'His smile was tremendous every day.' Football coaches reflect on losing 2 'sons' in a day
Within 24 hours, a pair of former youth football teammates were killed in separate shootings in Cincinnati.
Kyran Reese, 19, was shot in Winton Hills Wednesday night at 11:44 p.m. He died shortly after arriving via private transportation at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Just before 11 a.m. Thursday, Timothy Jordan, also 19, was found shot in Mount Healthy, later passing at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
Both were successful high school football players. Reese played at Woodward High School as a running back/linebacker graduating in 2020. Jordan was a quarterback at Aiken who graduated in 2019.
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Jeremy Pflug, now the head coach at Cincinnati College Prep Academy, coached Jordan at Aiken. In addition to tweeting a photo out of a visit he took with Jordan to Notre Dame, Plug posted: "I don’t think people really grasp what it’s like to coach in the inner city. You tell your young men you love them at the end of every practice then go to sleep at night praying you won’t get a call in the morning that you lost one of your sons. We have to do better."
Two of his former players have died in the last two years and another is in jail.
"I can't bury another 19-year-old," he said. "It's not easy. (Jordan) loved his teammates, he loved his family, his Mom was awesome. He was one of those people that everyone's attracted to. He was the first kid I ever got to take on an unofficial visit."
Pflug remembers taking Jordan to South Bend, Indiana, where he was photographed in the golden helmet of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and got to be on the field. Jordan was awestruck and wondered aloud to Pflug if he could ever play at a place like Notre Dame.
Jordan was a quarterback who threw for 611 yards and six touchdowns his senior year and ran for 809 and 11 scores, including four 100-plus yard games. As a junior, he passed for nine touchdowns and ran for 996 yards and a dozen scores. Jordan also played linebacker and rarely came out of a game.
In the end, he got a full ride to the University of the Cumberlands in southern Kentucky near the Tennessee line. He didn't go.
"Looking back I wish I had taken him there," Pflug said. "He ended up not taking it. Now, this happens."
Current Aiken coach Harry McCall was on Pflug's staff and remembers the leadership role Jordan had with the Falcons. McCall was the head coach for Jordan's senior season.
"His smile was tremendous every day," McCall said. "No matter what kind of day you were having, being able to see his smile would change your feeling about that day. He affected everyone in the school. He was a kid everyone knew."
McCall said after Jordan decided not to attend the University of the Cumberlands, he went to a prep school hoping to improve his stock to get to a bigger school. That prep school closed and Jordan then enrolled at Central State. His plans were to walk on with the Marauders.
"He was on his way back to Central State for fall semester, from what I've been told," McCall said.
Those plans were tragically cut short Thursday.
Though the Reese and Jordan incidents are separate, McCall confirms the two knew each other and were youth football teammates at one point.
"They were two of the better players in the inner-city youth football league," McCall said. "I actually coached Kyran for a year on a travel team before he went on to the high school level at Woodward. It's unfortunate (this happened) on back-to-back days. It's just crazy."
Reese was Woodward's top rusher in 2019 with 270 yards and six touchdowns. Now, the programs affected are having to deal with two losses that really hit home.
"Words really can't do enough justice for what people are feeling at that moment," McCall said.
Added Aiken AD Paul Brownfield, "TJ was a charismatic young man with a smile that can't be forgotten. Our hearts are broken over his passing."
Police have taken a person of interest into custody in the Jordan shooting, but the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the shooting should call Mount Healthy police at 513-728-3183 or CrimeStoppers at 513-352-3040 where tips can be left anonymously. Reese's death is still under investigation. Anyone with information about this homicide is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 513-352-3542.