October 8, 2003 -- A fishing trip for three 14-year-old boys ended in tragedy when their canoe capsized in Long Island Sound and one of them drowned, police said yesterday.
Twin brothers Alfred and Calvin Kohart and their friend Charles Hoeg, paddled out 100 yards from Wading River Beach at 2 p.m. Monday - a day off from school because of Yom Kippur.
Police said the canoe overturned and the boys' heavy clothing became soaked with water, weighing them down. Alfred Kohart and Charles were nearly at shore by the time help arrived, but Calvin was unable swim far.
He began to sink about 100 yards from shore. Construction worker Gerald Dean, who saw the accident, dived in and tried to rescue the boys, but ran into trouble. Other rescuers pulled them all to shore with a rope.
Paramedics administered CPR, but Calvin did not respond and was declared dead at a local hospital.
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'God Needed Another Angel'
Youth remembered as tough and loving
Written on Calvin Kohart's locker at Shoreham-Wading River High School was a simple message: I miss you.
"We love you," another student wrote. "God needed another angel."
Soon, there was no more room on the steel locker door, and the messages spilled over onto the adjacent wall, and the wall space next to it.
"Calvin was a great kid," said Bernard Thomas, principal of the high school. "A loss like this is hard to recover from."
That was the predominant sentiment here in this tight-knit community Tuesday, a day after Calvin drowned when a canoe he was in capsized in Wading River.
His twin brother, Alfred, and their friend Charles Hoeg, 14, were also in the Koharts' family boat about 100 yards offshore, but were able to make it back to dry land. Calvin was pulled to shore with a rope but was pronouced dead at Central Suffolk Hospital in Riverhead shortly after the 2 p.m. incident.
Many of the 200 or so students in the ninth grade came up from grade school with Calvin and some of them stayed home or excused themselves from class Tuesday. The school offered counseling throughout the day, and about 50 students sought help, Thomas said.
Tuesday, friends and family gathered at the Koharts' waterfront home on Oak Road to remember the boy many called "Cal."
So deep was David and Denise Kohart's grief that all the couple could do when a reporter knocked on the door was to ask for more time to "do their son right."
So it was up to fellow parishoners of St. Anselm's Church, where Calvin was altar boy, and close friends on Calvin's lacrosse team to talk about the boy they say was tough yet kind, loving and sensitive, but above all full of humor and life.
"Calvin has a zest for life," said Paul Jendrewski, athletic director of the high school who has known the family since his daughter, Kaylin, 14, and the twins went to St. Anselm's nursery school together. "Cal always made you laugh. He really knew how to get to the adults."
At lacrosse games, Jendrewski said, Calvin would strike up a conversation with the referee before the game. "He would say, 'Oh, you're looking good today. You lost a few pounds?'" Jendrewski recalled. "He worked the crowd. He had that special flair ... He was an excellent goalie even though he just reached five feet."
His toughness and skill, his teammates on the youth lacrosse team say, was so inspirational that it would encourage them to work harder even when they were behind.
Friends said Calvin, the team jokester, recently began to focus harder on schoolwork because he had decided to apply to Princeton University, which has a Division I lacrosse team.
The youth team was founded by the twins' father, who co-coached with Charles Hoeg's father. The team, named "Koho" after the two coaches, traveled frquently to play in out-of-town games and recently won a tournament in Kentucky, teammates said.
On one recent away game, Brett Drost, 14, recalled, rolls of toilet paper were missing from the hotel rooms. "Right away, we all knew it was him."
Friends remember that despite their closeness, Calvin and his fraternal twin brother Alfred were different in several ways. While Calvin was outgoing and funny, Alfred is reserved and quiet. When Calvin teased Alfred, older by 19 minutes, Alfred would restrain himself, not taking the bait.
But they did share a love of playing paintball with friends, watching movies and canoeing in their backyard in Wading River.
The affinity was shared by dozens of friends back at school, as they continued to express similar thoughts on Calvin's locker.
"I've known you since we were three & you've never changed," Kaylin Jendrewski wrote in big permanent marker. "You were always funny and brought a smile
upon us ... God needed an angel to make him laugh."
