Cathedral City Mourns Death of Three Coaches

The Southern Section Division VII football playoff game between Cathedral City and Victor Valley high schools that originally was scheduled for Friday will be played today in wake of the deaths of three Cathedral City lower division coaches.

Freshman coach and math teacher Steven Wilson, 44, of Palm Springs, and assistant freshman coaches Robert Grenville, 35, of Desert Hot Springs and Eric Metz, 24, of Cathedral City were killed Thursday when their Jeep Wrangler went off a remote road in Thursday’s early-morning darkness.

Police say the vehicle ran off the road and rolled several times at about 3:30 a.m. Nine unopened beer cans and two empty ones were found, but it wasn’t known whether the beer was consumed or leaked in the crash.

The crash is still under investigation.

The accident left the city and the school’s 2,000 students numb. Crisis counselors were on campus Thursday and Friday for students and faculty.

Most of the varsity team members had played for Wilson.

“Everybody was getting all pumped up for the game and it was, like, I couldn’t believe it,” senior linebacker Tim Bohan said Friday. “How could this happen? I didn’t know what to think. We were real close. We were all good friends.”

Today’s game is at 1 p.m. at Victor Valley High.