Wesley Michael Spano: September 25th, 1996 – January 13, 2016

Baseball is what Wesley Spano and his entire family all loved doing together. His mother Lauren Hirsch and step-father Gregg Hirsch, and his father Michael Spano and step-mother Lili Spano all loved watching him and his older brother Alec play for the St. Thomas Aquinas baseball team. The Raiders’ baseball family was the perfect welcome fit and it was time cherished right up to Wesley’s graduation after last season.

On Wednesday, January 13th the family suffered a terrible loss with Wesley Spano’s passing at the age of nineteen. The University of Florida freshman was found deceased inside his car parked on campus early Wednesday morning.

Wes is remembered best for his intelligence and his quiet, relaxed demeanor. Besides serving as a valuable left-hander on the baseball team he was also an excellent student with a cumulative unweighted grade-point average of 3.9 and a 5.2 weighted grade-point average. He was a member of the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society, he volunteered with Investment and Money Management Inc., a nonprofit that teaches athletes to make smart financial choices, and he ran his own DJ company. The young entrepreneur performed at weddings, parties and Cross-Fit competitions.

“Wes was a quiet, very intense kid, but always smiling,” St. Thomas manager Troy Cameron said. “He was the smart kid that got along with the smart kids, the athlete that got along with the athletes and he has his own DJ business so of course he was considered a cool kid, because what DJ is not considered cool. Any time we had team meetings when things were not on track, I would always ask Wes and Eddie Angelbello to talk because they just had a way to articulate what was falling short and how we could all fix it.”

The Spano family had been involved with the Raiders baseball program for the past three years. Michael Spano was a fixture at the baseball field to enjoy Wes’ career. Michael was always at the field earlier than anyone else on game days, and he typically spent time throwing BP to Wes in the cages.

Alec graduated following the 2013 season before heading on to the University of Florida, and Wes played the next two seasons before graduating this past year. He had options to pitch at Rollins and other colleges, but none of those schools offered an engineering program so Wes decided to join his brother at UF. He had intended to walk on to the Gators’ baseball team in the spring.

As family and teammates across the country struggle with their grief it is baseball that helps everyone remember together. The St. Thomas program is as tight a group as any, with open and honest bonds with one another that last forever. Whenever the season ends, the group has been known to take a long time to say their final goodbyes, and has even held practices after the season just to have everyone together one last time.

Players are often reminded to leave it all on the field when you play baseball, and Wes Spano stands tall as one who did just that. His senior season he did not allow any earned runs in 10 relief appearances, with 14 strikeouts in 11.1 innings pitched. The southpaw struck out eight in five innings over his final five appearances, including two strikeouts in the final game of the season at Royal Palm Beach.

The Viewing will be held at Landmark Funeral Home, 4200 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, on Sunday, January 17th from 2:00 to 6:00 PM, with a Prayer Service Sunday at 4:00 PM. Funeral Mass will be Monday, at 10:00 AM at Nativity Catholic Church; 5200 Johnson Street, Hollywood.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to the Wesley Spano St. Thomas Aquinas Memorial Fund; 2801 S.W. 12th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33312 Attn.: Nadine Moore.

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