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The email dropped in my box a few weeks ago. Almost lost it in the endless stream of playoff-related info (Rangers Availability, 5:00pm, JW Marriot) and reminders from Shutterfly about my daughters upcoming soccer practices. This note was from a friend made a few years ago, in the worst possible way you can make a friend. Paul Frustaglio just wanted to let me know they were having a golf tournament on June 26th for his son Evan. "Drop by, if you can make it," he wrote. I couldnt. Would be in Philadelphia for the NHL Draft. So I sent along my regrets and said that Id at least try to get a prize sent over from TSN. "I should have remembered that was draft week," Paul wrote back. "Evan was a 96." Thats the first way every hockey parent describes his/her kid; by their abbreviated birth year. When someone asks,"What is your boy?" We know instantly what they mean. "Oh, hes a 98." There will be a slew of 96s who have their names called Friday night and Saturday in Philadelphia who will remember Evan Frustaglio. He was part of an elite group of Toronto area hockey players growing up. From minor atom on, he battled against top prospects like Sam Bennett, Robby Fabbri, and Josh Ho-Sang. He played on summer teams with Bennett, Sunny Milano and Connor McDavid, next years draft prodigy. When the Grade 8 team from Vaughns Hill Academy, a sport-focused private school north of Toronto, played its opening game in 2008, Evan scored the games first three goals. His linemate Michael Dal Colle, a likely top-five pick Friday, scored the next six. "Evan had sick hands," Dal Colle says, waiting for his luggage at the Philadelphia airport. "He wasnt big but his skill level was off the charts. Great player, great guy. So sad." Evan Frustaglio was 13 when he started to feel sick at a hockey tournament in London. His Mom, Ann-Marie brought him home after the Saturday games, thinking there was no point staying over if he wasnt likely to be better for Sunday. Dont want the flu to spread around a dressing room. And it looked like, felt like, had to be, the flu. Thats what the doctor at the walk-in clinic said Sunday. "Probably just a mild virus... give him lots of fluids." But his parents were worried, and Paul stayed up all night watching him. The next morning, Evan told his Mom he was feeling OK, so she went off to work. Paul took the day off to stay home with Evan, and catch up on sleep. He gave his son a bath, and noticed an odd rash, but couldnt reach his family doctor to ask about it. Evan went back to bed, and Paul left the room briefly. When he called Evans name just a few minutes later, there was no answer. Paul found him sprawled on the bathroom floor, limp. The rest, four years later, is still a painful blur. A panicked 9-1-1 call, the operator giving Paul instructions on how to do CPR, the medics arriving and trying to revive him. Too late. Evan died October 26, 2009, the same day they started giving H1N1 shots to the public. That virus, the one supposed to prey on the vulnerable, the elderly and the very young, had killed a strong, healthy teenage athlete. "It attacked his heart," Paul says. "He was... too healthy. From what they told me, the best laymans way to put it is that his heart literally beat itself to death." Evans death triggered H1N1 hysteria across Canada. Instantly, there were line-ups that queued for hours at immunization clinics. Three thousand came to Evans wake. Hockey people, mostly. Entire teams that played with and against him. Some who did neither. Hockey is like that. I met Paul there. He was remarkable, thanking me and everyone else over and over for coming. The ultimate Canadian, overly polite even when his world was crumbling around him. He proudly showed me the flowers Sidney Crosby had sent. Evan had touched people. You hold on to that to keep you going, I guessed. Doctors would thank Paul for doing interviews, for talking about Evan, for encouraging people to get immunized. That helped him a little too, he supposes. But soon the H1N1 story faded, and the Frustaglios were left to figure out how to continue their lives without their first-born. Theyre still working on it. Evans younger brother Will, a 99, was too young to grasp the loss of his best friend. Its only started to really hit him hard in the last year or two. But hes done remarkably well. He is a top student and athlete at The Hill, his brothers old school, working out everyday in the same gym as Dal Colle. Will got the size gene Evan didnt, and enters his junior draft year as a solid prospect. Any parent who has lost a child tells you the grieving never really ends. But after four years, Paul and Anne-Marie finally felt ready to celebrate Evans memory. So as you read this, The Hill Academy is holding the first Evan Frustaglio Memorial Golf Tournament at The Glen Eagle Golf Club near Bolton, Ontario. The school is naming its gym after Evan. Money raised from the tourney will be used to set up a scholarship, and the plan is to designate a different charity every year to support. Would Evan have been in Philly Friday? Would he have gotten the chance to walk up on