By Tricia Pursell
The Daily Item
SELINSGROVE —
A football star who scored the winning touchdown on a 6-yard run to give the Selinsgrove Seals their first ever championship title in December may not walk again.
Seth Lauver, and his prom date, Alexandra Mullen, both 17 and from the Winfield area, were still listed in critical condition on Tuesday at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, following an after-prom crash on Saturday night.
Teammate and friend Logan Hetherington said he learned Lauver was paralyzed when he visited him at Geisinger on Sunday.
"He's really a great person," Logan said. "He works as hard as he can at everything he does. It's just a bad situation. We're just praying and doing everything we can."
He's known Lauver since they were little, and played midget football together.
Selinsgrove football community leaders did not focus on Lauver's football career, however, when they reflected Tuesday on the tragedy.
"It's not about our football team," said Matt Hetherington, president of the Seals Booster Club. "It's about Seth and Alex."
"I think the community would rather see an 0-11 football team if someone said we could make him better," he added.
The other board members feel the same way, he said.
"It's about our community and our kids," echoed Greg Kahn, president of the Selinsgrove Football Alumni Association. "They're kids first. It's Seth Lauver the kid, not Seth Lauver the football star."
Nevertheless, the fact that this is the second tragedy that has hit Seal Nation in just two months cannot be avoided.
Star K.C. Kantz lost his mother to a crash in April. His father, who was critically injured, has reportedly been slowly improving.
As in that tragedy, members of the community are ready to come to the families and help however they can, Kahn said.
"This community, again, never ceases to amaze me," he said, "how people come together and just love each other so much. That's the only thing comforting about this."
Coach Dave Hess, he said, has been taking it hard, but continues to pray for their full recovery along with so many others who are praying as well.
"I know the kind of man Coach Hess is, and he is extremely concerned," Kahn said.
The last text between Alexandra Mullen and her mom was at 10:28 a.m. — just minutes before the crash that critically injured her and Lauver.
"They left the prom a few moments early, because they wanted to get back to our house," said Rheta Mullen, Alexandra's mother.
But they had a few stops to make before they got there. First stop was Rocco's Pizza, on Park Road, where they have worked together since the restaurant's opening in January. The shop was closed, but they saw lights on, and for the third time that day, they wanted to visit.
They visited earlier, excited about the prom, said Stacey Napoli, restaurant owner, and wanted to show off their tux and gown.
"That's just how they are here," Napoli said. "It's like their place. A hangout even when they aren't working."
Rheta Mullen had called her daughter around 10:15 p.m., to see what their plan was. They were in the parking lot of Rocco's at that time, she said.
Napoli said they left the pizza shop around 10:20 a.m.
Then they went to Lauver's home so he could change into more comfortable clothes before heading to Alexandra's house.
While on their way, Rheta communicated with her daughter through texting to see when they would arrive, as Lauver drove.
The last text was at 10:28 a.m.
According to state police, the crash occurred at 10:40 p.m., when Lauver was driving on Penns Drive in Monroe Township and his car hit a Pontiac, illegally parked alongside the road while a tire was being changed. Lauver's vehicle pushed the Pontiac into a Dodge pickup truck parked in front of it. Lauver's car then slid off the road, flipped over and hit a tree.
The trooper who will determine whether charges will be filed against the drivers of the parked cars, was not available Tuesday.
Any rumors about the students consuming alcohol that night, and possibly causing the crash, were crushed by Rheta Mullen and her husband, Tim, on Tuesday.
The toxicology reports, automatically performed at the hospital when patients enter the emergency room, were clean, they said.
Even without the reports, Rheta Mullen said she knows her daughter wasn't drinking.
"She is a beautiful person," she said. "She really understands our wishes, and respects her parents and understands that we only give her orders because we are concerned with her well-being. She would not do anything to against those wishes. She knows it is against the law for her at her age."
The Mullens are staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Danville, and thankful to be receiving up-to-the-minute information on how their daughter was faring.
"She has remained stable, throughout the course of everything," Rheta said. "All of her vitals and everything are quite stable."
And from time to time, they are able to grieve with Lauver's parents.
"We see them in the hallway," she said, "and we share our child's conditions with one another. We share our grief, share our anguish."
Selinsgrove School District Superintendent Fred Johnson said Lauver's parents told him Monday night they did not wish to speak with the media about the situation.
Rheta said the teens grew up in school together, and became good friends when they began working at Rocco's Pizza.
"They're great kids," said Napoli, the shop owner. "They've become like our second family here."
Trying to hold back tears, she said she and nine other part-time employees there, who also happen to be their classmates at Selinsgrove Area High School, are very upset about the situation.
"We don't know what we're doing without them here," she said.
