Former UW football player Johnie Kirton found dead in hotel
by Nick Eaton, Seattlepi.com
Johnie Kirton (with dreadlocks) looks up during an exercise on the first day of Huskies spring football in April 2008. (Grant M. Haller/Seattle P-I file)
Former Huskies football player Johnie Kirton, from Everett, was found dead in a hotel room Monday , according to reports. He was 26.
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Kirton, who went to Jackson High School in Everett, was found by a teammate around 11 p.m. Monday after Kirton's girlfriend asked the teammate to check on him, the San Jose Mercury News reports. She was worried because she couldn't reach Kirton.
Police said there was no reason to suspect a crime had been committed, the Mercury News reports. No further details, such as the cause of death, were immediately available.
Kirton joined the San Jose SaberCats, an Arena Football League team, just three weeks ago as a fullback. After leaving the University of Washington in 2009, he played for the AFL's Arizona Rattlers in 2010, the Chicago Rush last season, and returned to Arizona this season for two games before being traded to San Jose, according to the Mercury News.
"He was such a great kid, and in the short time he was in San Jose he was such a valued member of our organization's family," SaberCats coach Darren Arbet said in a statement. "Johnie was a great team guy and hard-nosed player, and he will be sorely missed."
In 2003, when he was a senior at Jackson High, Kirton was named the state Gatorade Player of the Year as a running back. He rushed for 2,675 yards that season, one yard shy of breaking the state single-season record.
After redshirting his first year at Washington, he played tight end, fullback and defensive tackle throughout his college career, starting in 12 games. In his senior season, when the 2008 Huskies went 0-12, Kirton got two starts as a defensive lineman.
"In the end, I had the opportunity to be a Husky, to bleed purple and gold and do what I do best - that's play football," Kirton told the Seattle P-I in November 2008.
"If anything, I'm glad for some of the things I've done here, like the (position) switches, going to Africa (for a quarter studying abroad), meeting the coaches I've met, and it's all been uphill (in a good way) for me," he added.
Kirton, who has a young daughter, had also helped run an after-school football program for elementary students in Tempe, Ariz. According to the Mercury News, the San Jose SaberCats plan to wear stickers with his jersey number, 37, on their helmets during their upcoming game Saturday.
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