Marblehead football captain remembered as a ‘quiet leader’ who made others feel seen

It was Owen Coyne’s senior year. A star student and co-captain of the Marblehead High School varsity football team, the 17-year-old was set to continue his football and academic career at Williams College next year. 

But those goals suddenly ended when doctors discovered a brain bleed. 

“He was having the dream of a senior year that every parent hopes for,” Coyne’s mother, Angela Paradise, told Boston.com.

Coyne unexpectedly died Thursday from complications from a brain hemorrhage. The bleed was not linked to football or impact-related trauma, but stemmed from a blood vessel abnormality in his brain, Paradise said. 

Coyne played safety and wide receiver for the Magicians. He also competed on Marblehead’s varsity track and field team and baseball team and worked as a sailing instructor for the town.

“My hope is that people simply remember Owen as this quiet leader who always was warm and inclusive and did the right thing, stood up to the bully, and made sure that everybody felt seen, heard, and loved,” Paradise said. “And I think that that’s the reason why he was admired by so, so many.”

Coyne’s funeral will be held Thursday at Our Lady, Star of the Sea Church in Marblehead, followed by a reception at Tedesco Country Club, his obituary says. His family requests donations be sent to the Owen P. Coyne Scholarship Fund. Friends have also created a GoFundMe campaign to support the fund and honor his memory.

What happened to Owen Coyne 

Paradise said Coyne began experiencing severe headaches about a week after Marblehead’s season-opening game Sept. 10. Coyne was taken to the emergency room, where doctors told the family he had a concussion and did not need brain scans, she said. 

After a couple days at home, however, Coyne’s condition worsened. His parents brought him back to the hospital, where scans revealed a brain hemorrhage.

Coyne spent nearly two weeks in the hospital before he died. His condition deteriorated after he was transferred out of intensive care, Paradise said. Coyne began struggling to breathe and underwent a surgery that lasted seven or eight hours. 

“It was just one horrible nightmare after the other,” she said. 

Coyne showed signs of responsiveness after the surgery. But later, doctors needed to release fluid from his brain, and Paradise said the resulting lack of fluid ultimately caused Coyne to lose consciousness. 

“The doctors did one last MRI, and it revealed that just too much damage had been done,” Paradise said. “That was when we knew it was over.” 

The legacy Coyne leaves behind

“Over these last few weeks, and even before this nightmare happened, I would always have parents or other students or teachers tell me that Owen was someone that so many students looked up to,” Paradise said. “Not just because he was 6-foot-4 — he’s very tall — but kids looked up to him because he was seen as this natural leader.”

Despite that stature, Paradise said Coyne knew how to stay humble. She recalled how, after scoring multiple touchdowns in a game, for example, Coyne would redirect praise away from himself and toward “the team effort.”

“Owen always had a way of making people feel seen,” Paradise said. 

In the days before Coyne died, dozens of friends, teammates, and classmates, along with coaches, family members, and parents of friends, came to the hospital to say goodbye. They lined the hallways and sang songs to him at his bed. 

“It was a beautiful way to end a life that shouldn’t have had to end,” Paradise said. 

His mother imparts a message 

Paradise said she wants her son’s death to shed light on the importance of organ donation. 

When Coyne got his driver’s license only a few months before he died, he registered as an organ donor. A doctor recently called Coyne’s parents to discuss organ donation, and Paradise said she was told that Coyne’s heart was “two and a half times stronger than the typical heart.” 

Six of Coyne’s organs are now being used to save five lives, she said. 

“Multiple people now are able to continue their life because of his gift,” Paradise said. “That right there is just classic Owen.”