Support the 3rd Annual Kevin Normington Memorial Golf Tournament, April 30

Kevin Normington

The third annual Kevin Normington Memorial Golf Tournament, honoring the much beloved Bonita student and three-year starting offensive tackle on the Bearcat football team, is set for Thursday, April 30, at Marshall Canyon Golf Club. As always, funds raised will honor future college students with scholarships to pursue their education. Kevin was tragically killed in a senseless automobile accident on March 1, 2007, when his vehicle was broadsided by a speeding motorist flying through a stop sign at the intersection of Fulton and Arrow Hwy. Kevin was returning home from work at Warehouse Pizza a little after 10 p.m. when the accident occurred.

Even if just a small percentage of the more than 2,000 people who attended Kevin’s funeral at Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church in San Dimas participate as either players or sponsors, this year’s tournament will be a huge success. Spearheading the tournament is Kevin’s father, John Normington, a longtime youth coach here in La Verne, who is also the father of Christina Normington, an outstanding tennis player at Bonita High School.

Kevin was known by many affectionate names, but probably his most popular sobriquet was that of “Superman.” La Verne’s gentle giant was being heavily recruited by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, at the time of the accident.

Many of the details of the accident investigation left John with more questions than answers. One of the most troubling, according to John, was why Kevin’s body lay at the crime scene for more than five hours before he was taken away. Even when Kevin was finally removed, John was not allowed to see his son’s body. Using most of his own resources, John relentlessly pursued sticky details of the investigation, and even two years later, continues to follow up with letters and phone calls to the authorities with knowledge and jurisdiction over the case, from Pomona police headquarters to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. The site of the accident occurred in Pomona, just outside La Verne city limits.

Suffice it to say that no parent should have to endure what the Normington family has been put through. Each time another similar case is reported, John’s healing scar is ripped wide open again, most recently by news that Nick Adenhart, the Angles’ pitcher on the cusp of manhood and a great Major League Baseball career, was killed by a drunk driver.

John described Kevin as a “big brother to everyone. He was always helping out.” Now it’s La Verne’s time to help out, in the name of Kevin, John and all of us who pray that our phones don’t ring in the middle of the night with news of the loss of a son or daughter.

Maybe this tournament won’t attract 2,000 people, but even a fraction of that number will show that Kevin’s memory lives on … that in La Verne we never forget a fallen hero.

Please mail your entry requests or donations to Bonita High School, 3102 D St., 91750 in La Verne. Or due to the rapidly approaching April 30th date, please call John at (909) 596-8113 or email to jsnormington74@hotmail.com.

Also, please click on the You Tube video, produced by Time Warner Cable’s Reginald Miller on the La Verne Online homepage, for a brief video profile on Kevin.