Brigham City • With the dinner rush over, Juan Gaytan slid into an empty booth at the little pizzeria off Main Street and, while he waited, started drawing lacrosse plays on the plastic tabletop with his fingers. An O charged past a defending X, and in the coach’s imagination, scored a goal into the basket of condiments between the parmesan cheese and the red pepper flakes.
“Yahoo,” the 40-year-old declared with the sliver of a Texas accent that remains after his 25 years in Utah. “That’s how you do it.”
Jacob Geddie, 18, taking his break at the restaurant, grabbed a chair across from Gaytan and his mom just as his coach cheered the pretend victory. They’ve been meeting here almost every Tuesday night. Ever since two members of this northern Utah town’s high school lacrosse team died by suicide and Geddie had briefly planned to become the third.
“So did you go to your counselor today?” Gaytan asked, jumping into it with a directness learned from years of shouting calls from the sidelines.
“No,” Geddie responded. “I didn’t have a car.”
“Next Tuesday, you can borrow mine. For therapy,” Gaytan said. “I’m not giving you my car to go on dates.”
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