A news article about Zach

The mourners, many wearing Pittsburg High School letter jackets, carried the stunned expressions of young people confronted with their own mortality. The former classmates, teammates, coaches, teachers and friends were gathered to say goodbye to Willis who apparently died of injuries suffered in a fist fight outside a convenience store early Sunday morning.

No charges have yet been filed in the investigation of the death.

At 10 a.m., Willis' coffin - adorned with his purple, high school football, basketball and baseball jerseys - was slowly rolled into the church.

The pallbearers, all wearing their own Pittsburg High School sports jerseys, took their seats in front of the church just across from the Willis family.

There was no mention of the way Willis died during Friday's service. Instead, those who spoke dwelled on the way he lived.

A standout three-sport athlete, Willis also graduated in the top 10 percent in his 2003 Pittsburg High School senior class. At the time of his death, Willis was a freshman at Pittsburg State University.

But those who spoke said Willis was much more than a gifted student-athlete.

"If you wanted a little brother, you would want to have Zach," Kate Willis said.

Kate Willis, who alternately had the crowd laughing and crying, spoke about how she and her younger brother fought as children and how they grew to develop a strong bond as they grew older.

"I always wanted to be just like him, he was so smart," she said. "He was so strong, so smart and always happy."

Merl Clark, Willis' high school football coach, told the crowd how, as a sophomore member of the school's junior varsity football team, Willis played almost three quarters of a game with a broken collar bone.

"Zach was born to play sports," Clark said. Mike Plank, another of Willis' former coaches, remembered his player's competitiveness.

"If it was a sport, Zach played it. And how did he play? With his heart and soul," he said.

Gary Grimaldi, Willis' baseball coach, talked about looking for that "twinkle" in Willis' eyes whenever he would strike someone out with his curve ball.

"It was his favorite pitch," Grimaldi said. "I know that Zach is playing baseball in heaven, and I bet that curve ball isn't any easier to hit in heaven than it was here."

As the service came to an end, Kate Willis rose from her pew and stood in front of her brother's coffin. As she cried softly, she was quickly surrounded by her brother's former teammates, who now served as his pallbearers.

As those stunned, young faces filed out of the church and stepped into the chilly, rainy weather, they could look across the street and see a large sign in front of the Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium with a plain, yet poignant message:

"We'll miss you Zach."