For three weekends, Harbaugh saw how the rest of us live, and his last Saturday away was spent paying respects to a former Stanford recruit.
Austin MeekANN ARBOR, Mich. — Across the country from Michigan Stadium, several hundred people gathered Saturday morning in the performing arts center at Auburn High School just outside of Seattle.
The crowd was there to celebrate the life of Kellen Kiilsgaard, a two-sport star who graduated from the school in 2007. Kiilsgaard was an all-state quarterback and defensive back, a big-time baseball prospect and a dedicated student with a 3.95 GPA. While vacationing in Hawaii during his senior year of high school, Kiilsgaard saved a man and his 7-year-old daughter from drowning.
When Kiilsgaard was picking a college, he had one stipulation: As he told the Seattle Times, the school had to be close to an airport with flights on Alaska Airlines. His sister worked for the airline, which meant his family could fly for free to watch his games., the football program was in the midst of a 1-11 season under Walt Harris. A few months before signing day, Stanford fired Harris and hired a new coach from the University of San Diego.
That coach, Jim Harbaugh, was in the crowd Saturday as friends, family members and teammates shared memories of Kiilsgaard, who died last month of undisclosed causes. Kiilsgaard played one season on the Stanford football team before concentrating on baseball, so his time with Harbaugh was brief. Nonetheless, Harbaugh’s unplanned absence from the Michigan football team freed him to make the cross-country trip to pay his respects to a member of his first Stanford recruiting class.
“For him to make the trip from Michigan to Washington was not an easy thing,” said Kent Rodseth, a family friend of the Kiilsgaards and the football coach at nearby Auburn Mountainview High School. “I think it shows a lot about the side of Jim Harbaugh that a lot of people don’t see or understand.”
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