Max Tuerk never intended on being an offensive lineman. He wanted to play a skill position. You know, catch passes, score touchdowns, hear the fans at Santa Margarita High cheer for him.
Specifically, Tuerk thought he’d play tight end, like his dad, Greg, did at Brown.
So it must have been an unpleasant shock for Tuerk when his head coach, Harry Welch, and Santa Margarita’s offensive line coach, Marty Spalding, informed Tuerk he would playing on the offensive line.
“Much to his chagrin and his father’s disappointment,” Welch recalled on Sunday. “I’m sure for a while there was a dartboard in the Tuerk home that had my face on it.”
But in the end, the decision proved to be a life-changer for Tuerk, who died on Saturday at the age of 26 while on a hike with his parents.
As an offensive lineman, Tuerk received a full scholarship to USC, becoming the first-ever true freshman to start at left tackle for the Trojans. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft, and could have gone higher if not for a knee injury suffered in his senior season.
But Tuerk, about to start his sophomore season of high school, couldn’t know any of that when he first got his unwanted assignment. All he could know was he was sacrificing personal glory for the good of the team.
And he did it. Without a complaint, without an attitude. Because first and foremost, Tuerk was a teammate.
When Welch and Spalding took their jobs at Santa Margarita in the winter of 2010, they evaluated Tuerk and came to a decision: Tuerk could be a good tight end, but he could be “an All-American offensive lineman.”
Perhaps Tuerk wasn’t thrilled with this assessment. There was even locker room gossip that he might transfer. Instead, he stuck it out at Santa Margarita. And as a senior in 2011, he was an integral part of the team that led the Eagles to a CIF Division 1 state championship, their second-ever state title.
A tragic duty for an old head coach, Welch texted former teammates and coaches to inform them of Tuerk’s death on Sunday. Among the contacts were LSU head coach Ed Orgeron, who recruited Tuerk to USC and expressed his condolences to the family.
But one response stood out to Welch, from another lineman on that state championship team that went on to play at Washington, Dane Crane.
“I’m crushed as I’m sure we all are now. I love you and everyone in that program, especially with the magical run led by Max,” Crane’s text read. “That team was the best because he was, and he could handle your standards and expectations and convince the rest of us we could do it, too.”
Over the phone on Monday, Crane described Tuerk as the best teammate he had in high school or college. He recalled how once Tuerk officially became a senior, he dissolved the differences between classes on the football team, helping to create a cohesive unit where seniors and underclassmen hung out together.
“I think he just made all of us feel special,” said Crane, who was a year below Tuerk. “Like we were on his level when in reality we all knew we weren’t. He was so much better than everyone else around and you would have never known it. I’m not sure he even believed it.”
Tuerk organized Wednesday night team dinners during the season at Wing Stop, reserving Thursday nights for his own mental preparation for the game the next day. Crane looked up to Tuerk so much that he began to imitate this routine.
If a teammate stepped out of line to criticize someone else in the locker room, Tuerk was the first to step up in his defense. And he withstood criticism from his coaches, who could pick on Tuerk to set an example for the rest of the players on the roster.
“I think the rallying cry of that championship team was following 77 through everything,” Crane said. “If he could do it, then we felt like we could do it.”
But sometimes his competitive fire came through, too.
In the third round of the 2011 playoffs, Santa Margarita found itself in the middle of a tight game with Mission Viejo. Eagle quarterback Johnny Stanton threw a pass that was batted by a defensive back.
The ball traveled through the air all the way back to the line of scrimmage before it was batted again by a Santa Margarita lineman back downfield, leading to a Mission Viejo interception.
As the defense took the field for the Eagles, a sophomore called up for the playoff run laughed on the sidelines at the volleyball-like play. Tuerk took exception to the moment of levity in the middle of a playoff battle.
“I just see him take this kid straight to the ground,” Crane recounted. “Max was saying, ‘This isn’t over. This isn’t funny. This is my (expletive) life.’ “
“To Max and his focus, the game wasn’t over,” Welch added. “I think, no exaggeration, I think it required two coaches and five teammates to hold Max back from having this young man meet his maker. This was not a time for comedy.”
But there would be time later in life.
About a year and a half ago, Tuerk and Welch met for a long lunch at B.J.’s and caught up. They laughed about the initial decision to move Tuerk to the offensive line.
Tuerk said that he resented it at the time, but agreed it was a “life-altering decision” for him.
“It was the way he accepted it,” Welch said, deferring all credit to the player. “Any coach can move people around, but it’s the way people accept and attack. Max just ate it up.”