2 dead, including former Pasco football player, 6 injured when ATV, SUV collide

It was 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning when Tom McHugh's cell phone began to ring.

The Pasco High football coach heard from one player. Then another. Then another.

One by one, each of those phone calls carried the same tone of dismay. Everyone calling was concerned about one person - Dan Brown.

For the past three seasons, Brown was an offensive and defensive lineman for the Pasco High Pirates.

The 6-foot-2, 270 pound Brown parlayed his athleticism into a football scholarship to Defiance College in Ohio. He was scheduled to depart for the school next Saturday.

That dream was cut short Saturday night due to an ATV accident, which claimed the life of the 19-year-old Brown as well as friend Steven Villarreal, 18.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers say the young men were killed in a crash Saturday night when their all-terrain vehicle slammed into the back of an SUV at the intersection of Goodstone Drive and Umbrella Rocks Street, not far near U.S. 301, in Hernando County.

One of the teens was pronounced dead at the scene and the other died later at Pasco Regional Medical Center in Dade City. Six passengers in the SUV also were taken to local hospitals for mostly minor injuries, troopers said.

"Dan was one of those kinds of kids everybody loved," McHugh said Monday afternoon, his voice still resounding with shock. "He was a great kid, he was funny. Big, heavy, great sense of humor. He was always laughing at himself and cracking jokes. The kids loved him."

McHugh said he hasn't heard anything concrete about the accident, but thought Brown was camping with friends when the accident happened.

"I don't even think you really realize it, even now, two days later," McHugh said. "I still don't think the realization has hit, especially for an adult. Having someone you dealt with for three years in different situation as a teacher and a coach and the different ways you interact with them, there's a love there that you probably don't ever express.

"I was kind of giving him a hard time about getting into the weight room and getting ready to go to college - in a good natured way- and the next thing you hear is the kid is no longer with us. It's one of those things, you know it, but ..."

According to McHugh, Chase Sellers, also a recent graduate of Pasco and a former teammate of Brown's, has organized a carwash Wednesday at Checkers, 12600 U.S. 301, Dade City, to raise funds for the Brown family to help with funeral expenses. The carwash will begin at 11 a.m.

In the midst of dealing with the sorrow, there was a glimmer of hope in McHugh's voice.
"From what I understand - and this is all done by the players - (former) players and players who are still here got together and they're going to go to Checkers in Dade City and from what I understand, they have plans to do a fundraiser to wash cars, so they can help the family with funeral expenses.
Totally on them and that's something 17- and 18-year-old kids shouldn'thave to deal with and they thought of it on their own. I'm proud of them."

Meanwhile Brennan Allen, who kicked for the Pirates and graduated from the school this May, also received the news by calls and text messages early Sunday morning.

He's known Brown since middle school - played football and baseball together - and had home room with Brown all four years in high school.

"Everybody that I talked to, we're all shocked," Allen said. "We don't understand why it happened, but we look at the bright said and say God has a plan. It obviously happened for a reason.

"We know that we can't understand the plan, we don't know why it happened, but we know it has happened for a reason and we're just trying to get through these tough times."

Although Villarreal wasn't a football player, he, like Brown, had a giant-sized personality.

"Both of them are like big teddy bears," Allen said. "Two of the nicest guys and most relaxed guys at our school. They didn't have enemies, everyone liked them.

"He was such a nice guy, just like Dan. Both of them were the same, how they acted - so relaxed, everyone liked them, they were just really nice guys."

Villarreal was born Jan. 27, 1992, in Dade City to Ramiro and Gladys Marie Jernigan Villarreal. He was a 2010 graduate of Pasco High School and planned on attending Pasco-Hernando Community College in the fall. He was a diehard University of Florida Gators fan and planned to attend UF in the future.

Public visitation for Villarreal will be 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at Calvary Assembly of God, 13544 U.S. 98 Bypass, Dade City. Funeral services will follow at 6 p.m. at the church.

Visitation for Brown will be 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Hodges Family Funeral Home, 11441 U.S. 301, Dade City. Funeral services will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church of Dade City, 37511 Church Ave.

Athletic director and assistant football coach Jim Ward received word from baseball coach and football assistant Ricky Giles early Sunday morning that Brown had died. Giles, who is traveling to Tennessee, was just north of Atlanta when he got the news, Ward said.

"I don't know. You just kind of think about the good times you had with the young man," Ward said. "You're sad for his immediate family and then you're sad for the football family. You have compassion and tell them that you're there for them."