Jason Scott Shedd

Windsor resident and former Beacon sports reporter Jason Shedd died Tuesday night, ending his yearslong battle with a cancer that started as melanoma and later spread to his jaw and brain. He had just turned 38 on Feb. 8 and leaves behind his wife, Kelly, and the couple’s three small children: Thea, 8, Destin, 5, and Owen, 2. Shedd’s mother-in-law and father-in-law, Steve and Marsh Kitterman of Loveland, said they’ll always remember Shedd as a larger-than-life man who loved his family dearly and “never met a stranger.” The Kittermans laughed, recalling the time Steve Kitterman took Shedd fishing and they overturned their boat in the lake and all the summer days Shedd spent pulling his kids in a wagon during parades through town. Shedd was born in Florida, graduated from school there, married his wife and taught English at schools in Georgia and Honduras before settling in Windsor to start his family. His interest in sports journalism blossomed around 2006 when he started freelancing for the Beacon. Former Beacon editor David Persons recalled the night Windsor High School was up for the state football title in 2011. Before the game started, Persons said he and Shedd, who was in treatment for his cancer at the time, saw a player who had been injured all season warming up on the sidelines. “Jason’s eyes got real big, and he went down there to find out what was going on,” Persons said. The player ended up going in for one play before halftime and scoring a touchdown, kicking off what would turn out to be a victory for Windsor. “He’d been out all season. The other team didn’t know he was Windsor’s fastest player by far, and he got behind their safety so fast on that play,” Persons said. “They throw the pass, he catches it, it’s a touchdown and all the sudden it’s 7-0 at halftime. Jason was so bubbly, so excited. He was beside himself.” Besides being excited, he was also battling the elements. “Oh, it was so cold that night,” Persons said. “But he talked to as many people as he could. You couldn’t have gotten him off that field. He was going to be there as long as he could. He loved those kids so much.” And they loved him back. On Tuesday — the same night Shedd’s battle with cancer ended — Windsor High School announced him as an inductee into its athletic hall of fame as a media legacy award recipient. He is also up for four 2012 Colorado Press Association awards, including best sports story, best sports column writing and best sports event story. Those awards will be announced Saturday. “They (the athletes) were like his extended family, and he got so excited. It went beyond football. It was all the sports,” Persons said. “He just got so caught up in their lives, their successes, their failures. He really lived it with him, and that really came through in his writing.” “I never worked with a more dedicated sports journalist in my 40 years in journalism,” Persons said. “He gave it everything he had.” Marsha and Steve Kitterman said Shedd and his wife were both so thankful for all of the support from the Windsor community, including Windsor Charter Academy, where Kelly Shedd teaches second grade. After his diagnosis, the town also donated funds to the Jason Shedd All-Stars foundation, which benefits the Shedd family. I lost a good friend this week. Former Windsor Beacon sports reporter Jason Shedd lost his battle with cancer Tuesday night. Make no mistake — it was a long, determined, spirited fight. If it had been winnable, Jason would have ended the struggle early. But, it wasn’t. Cancer is like that. Jason knew what the odds were all along. Yet, it didn’t deter him from wanting to live as long as he could — for his wife, his children and himself. He did everything a person could possibly do. He took horrifying radiation treatments. He took chemotherapy. He took new drugs and took part in experimental programs. Whatever was available, he did it willingly and eagerly. Anything to give him another day with his family and friends. His passion for life was so great. Yet, in the end, passion gave way to reality. There likely will be many things said about Jason at the memorial service Saturday. People who knew him will talk about his wonderful qualities — as a husband, father, son, son-in-law and so on. And, everything they say will be true. Now let me tell you about another Jason, the fun-loving, passionate professional with whom I worked. I first met Jason about seven years ago when Kurt Hinkle, who was the Windsor Beacon’s sports reporter, asked if he could use some freelance sports writers to help cover Windsor High School sports. He brought Jason to the office to introduce to me. Jason came in wearing a baseball cap, a T-shirt, well-worn shorts and sandals. He introduced himself in a Southern drawl that had its roots in his home state of Florida. I looked at Kurt like he was crazy. This guy looked and sounded like anything but a professional writer. I’m so glad now that first impressions are easily forgotten. Jason not only proved quickly that he was an outstanding writer, but he also displayed the uncanny ability to gain the trust of coaches, players and parents. I’m still not sure how he did it but there was no question that everyone loved to talk to Jason and loved to read what he would write about them. When Kurt left the Beacon for a publishing job in Greeley in 2008, Jason quickly became my top choice as a replacement. It was a no-brainer. I soon discovered Jason had a great sense of humor. He was a University of Florida fan. I am a