Perhaps for the first time in its young life, the new Drew Esquivel Hall on the Healdsburg High School campus boasted a bleacher full of fans—wrestling fans, drama fans, fans of the school district and of Drew Esquivel himself—all come to recognize the dedication of the transformed indoor gym.
The walls were clean and white, the lighting inspired and bright, the tiered bleachers steep enough to offer line-of-sight to 224 fans and friends of family. All were there last Friday to take part in the ceremonies, meet new friends and reconnect with old ones, and enjoy cookies and other treats from the school’s culinary program.
Though the remodel of the former Frost Hall was begun in 2017, said HUSD Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel, “There was never a question that it would be named” for Drew Esquivel, as approved by the school board last November.
Wrestler, swimmer, actor and valedictorian, young Esquivel left an impact on the kids he went to school with, played sports with and walked with as a fellow student. To say that Esquivel, who graduated in 2013 and died three years later at the hands of a drunk driver, left an impact on his fellow students, his teachers and his school, would simply be stating the obvious. The full house at the new hall, and open smiles and occasional tears of those who knew him, said it all.
“We are here because of loss,” said Vanden Heuvel, whose own brother died just a month ago. “I’ve learned the best way to keep a loved one alive is to hold on to the good memories.”
That was the formula followed last Friday night, Jan. 24, as a series of speakers, planned and spontaneous, took the mic and told their stories of Drew Esquivel. They all reinforced the wording on the new plaque outside the gym, with Esquivel’s likeness and the phrase, “What most distinguished him was how he genuinely made everyone around him better through compassion, kindness and joy.”
Among those who spoke in the brief Friday evening program was Brent Mortensen, a former drama teacher who bemoaned the absence of coverage of Esquivel’s high school career as a thespian. “Drew didn’t care what part he had, he gave each role 100%,” he said later. “Drew was a pirate in Pirates, a lead in The History Boys, and a lead in Hairspray, just to name a few.”
Esquivel Hall
Wrestling coach Scott Weidemier did double-duty not only by extolling Drew’s time in Healdsburg as an all-league wrestler, but by inaugurating the gym as a home (at last) for the school’s wrestling program.
Weidemier said he would always think of the new gym as Esquivel Hall, “to honor what his parents did after his passing,” in embracing the idea of a Drew Esquivel “Live Like Drew” Scholarship.
When it was their turn for his parents to speak, Susanne and Andy Esquivel briefly but eloquently expressed their love and appreciation of everyone who was there to remember and honor Drew. “Thank you for all of your support—thank you for golfing and thank you for trotting!” Susanne Esquivel said, to laughter.
She pointed out that the town’s Rotary Sunrise Club came up with the idea of the Live Like Drew Scholarship Fund, to provide college assistance for HHS students who deserve it and need it, to continue his legacy of positively impacting the lives of HHS students.
Live Like Drew funds are raised primarily at a yearly golfing tournament at Tayman Park in September, and the annual Turkey Trot downtown. Andy Esquivel gave special props to Healdsburg Running Company for inviting the Drew Esquivel Fund to be part of “the healthiest, happiest, shortest event in town”—the annual 5k fun run on Thanksgiving Day.
Andy Esquivel’s voice briefly cracked as he summarized that the scholarship fund “began with a family, but it grew to include our entire community, and beyond.”
The ribbon cutting was, as they usually are, anticlimactic. But after the ceremony the students and parents were invited “backstage” to see the dressing area for the new small stage facility for the drama program that will also be hosted in Esquivel Hall, while some students frolicked and dog-piled on the new 40-foot cardinal red, black and gray wrestling mat.
