‘We needed a win,’ football coach says after verdict in ex-cop’s case

Tuesday afternoon was the first time in 16 months that the Skeeters high school football team really breathed.

As the teenagers got ready for practice, ex-Balch Springs police Officer Roy Oliver was found guilty of murdering their teammate — 15-year-old Jordan Edwards — in April 2017.

Oliver shot five times into a vehicle Edwards was a passenger in. He claimed he opened fire because the car was moving toward his partner, Officer Tyler Gross. Edwards, his brothers and a couple of friends were leaving a house party at around 11 p.m. on April 29, 2017, when the shooting happened.

On Tuesday afternoon, the players learned about the guilty verdict. They didn’t jump. They didn’t scream or cheer.

They breathed.

“It’s like they have permission to be happy again,” coach Jeff Fleener told the Star-Telegram on Tuesday. “We needed a win.”

Edwards was killed the Saturday before the team began their spring practice last year. Fleener, who was new to Mesquite High School, had only known Edwards for six weeks before the shooting.

But Edwards made an impression. And his teammates loved him, Fleener said.

“It was hard to feel good about what you were doing on the football field while you also have these other feelings,” he said. “We struggled. We didn’t have a great season.”

The players weren’t in the games, Fleener said.

“They were dealing with things that 15-, 16-, 17-year-old young men shouldn’t have to deal with,” he said. “A little piece of our team died with Jordan.”

And on Monday, Fleener found himself in yet another position he never expected to be in — he had to explain to the football team the difference between manslaughter and murder.

“We were having conversations about intent,” he said, shaking his head.

It wasn’t shocking to Fleener that Edwards got justice.

“He was the perfect kid,” the coach said. “That’s the only narrative there is. You couldn’t find anything wrong.”

The verdict won’t bring Edwards back — but it helped to lift a cloud that hung over the team.

“It gives our young men hope — if you do the right things, justice will be served if something happens to you,” Fleener said. “Now we can focus on Jordan and how amazing he was.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 5:59 PM with the headline "‘We needed a win,’ football coach says after verdict in ex-cop’s case."