University of Oklahoma fan. We kidded each other all fall about whose team was better, which quarterback was better (Florida’s Tim Tebow or Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford), which team would likely play for the national championship. As fate would have it, Florida and Oklahoma played for the National Championship in early 2009. We really got into ripping on each other before that game. I put Oklahoma’s fight song (Boomer Sooner) on my cell phone for its ring tone, then had other employees in the office call my phone to irritate Jason. Not to be outdone, Jason found a Florida calendar that played the Florida fight song. Each day for several months before the game, we had dueling fight songs. No doubt the public thought we were crazy. And, we were, in the right kind of way. When the game was finally played, Florida won. I lost a bet (barbecue lunch at Nordy’s). Never was I more happy to pay off on a bet. On a late summer day in 2009, Jason asked me to sit in his truck with him in the parking lot behind the Beacon office. He had something he wanted to tell me but didn’t want the rest of the Beacon staff to hear. He had just come from the doctor and was told he had cancer and had maybe six months to live. We both hugged each other and cried a lot. He was just beginning his life and career, and I was getting near the end of mine. It just didn’t seem fair, I told him. It might have made sense for most anyone to resign their job to spend whatever time was left with their family. But, Jason wasn’t just anyone. He made it clear at that very painful moment that he was going to fight cancer and, if there was a way to whip it, he would. During the next years, he did exactly that. He fought it. While he made his situation public that fall at a high school football game, he never used it as an excuse for not covering Windsor High School sports. He went about his job with vigor and enthusiasm for as long as he had the strength. His passion for life and for the success and failures of those he wrote about endured him to the Windsor community like no one I’ve ever known. Jason was not only a productive writer during most of that time, he was an innovator, too. It was his idea to do the Sports Close-ups, a unique question-and-answer piece that ran each week. Jason wouldn’t ask the standard question like: When did you start playing basketball? Or, who is your favorite sports idol? No, he asked things like: If you arm wrestled your brother or sister, who would win? Or, if you were stranded on a desert island, who would you like to be stranded with and why? It was a format students and readers loved. How much did the students love Jason? Windsor High School All-American lineman Joey O’Connor, arguably the school’s best athlete ever, put JS on his shoes before every football game his senior year. Those letters were still on his shoes as he celebrated the Class 3A state football championship in December 2011. I have worked with sports writers and photographers for most of my 42 years in journalism. I have worked with many award-winners. Some have gone on to write for some of the top newspapers in the country. Yet, I can safely say none of them had the passion for covering high school sports that Jason had. None had the support of a community like Jason had. I’ll remind myself that this weekend as I pick up four sports writing awards for Jason at the annual Colorado Press Association in Denver. And, then, I’ll remind myself again May 13 when Jason is inducted into the Windsor High School Sports Hall of Fame. His passion for life and sports was his gift to us. Our gift to him should be to not forget how he lived his life. His passion for life and for the success and failures of those he wrote about endured him to the Windsor community like no one I’ve ever known. Jason was not only a productive writer during most of that time, he was an innovator, too. It was his idea to do the Sports Close-ups, a unique question-and-answer piece that ran each week. Jason wouldn’t ask the standard question like: When did you start playing basketball? Or, who is your favorite sports idol? No, he asked things like: If you arm wrestled your brother or sister, who would win? Or, if you were stranded on a desert island, who would you like to be stranded with and why? It was a format students and readers loved. How much did the students love Jason? Windsor High School All-American lineman Joey O’Connor, arguably the school’s best athlete ever, put JS on his shoes before every football game his senior year. Those letters were still on his shoes as he celebrated the Class 3A state football championship in December 2011. I have worked with sports writers and photographers for most of my 42 years in journalism. I have worked with many award-winners. Some have gone on to write for some of the top newspapers in the country. Yet, I can safely say none of them had the passion for covering high school sports that Jason had. None had the support of a community like Jason had. I’ll remind myself that this weekend as I pick up four sports writing awards for Jason at the annual Colorado Press Association in Denver. And, then, I’ll remind myself again May 13 when Jason is inducted into the Windsor High School Sports Hall of Fame. His passion for life and sports was his gift to us. Our gift to him should be to not forget how he lived his life. David Persons is a freelance writer who was the editor/publisher of the Windsor Beacon from 2003-2012.

Jason Scott Shedd

February 8, 1975 - February 19, 2013