Hundreds gather, shoot hoops to honor Olympic High player who died

Saturday night, Olympic High’s Aaron Barker came home from basketball practice and excused himself to go to the bathroom. He never came out.

Barker, 15, was found nonresponsive and was rushed the hospital. He never woke up.

Several Olympic High parents contacted the Observer to express how tough the loss is on the Trojans’ athletic community. They said Olympic’s players stayed with Barker at the hospital until after 11 p.m. Saturday night.

“This is a hard one to understand,” one parent said via text message.

Sunday afternoon, a gathering was organized at the Morrison YMCA in south Charlotte. More than 300 high school students and players gathered to remember Barker, a promising 6-foot-3 sophomore who was one of his team’s leading scorers. They played pick-up ball and were able to talk and decompress.

“It was a moving experience,” said Aundre Speight, whose son Chandler was a good friend of Barker’s.

Speight played eighth-grade travel basketball with Barker on Muggsy Bogues’ MB1 team two years ago.

Chandler Speight, 16, a ninth-grader at Fort Mill’s Comenius School, was at the Charlotte Hornets game Saturday night when he got the news about his friend.

Sunday morning, Speight asked players via social media to gather. He got more than he could have imagined.

“They went out there and hooped, and it was great,” Aundre Speight said. “They played full-court basketball. We had a clock running. Everybody stayed around to play. Then Aaron’s older brothers showed up. It was pretty amazing. When they showed up, the gym just stopped and everybody gathered around them and hugged them.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2017 at 7:36 PM with the headline "Hundreds gather, shoot hoops to honor Olympic High player who died."