SPOKANE, Wash. – A Spokane man, Brian O’Rourk, was killed, and his sons were injured in a plane crash in Idaho Wednesday.
The plane crashed around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday after the Idaho Division of Aeronautics received an emergency signal from the plane about 5 miles north of Elk River.
O’Rourk was a husband, father and a beloved lacrosse coach at Gonzaga Preparatory School (G Prep) in Spokane.
“He’s just an example of who I want to be. Just the character and who he was,” Christian Preti, a former G Prep student who played lacrosse under Coach O’Rourk, said.
Preti was joined by other members of the G Prep community Thursday at Comstock Park.
“I think it’s, like, not real…It’s not possible. [I was just] talking to him on the phone like two days [ago]. Just shooting it about lacrosse and what we’re gonna do this summer. So, it’s like it’s not real,” said Micah Duncan, the Head Boys Lacrosse Coach at G Prep.
O’Rourk coached at G Prep for 8 years.
His peers told NonStop Local that outside of lacrosse, he was a U.S. Air Force and commercial pilot.
“I think he found joy watching other people succeed…That’s his legacy,” Cian Peterson, the G Prep Lacrosse Offensive Coordinator, said.
“Brian O’Rourk was dedicated to Catholic Education and coaching lacrosse. He coached lacrosse for over a decade at Gonzaga Prep as a volunteer and was committed to coaching a number of youth lacrosse teams throughout his lifetime… The joy he evoked, the humor he shared, and the knowledge he passed down to athletes and adults, will be missed,” Derek Duchesne, the principal of Gonzaga Preparatory School, said in a statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the tragic crash.
