TULSA, Okla. — A car crash on May 4 took the lives of eight people, including four members of a traveling youth basketball team based in Green Country.
On May 10, almost a week after this tragedy, the rest of the Oklahoma Chaos honored them by playing in a tournament.
2 News Oklahoma listened to the Chaos about remembering them and coming together to overcome this significant loss, not just as a team, but as a family.
The team had four big shoes to fill on Saturday: those of players Kyrin “Ace” Schumpert, 14, and Donald “DJ” Laster, 14, and those of coach Jaimon Gilstrap, 33, and former coach Wayne Walls, 41.
The four other people who died were in the other car.
Walls’ 15-year-old son was the sole survivor of the crash in Kansas. He is also a player on the team.
“It's been a difficult week,” Timothy Bezenah, who stood in for Gilstrap and Walls, told us.
“Ace and DJ never shy away from a fight,” he also said. “They would've been out there four and oh. And that's why we want to go this weekend, for them.”
Point guard Cameron Treadway told us, “It's been a lot 'cause our coaches … they meant a lot to us, you know, they really believed in all of us. … And then our teammates, obviously, [we] loved them very much. And they really cared about us too. They believed in us also.”
“This is why you play sports,” Bezenah emphasized. “It's to be connected to other people. You're not walking through life on your own.”
He told 2 News Ace, DJ, and Gilstrap are especially why Treadway and Rylan Watson returned to play for the Chaos this season.
"The love for the game is just crazy,” Treadway said about his passion for basketball. “It's like a way out of like problems, trouble, and all that.”
Watson told us he loves the competitiveness of the game. He said what’s been on his mind the past week is to just “keep on going” and “keep on working.”
“Ever since I met them, they've been family,” said Watson. “So, it really hurt. … So, you just gotta take it all out on whatever sport you're playing.”
When asked if he thinks their family is stronger now, he replied, “Yeah, absolutely. Stronger than what it was at the start of the season. It just lit a fire for us to go. It gave us a ‘why’ to play the game. That's really what it did.”
Watson said not to take family for granted.
“I talked to [them] five minutes before they all passed,” he recalled. “So really, his last words was, ‘I love you and be safe and make it, lemme know when you make it home.’ Soon as I went home, I called him.”
“So, just spend time with your loved ones,” he added. “Don't take it for granted. And then, just enjoy life while it lasts.”
The Chaos wound up winning their first game at the tournament. Afterward, they and their supporters huddled up, listened to Bezenah and one of the parents speak, all hugged each other, and then the team put their hands in the middle.
On the count of three they chanted “Chaos,” and on the count of six they yelled “Family.”
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