W

hen Ben Wiegel moved to Denver as a 7-year-old, he found a new best friend in Koby Stevens. They were two home-schooled kids that loved playing sports. They also played Pokemon, but basketball, football and lacrosse provided an instant connection.

"I taught him how to play lacrosse," Wiegel said. "I started a year before he did. That's why we always stayed in touch about lacrosse."

Wiegel moved to Florida at the start of freshman year and both flourished. Stevens started on defense for Chaparral High School back in Denver while Wiegel started on midfield at Creekside High School in Florida. When it was lacrosse season, their messages and talks were more frequent.

"We talked about lacrosse and girls," Wiegel said. "Normal teenage guys stuff."

Wiegel was shocked then when he was pulled out of a pep rally to learn that Stevens had taken his own life April 9, 2015, only 18 days after he had turned 16.

"No idea at all, not at my end, or anybody's end," Wiegel said. "Not his parents or his girlfriend. It was out of nowhere. It was a quick decision."

Stevens left a note.

"I suspect in a couple weeks people will forget about me, but I hope not," his father, Tim Stevens, read during a phone interview.

They printed 1,000 programs for Koby's Celebration of Life, but it wasn't enough. More than 1,500 people showed up for the funeral. None of them have forgotten.

"Here is it a year and a half later, and one of his teammates from football is playing for Hawaii and he's wearing one of the 'Work Like Koby' bands on a picture he posted," Stevens said. "People have tattoos. He'll be remembered for the rest of people's lives. And Ben's thing is one more thing. Ben has gone off and is doing a great thing."

Now a senior at Creekside, Wiegel started Koby's Cause, collecting lacrosse equipment to take to the Dominican Republic next summer to hold a lacrosse clinic and set up a league for teenagers around that country's capital, Santo Domingo. Wiegel and other volunteers also will address suicide prevention.

"It has two positive sides," Wiegel said. "We're spreading suicide awareness and killing the stigma that only certain people are prone to suicide, and then also spreading the game of lacrosse. These kids otherwise would never have the opportunity. Also, it gets them in a brotherhood of a team. In these areas in the Dominican, you either have people you're with or you're on your own, and if you're on your own, you're done. Having that connection and brotherhood, I feel, would help benefit the kids there and give them a reason to go on and not get in trouble because they don't want to let their teammates down."

Wiegel was struck by the hardships surrounding Dominicans when he visited there in July with Samaritan's Feet, an organization that improves conditions for impoverished children around the world.

"A lot of them don't even have parents and they live alone," Wiegel said. "I thought this would be a good story to spread there, and we can help these kids learn the sport of lacrosse. Otherwise, they'd have no knowledge of the game without Koby's Cause."

"We're going to be storing the equipment in churches because those are the safest places, so maybe it gets them in church," he added. "It gets them somewhere where they have a positive influence. Or maybe they don't have parents, so the older players on the team can become that guiding figure in their life."

Wiegel launched Koby's Cause in late July. East Coast Dyes, FireThreads, JaxLax Sports, Mogul Mesh, StringKing and True Lacrosse are all among pledged donors, as is Wiegel's Creekside High School, nearby Jacksonville University and Koby's Chaparral High. Paul Rabil re-posted Koby's Cause on Instagram, and it was plugged on the Weekly Watch on The Lacrosse Network.

"I'm still trying to work on donations," Wiegel said. "Lacrosse equipment is expensive. I'm trying to get 100-120 sticks. Helmets, I'm getting them from colleges and high schools that have to get rid of them after two years."

"To see how Koby inspired so many people, it reflects how big of an impact he had on us as well," Stevens said. "We're kind of in a place where we're approaching a year and a half and we're alive, but not living. We're just starting to live life again. That's kind of where we're at. It's hard. To see the pictures and things that get posted with Koby's Cause and him doing things that he loved, it's a two-sided coin. Those are great moments and we're happy to see them remembered and honored, but it's also painful because we're not making new memories with Koby."

Koby's Cause also has the chance to impact others around the world. Under the Koby's Cause umbrella, Wiegel and Stevens foresee speaking at schools in the United States in addition to speaking about suicide prevention while introducing lacrosse around the world.

"If you give the tools to identify it and then someone approaches someone about being depressed, that's going to have a higher success rate than saying, 'If you're depressed, tell someone about it,'" Wiegel said. "Most high school guys aren't going to come out and say to their friends, 'I'm really sad.' It's not the typical thing."

Last Wednesday, Wiegel was heading to Jacksonville University to talk to the men's lacrosse staff there about Koby's Cause.

"I want to start giving speeches at colleges about Koby and how they can identify depression and talk about suicide prevention," he said. "That's my angle in America. In college, a lot of higher-level lacrosse players go through depression because of the stress of being a Division I athlete. A ot of lacrosse schools have higher academics, so they have more pressure. If you're not performing well, you can get depressed."

Wiegel is inquiring where else he can spread Koby's story, and he already is looking into other prospective sites for Koby's Cause visits abroad in the future.

"I'm going to see how this one goes and I'll see which country needs it and which is the easiest for us to go there and make it successful," Wiegel said. "One of the countries I was looking at was Singapore. They don't have lacrosse. I'm already in contact with a coach in Japan who wants me to come. Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world. That's a country I'm looking into. It would have a really big impact."

Stevens is happy to see something positive spawned from Koby's death. He has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and efforts like Wiegel's.

"There's something about it that resonates," Stevens said. "Most everybody has been impacted or will be impacted by suicide at some point in their lifetime by someone close to them. I think that resonates, the game of lacrosse resonates and helping people in need resonates. And it's selfless. That's the other part that resonates."