On a football field, a few minutes on the clock can feel like grueling hours.  

But waiting outside the emergency room for a teammate can make hours feel like heart-aching minutes.

After receiving calls from their parents that one of their best friends, Jayden McKinney, had been rushed to the hospital, Stephenville football players Hudson Butchee, Aiden Collier and Cash Kribbs wasted no time coming to his side. 

“It was a surreal moment for everyone, because it was something that we never thought we’d have to experience,” Kribbs said. “We were there for hours, but it really just felt like minutes.” 

The entire team stood outside of the emergency room, holding each other close and hoping for a miracle.

“We just wrapped our arms around each other and just tried to wrap our minds around exactly what’s going on,” Stephenville head coach Sterling Doty said.

Jayden’s mother, Kristi, had no idea, as she herself was preparing for the worst inside. 

Once she walked out under the carport and was met with a swarm of hugs, something told her to start a prayer, and everyone joined in.       

On March 26, 2023, Jayden passed away following a UTV accident. He’d just finished his freshman football season.    

Jayden was not just a teammate, but a lifelong friend. For Doty, he was practically family.  

Doty was born and raised in Stephenville and went to high school alongside Jayden’s father, Jason, and Kristi. After moving back to the area in 2019, Doty watched Jayden thrive as a source of positivity for those he’d grown up with, who now represent the senior class of 2026.

“I knew Jayden since kindergarten, and we were next door neighbors until I moved in fifth grade,” Collier said. “He was my best friend. He was always there to make you laugh.”

Having to go back to workouts the next day was torture.

“I went in the locker room and saw his locker. Everyone was in there, we were all just waiting,” Collier said. “You don’t really want to be there, but you get up, you go.”

That same freshman locker room now displays Jayden’s jersey, a sign of the healing that is still in progress. 

His jersey on the wall is just one of many ways the team has carried on Jayden’s legacy. Every player wears a sticker with the initials ‘J.M.’ on their helmet and created T-shirts with the motto ‘Live Like Jayden.’ They even created a billboard that named Jayden as their ‘12th Man.’ 

“It just shows how good [of] a person he was. Everyone would look up to him. He’s funny, he’s kind-hearted, loving, always in a happy mood,” Butchee said. “It just makes you think, no matter what’s going on, live like him. Live life full of love and laughter.”

While the sticker is only around the size of a quarter, nothing can compare to the amount of peace and joy it brings Kristi to see her son being remembered every day, years later.  

“When people say it’s the little things, sometimes those things are monumental to me. A lot of times in grief, you feel alone, because you watch the rest of the world kind of go on, but I’m a little bit frozen,” Kristi said. “[The sticker] reminds me that I’m not alone and that they’re not forgetting about him, which is one of the hardest parts about losing a child.”     

Shortly after Jayden’s passing, Kristi was able to create the Jayden McKinney Memorial Foundation thanks to the overwhelming support of the Stephenville community. The organization has donated over $40,000 in scholarship funds over the past two years, among other donations to youth sports groups and funerals, and is set to donate another $55,000 to this year’s graduating class alone.            

Heading into the 4A Division I State Championships on Friday, the seniors of Stephenville have now made it to the biggest stage of their high school careers. 

And Kristi wouldn’t miss it for the world.  

“I get to watch these boys every week, and sometimes it’s hard, thinking of the unfairness of it all, but being involved in their lives and watching them make their dreams come true, it’s what gets me out of bed,” Kristi said. 

The Yellow Jackets will take on the Kilgore Bulldogs at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, primed with everything they need to win the program’s seventh state title.   

“This has been a dream of ours for as long as we can remember, and he was right alongside us always, and he’s never stopped being there,” Collier said. “He’s not going to stop being right beside us as we go fulfill our dream.”