As a coach for the Onondaga Community College club football team, Jason Morales was there for his players both on and off of the field.

When Shawn Radder’s girlfriend lost her life in a car crash, it was Morales who let Radder cry on his shoulder in the hospital.

“That’s how committed he was to his players. It was really never just about football with Jason,” said Derek Demperio, director of football operations at OCC.

Jason Lloyd Morales, a 23-year-old senior sport management major at Syracuse University, died early Saturday morning after he was hit by a car in New York City.

Morales leaves behind a girlfriend and 2-year-old son.

Prior to his death, Morales was in New York City working on his senior capstone project and interning for the St. John’s University athletic department. At SU, he was active in the Phi Iota Alpha fraternity and often worked with members of the Student Association.

Those who knew Morales remember him for his dedication, energetic personality, love of sports and passion and care for others.

When he attended OCC, it was this love of sports that drew Morales to the club football team Demperio started in fall 2011. Although he wasn’t eligible to play on the team, Morales still wanted to be involved and became head coach.

Because Demperio had little football experience, he said it was Morales who held the team together.

“I can convince the guys to sign up to play football, but Jason kept them in it for the long run,” Demperio said.

Morales’ love of sports extended to his internship with the St. John’s athletic department. He sometimes worked as late as 2:30 a.m. coming up with promotion ideas, including what Karli Hausman, assistant athletic director of marketing information, described as “the best marketing plan I’ve ever seen.”

“You could tell he was very dedicated to what he does and that he really wanted to better his life, not only for himself, but for his son,” Hausman said. 

Though he was only at St. John’s for a month, Morales left enough of an impression that Hausman and others in the marketing department “told, not asked” television crews and Madison Square Garden officials at the St. John’s basketball game Sunday to have a moment of silence for Morales before tipoff, Hausman said.

Morales left a mark at SU, as well. Though he was never a member of SA, Morales was always in the SA offices, and wanted to know what the group was working on, said Allie Curtis, SA president.

During Curtis’ campaign for president last year, Morales helped introduce her to different groups of people on campus she would not normally have met, she said.

In particular, Curtis remembers one instance when Morales pulled her onstage during a National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations barbecue. After Morales endorsed her, Curtis thought that was it and began to leave the stage. But to her surprise, Morales picked her up, swung her over his shoulder and dunked her, fully clothed, into a nearby kiddie pool.

“I could have been very mad but it was hilarious,” Curtis said.

It was this energy and personality that attracted so many people to him, said Luis Sosa, a 2012 SU graduate who was in Phi Iota Alpha with Morales.

Morales always had a “sense of looking out for people,” and acted like a big brother to many of the younger fraternity members, Sosa said.

When Morales left SU to intern at St. John’s for the semester, he had already overcome a lot of struggles, and his determination was beginning to pay off, Sosa said.

“Everything was getting better. He was graduating and taking care of his girlfriend and son,” Sosa said, trailing off. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“And that’s where my heart breaks.”

Published on February 25, 2013 at 10:52 pm

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta