The holiday season is meant to be a celebration of life and family, but in 2016, Christian Maldonado and his loved ones were forced to mourn the loss of those very things.
Just days before Christmas on Dec. 14, a violent six-vehicle accident on Rogers Lane led to the death of one driver. The fatality was Steven Ronio, Maldonado’s grandfather.
According to reports, the accident occurred when Ronio was met head-on by an oncoming car while driving his pickup truck eastbound. He later died at the hospital from his injuries.
According to the report by Sgt. Katherine Hull, the driver responsible, Brody Brown, was driving his car westbound “erratically with no regard for public safety.”
As Brown swerved in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed, he hit another vehicle in the westbound lanes, causing him to lose control and cross the median into oncoming traffic.
Brown pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this year on May 21.
When Maldonado, then a sophomore at MacArthur, learned of his grandfather’s passing, he was distraught. Football and wrestling, the sports he was focusing on at the time, suddenly took a backseat to a much more serious issue.
The tragedy gave Maldonado time to do some soul searching, and upon doing so, he decided to take a break from his athletic endeavors.
“I just felt like I needed to take a year off,” Maldonado said. “I was real immature my sophomore year, and I really needed to step away and find myself.
“I just feel like if you’re not all here, you’re not going to do anything worthwhile for the team. So I just really focused on school and my family and stuff that I felt was good for me.”
Ronio’s impact on Maldonado was undeniable.
Ronio, who was 62 at the time of the accident, frequently attended Maldonado’s sporting events, whether it was a football game or a wrestling match. He was the loving and supportive grandparent every kid desires, and his presence in Maldonado’s life has yet to cease even in death.
“I’ve always wanted to strive and do everything for him,” Maldonado said. “Everything I do good, I want to dedicate to him.”
It didn’t take long for Maldonado to find what he so desperately sought.
Once he began his junior year, he realized just how much he missed putting the pads on and hitting people with all his might. It was at the Highlanders’ games last season he discovered rejoining the football program was what his grandfather would’ve wanted.
“He loved watching me play sports, so I wanted to come back and do that for him,” Maldonado said. “I went to the games and was missing it like no other. And I was thinking, ‘I can’t do this again,’ so I came back my senior year to finish it.”
His effect on the football team was felt almost immediately.
Maldonado, now a senior, is Mac’s starting left guard on offense and also sees time at linebacker.
Although he didn’t have much experience at the varsity level, Maldonado’s wrestling career helped him keep pace with his peers strength wise, earning him the starting role.
“I’ve wrestled since I was in Kindergarten — I’ve done it my whole life,” Maldonado said. “I’ve been really trying to keep a focus on that. I realize football will help me become a better wrestler, and it’ll keep me in shape. I think it’s pretty cool to start right away because I didn’t think I’d be up there. I felt that people who put in the time would take starting positions, but it’s cool being out there with everyone.
“I can’t say anything else about it, it’s just really surreal.”