Marshall mourns the loss of sophomore Luke McGuire, who passed away on Sept. 11 after a three-year battle with Ewing Sarcoma, a malignant form of bone and tissue cancer.
The Marshall Mob remembered Luke at the Sept. 20 football game against Freedom High School by wearing gold. School boulders outside of Madison High School and Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic School were also spray-painted gold in his honor.
McGuire transferred to Marshall from Paul VI in the second semester of last year in order to be closer to the friends he had grown up with.
Despite not being able to participate in sports and extracurricular activities because of frequent chemotherapy treatments, Luke maintained a strong presence in the school community.
“Even people who didn’t know him that well would say … ‘I heard he’s a really funny kid and I want to get to know him better,’” sophomore David Tecala said.
His mother, Trish McGuire, remembers him as “very kind, very brave and very strong.”
“When people came into his room, no matter how sick he was, he would brighten up and say he was fine,” she said. “That was during surgeries, that was during his treatment at the hospital, that was even at the end when he was really sick.”
Before he became ill, Luke enjoyed playing lacrosse and basketball and could often be spotted riding a Segway scooter.
“[He was] very athletic,” Trish McGuire said.
He was granted a wish from the Make-A-Wish foundation and chose to design a shoe for Nike, but passed away before his wish could be fulfilled.
Luke is survived by his parents Trish and Dan and his two older brothers, Jack and Mick.