Sean Ochinko grew up playing baseball. His love for baseball led him to become varsity catcher for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, from 2002-2006. Ochinko always felt safe while attending Douglas High. He never imagined the national tragedy that would happen only 12 years after he graduated.
On February 14, 2018, a gunman killed 15 students and 2 faculty members at Douglas High. This tragedy came as a shock to the entire nation.
“My mom and my dad were shocked because it was in a community we had lived in for so long, and that area was such a big part of our life and part of my development growing up as a kid and becoming a man,” said Ochinko.
Ochinko was in the batting cages at an early LSU baseball practice when he received an unexpected phone call from Anthony Rizzo, one of his former teammates at Douglas High. Rizzo told Ochinko the tragic news about their former high school. Ochinko called a long-time childhood friend who now teaches at Douglas High to make sure he was okay. Physically, he was alright, but mentally, he was not. The gunman had shot and killed a student he was very close with.
Assistant football coach, Aaron Feis, met an equally tragic fate after he lunged his body in front of a group of students just before the gunman opened fire. The bullets from the gunman’s automatic assault rifle hit Feist, killing him instantly. Feis gave up his life to save the lives of multiple students.
“He [Feis] used to have a golf cart that he would drive my grandparents and my parents in from the parking lot down to the [baseball] field. So I knew Coach Feis really well. He was a really great guy,” said Ochinko.
Coach Feist was even there when Ochinko signed to come to LSU his senior year of high school. Ochinko wrote the initials of Coach Feist and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on his LSU baseball cap. He wants to remember Aaron Feis’s bravery and also never to take each day for granted.
Ochinko says Douglas High School has already started operations to begin tearing down the buildings where students and faculty members were shot. The buildings are being torn down so that students don’t have to sit in the same seats where they lost people they love and relive the memories from February 14, 2018.
“It’s something that is going to take some time for people to be able to start to feel better and bring the community together, but it’ll never be forgotten,” said Ochinko.
Ochinko plans to return to Douglas High this summer or fall, during the LSU baseball off-season, to visit the teachers he was close with and see how they are doing. Ochinko hopes that this tragedy will not make people see Parkland, Florida, or Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as a dangerous place.
