Many familiar with soccer insist it takes a different breed of cat to play goalkeeper, to dive into a sea of onrushing cleats and make a save or throw your body in front of a ball kicked at supersonic speed.
Tammy Gweedo and David Messick add that goalies’ personalities aren’t just different, they’re often bigger. That was true of their late sons, Tabb High goalie Conner Gweedo and Luke Messick, who tended the nets for Kecoughtan High, Randolph-Macon College and local semi-pro team Lionsbridge FC.
“Conner was the life of the party and lit up every room he walked into,” Tammy Gweedo said. “His entire aura was trying to make people laugh and making them happy.
“He had no problem flying through the goal to make acrobatic saves.”
David Messick said, “Luke was the ringleader. He was the guy who got everyone psyched, cheered, excited and moving.”
Their common bond beyond outsized personalities and a profound love of goalkeeping was that they died tragically in car wrecks.
Gweedo was a passenger in a car in which two other teens were killed on Yorktown Road driving away from Tabb’s homecoming dance in October 2019. Messick was hit and killed in May on Interstate 95 driving home from Randolph-Macon by a man charged with reckless driving.
The pain of their sons’ deaths is still fresh for Tammy Gweedo and David Messick, but it has not paralyzed them. Far from it.
Gweedo has, in Messick’s words, “been a whirlwind” in her advocacy of safe driving by teens since her son’s death. Both families have founded charities to honor their sons.
They will combine forces Dec. 11 for the Keeper’s Cup Futsal Tournament at the HR Sportsplex in Newport News. The 5 vs. 5 indoor event will feature teams in several ages groups, including U-14, U-16 and adult co-ed, with proceeds going to Luke Messick Futbol Charities and the Gweedo Memorial Foundation.
For those who can’t attend in person, the online auction and raffle in place to raise much of the money from the tournament is already underway.
“The items available are amazing,” Messick said.
They include hotel rooms in Orlando and Washington, D.C., gift watches, tickets for the Washington Football Team-Philadelphia Eagles football game and Richmond Strikers soccer matches, Salty Dog soccer camps, Lionsbridge FC season tickets, restaurants, furniture and artwork. To bid or purchase go to: www.32auctions.com/keeperscup.
The proceeds will fund charities that honor the legacies of Conner Gweedo and Luke Messick in very personal ways. Tammy Gweedo’s tirelessness as an advocate of safe driving for teens has become legendary in York County, but she believes she is only channeling her son.
“It gives me great joy to know that Conner is giving back in death as he did in life,” she said. “He’s making a difference by saving teenagers’ and adults’ lives by getting unlicensed drivers off the road and is reaching out and educating teenagers while giving them a voice.”
The former is being accomplished by a bill approved in the state legislature this summer, House Bill 1918, called “Conner’s Law.” One part of the bill requires students at all Virginia public high schools to present a valid driver’s license before they can park on school property.
In addition, the state Department of Education will revamp the driver’s education curriculum to include information about the dangers of driving without a license, of distracted driving and of reckless driving. Those changes will begin in some districts with the 2022-23 school year.
Tammy Gweedo is pouring much of her considerable energy into the ifyouseesomethingsaysomething.org website she created. It allows teenagers to anonymously report violators of those provisions mentioned in the first part of Conner’s Law.
Youth of Virginia Speak Out will bring a distracted driving simulator to the tournament and distribute 3,500 wristbands at upcoming activities to alert teens about the website.
“It’s very crucial to give kids a place to speak anonymously without feeling like a rat or a snitch,” Gweedo said. “We have a duty to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“I don’t want another mother to go through what I went through and will never get over.”
Luke Messick had already expressed interest in beginning a charity at the time of his death. By then he was already raising funds and collecting used soccer equipment shipped to children in Accra, Ghana.
“He was promoting the joy of playing soccer, because the game was so much fun for him,” his father said.
The family has expanded his work through Luke Messick Futbol Charities in the months since his death. Not only are they sending soccer equipment to the children of Accra, at little cost thanks to the help of an airline attendant who was a friend of their son, they are also using the money for their education.
“The state provides education free, but the families in Ghana must pay for supplies and exams, so many kids cannot afford to go to school,” David Messick said. “We’re trying to get Americans to see that, although it costs just $100 a year for a child in Ghana to go to school, that amount might as well be $10 million for those families.
“For $20, the cost of a modest priced meal here, you can do a lot for someone in Ghana, and for $50 you can do amazing things. Luke had a heart of gold, so we’re glad to have a way to make a difference the way he would have.”
Marty O’Brien, 757-247-4963, mjobrien@dailypress.com
For more information
About Luke Messick Futbol Charities: phone 757-725-1767 or go to lukemessickfc.com
About the Gweedo Memorial Foundation: phone 812-4455 or go to connergweedo.com
To go to online auction or raffle: www.32auctions.com/keeperscup.
To attend the Keeper’s Cup Futsal Tournament: HR Sportsplex, 630 79th St., Newport News, 757-586-5001
