MONTEGO BAY, St James — The late Cornwall College student/athlete Dane Buckley, who died on Thursday after succumbing to injuries he received when he was among a number of people who were shot in early May, was described as a “consummate leader” by his former coach Dr Dean Weatherly.

Buckley was part of the Cornwall College Under-14 team that won the rural area schoolboy football title. He left to attend the Mount Pleasant Football Academy before returning, and was preparing to sit external exams when he was shot on May 2 as he stood among a group of people in the Blood Lane community of St James from which he hailed.

Weatherly, who coached Buckley the last three years, said his brother Paul Weatherly was the one who spotted the talented midfielder when he represented Chetwood Primary in the St James FA/VM Foundation Under-13 competition.

“He was small in stature but big in heart and also you know he was not afraid of anyone on the football field,” Dean Weatherly recalled.

“He came into the Under-14 set up and after helping us to win a trophy he left and came back and moved up through the age-group teams. [He] always trying to lead by example on the football field.

“When he came back, he took back his place in the midfield and he was the consummate leader on the field, always played his heart out and you could see the impact on our game and on the team on a whole. We have definitely lost a stalwart and a true Cornwallian and he will be missed by the Cornwall College family,” said the veteran coach.

Cornwall College Principal Michael Ellis told the Jamaica Observer that though the shooting took place a few weeks ago, the news of the 18-year-old’s passing on Thursday hit hard.

Ellis bemoaned “the lack of respect for life and the celebration of violence” in society.

“It’s really a sad day and it pains my heart when you consider what has been happening to our young people, the kind of society that we are we are living in, just the callousness and the coldness, the lack of respect for life and the celebration of violence in our society and how this has been affecting our young people,” the principal said.

“It really pains my heart to think that a young man who has so much promise, a young man was given so much and still has a lot more to offer could have had his life snuffed out in such a cold and callous and insensitive manner,” he reiterated. “My heart goes out for his dear mother and family members, for his friends, his associates at school who are just inconsolable at the moment, to think that they would have lost a friend in the manner in which we have lost Dane.

“As a school, we’re extending our condolences to his relatives and friends and we are taking comfort in the fact that Dane would have served us with distinction and, you know, it’s just sad to see him go like that right now,” Ellis added.

“We are in a sombre mood at the school because we are in disbelief. It [the shooting] happened a couple of weeks ago, but it appears as if it was just this morning, when we got the sad news that he had passed. We are surrounding his mother with love, as a school, we will continue to support his family members in whatever way we can,” said the Cornwall College principal.