Churchill High Friday morning, carrying not just a heavy load in their backpacks, but a weight on their minds.
News that 2011 Churchill graduate and football player Will Patterson has died hit many hard.
McLennan County sheriff's deputies found a burning car, registered to Patterson, in a rural area outside Waco Thursday.
TV stations in that city reported that, in the back seat of that vehicle, was a body burnt beyond recognition. They later said they had confirmed through family members and friends that it was Patterson, now a freshman at Baylor University, in the car.
On Friday, the Northeast Independent School District had grief counselors on hand at Churchill High for any students that needed help dealing with grief.
"A lot of people crying. A lot of people are really upset about it, " said Kyleigh Allie, a Churchill freshman.
Allie said she did not know Patterson, personally, but has a lot of friends who went to school with him.
She heard the news by way of social networking, friends posting messages on Facebook and Twitter.
"They said that they wish they didn't take him, that he was a great guy. He always made people laugh and he impacted many people's lives," Allie said.
Grantham Huguley has known Patterson since Elementary school and played with him on Churchill's football team.
"He was just a great guy. He was a great teammate," Huguley said. "He's always nice, a funny guy, fun to be around."
Huguley said some of his teammates seem devastated by the reported loss. Like him, they're curious to know exactly what happened.
McLennan sheriff's officials, as of Friday morning, had not released information on how the car ignited. They did not immediately return calls for information.
Staff with the medical examiner's office in Waco said Thursday that they were waiting for dental records to confirm the identity of the person in the vehicle tomorrow.