that stage and put on some teams sweater and ballcap, while Paul and Anne-Marie and Will and aunts and uncles and friends cheered and cried a little in the stands? Useless hypothetical, I suppose. His size was starting to be an issue by the time he was a teenager, so the odds were probably against him. But with those hands, that skill, and a fearlessness to boot, who knows? A couple of growth spurts... and... maybe. No. Was right the first time. Useless hypothetical. Paul Frustaglio would prefer to celebrate the life his son had, instead of the one that might have been. And so Friday night, he will do what he does every year. "I will watch the draft for sure," he says. "Im sure it will be bittersweet and a little sad this time because it is Evans class. But these kids are great kids. Some of them I watched since they played minor novice in the North York Hockey League. Ill be incredibly happy for all of them." Click here for more information on the golf tournament. Diamondbacks Braden Shipley Jersey .com) - The Toronto Blue Jays will look to snap a three-game skid Friday night when they continue their road trip in the opener of a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Diamondbacks Ketel Marte Jersey . The Senators will put the busy off-season and training camp behind them when they open their regular season on the road. They kick things off Friday against the Buffalo Sabres and then head to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday. http://www.cheapdiamondbacksjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=diamondbacks-silvino-bracho-jersey . -- Nelson Cruz has only two hits in 15 at-bats against the Kansas City Royals this season. Diamondbacks Paul Goldschmidt Jersey . Bjoerndalen, who had failed to win any major race for two years before Sochi, writes in a Facebook entry that he is "full of energy and inspiration" after winning the 10-kilometre sprint and mixed relay at last months Olympics. Authentic Diamondbacks Jerseys For Sale . The 18-year-old centre was the Senators first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. The six-foot 196-pound native of Salmon Arm, B. SUN CITY, South Africa -- The birdie celebrations were muted and the crowd a little quiet all though Friday. Gary Player cried on the tee before an early-morning round under grey skies and Ernie Els remembered the photo he has of himself and Nelson Mandela on his desk back at home in Florida. "It is a very sad day," Els said. "A very sad day for South Africa and the world." A sombre mood hung over the Nedbank Golf Challenge, South Africas first major sporting event since former president and anti-apartheid leader Mandela died late Thursday aged 95. Jamie Donaldson, wearing a black ribbon like all the players, emerged from the emotional day to go to 11 under and hold a three-shot lead over Ryan Moore and Henrik Stenson. The 30-man field spent around nine hours out on the course to make up for lost time when the first round was halted for lightning a day earlier. Donaldson had seven birdies and a bogey in a second-round 66 to go with his opening 67, with the Welshman saying he played "aggressive but not daft." Moore had a round-leading 65 having finished up a 71 in the first round in the morning for a share of second at 8 under with Stenson. The Swede moved back into contention with a 67 at the end of the second day. Thomas Bjorn and defending champion Martin Kaymer were tied for fourth another shot back on 7 under. Sergio Garcia had led after the first round before slipping down to a share of ninth with a 73. Perhaps struggling with the emotions, Els and the reest of the South Africans failed to shine, with Charl Schwartzel the leading home player on 6 under, five off the lead.dddddddddddd Els has gone 75, 71 in the first two rounds. In the early morning, the players had stood with their caddies, some with caps removed, for a moments silence for Mandela before the first round restarted. Flags drooped at half-mast around the Gary Player Country Club. A hooter sounded to start the brief moment of reflection on the life of the beloved anti-apartheid leader. One of South Africas first sporting heroes under Mandelas presidency, four-time major winner Els had walked out of the players lounge a little after 6:30 a.m. to talk to reporters and share some of his precious memories of the time he spent with Mandela. Els said that since about 1996 and well into his old age, Mandela used to call the golfer every time he won a tournament. "They were special times and the little time we had together was very special. He was just the most amazing person I have ever met," Els said. Player, South Africas most successful golfer and whose career so often clashed with South Africas dark years of apartheid, said he and three friends had prayed and then cried together over Mandelas passing before playing a casual round first thing in the morning before the field went out. "We all had a tear in our eyes, but its also a day of celebration because hed want us to celebrate," Player said. "And weve got to celebrate for what he actually gave this country." 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