Jonathan Stone couldn’t have anticipated good news when his parents awoke him in the middle of the night in March of last year.

He certainly couldn’t have fathomed that his older sister Laci was gone, without reason or explanation or even a chance to say goodbye.

“There’s just times I feel like I can fully comprehend that she is gone and I won’t see her again,” said Stone, a rising senior at Nocona High School. “And then there’s other times it hits me and it really feels like it’s not real. Like, my sister’s gone and I just kind of sit here and I’m like, this can’t be real. I’ll never see her again.”

Laci, then a freshman at the University of the Southwest in New Mexico, was one of nine killed in a tragic head-on collision near Midland on the way to a golf tournament. It’s the kind of death that leaves families and friends gutted. No one should have to go through something like that, least of all a sophomore in high school who was just beginning to adapt to life without his big sister around the house.

“The more I didn’t see her, the more our bond kind of grew together, and the more I was always eager to go see her,” Stone said. “All the random FaceTimes she’d give me and we’d talk for hours. I mean, our bond grew a lot together.”

The aftermath was a whirlwind. For two weeks after Laci’s death, there was somebody at the house to offer comfort and condolences to the Stones around the clock, helping them grieve and attempt to make sense of the senseless. Nocona, a town of roughly 3,000 sandwiched between Wichita Falls and Sherman, banded together for Johnathan and his family.

While the support helped, Stone has found an outlet and a way to commemorate his sister on the football field.

Nocona, which went 2-8 in 2021, had a complete turnaround in 2022, going 8-3 and making the playoffs for the first time since 2018. In head coach Blake Crutsinger’s second year at the helm, the Indians took full advantage of a move into 2A competition, and at the core of their newfound success was Johnathan.

Stone led the team in both rushing yards and tackles in 2022 en route to an honorable mention All-State linebacker selection, a storybook ending to a season he dedicated to Laci. 

On a Nocona squad that doesn’t crack 30 players, Stone has been, and continues to be, the focal point for them on both sides of the ball.

“He defensively will not come off the field,” Crutsinger said. “Offensively, he will come out just every once in a while if he’s gassed… There were a couple district ball games that I don’t know if he ever left the field.”

Where other teams may have dedicated a night to celebrate Laci, Nocona spent the entire season memorializing her, wearing “Love Like Laci” stickers on their helmets and rallying around Johnathan every step of the way. Crutsinger was stunned at the cohesion from his team in the wake of Laci’s death.

“A lot of that was a testament to his teammates,” Krutsinger said. “I couldn’t believe how these 15 and 16 year old kids who can be really, really immature at times, to see them, watch them mature and be there for him, was really special.”

While it was a season dedicated to Laci for Nocona, it’s a life dedicated to her for her brother. 

“Anything I do, I want it to be in her name,” Stone said. “I want people to know who she was, and not forget her.”

Hopes are understandably high for Nocona to build on the success of its 2022 campaign, with sights set on a district championship. Stone has set goals of 1,500 yards on the ground and 150 tackles, and has vowed to focus more on his grades with an aim to play somewhere collegiately.

Stone hasn’t gotten over the sudden and inexplicable death of his sister. Some days are better than others, he says, and a tight-knit family and friend group helps on the worse days. Laci’s passing has forced the soon-to-be 18-year-old to grow up in a hurry and consider the big picture in a way people his age shouldn’t necessarily have to.

“I’ve had a lot of people tell me that God took her early and that he has a plan,” Stone said. “At the same time it’s just, sometimes you wonder, like, wish she could’ve stayed a little longer, you know?”