Ledyard honors student athlete who died after football game

Ledyard - Here, baseball diamonds are forever.

Starting this season, Ledyard High School's baseball field will be known as Matt Buriak Field, named after the popular high school junior who collapsed during a football game last fall and died several days later, on Nov. 24, 2009.

"No one will ever forget now," said Buriak's mother, Roberta. "I think it was one thing that people will remember him because he was so young and they'll remember him as the student who died while they were in school. But this has really made my husband (Leon) and me feel that there really was something special about him."

Buriak, who would have turned 17 on St. Patrick's Day, was a catcher for the team and had hoped to be a starting player this season.

He was an honors student at Ledyard High who played football, basketball and baseball for the Colonels.

The Ledyard community came together after the death of Buriak, who was well-known in town. His family had been active in youth sports since both Matt and his sister, Melissa, were young, and were active in the school system.

"We were pretty well-known and Matt was really making a name for himself," Roberta Buriak said.

The Board of Education voted unanimously at its last meeting to approve naming the field, acting on an idea initiated by baseball coach Sam Kilpatrick. A new sign will be unveiled at the start of the season, said Michael Graner, Ledyard's superintendent of schools.

"The board realized that Matt had such a positive influence on our school and, in particular, on our baseball program," Graner said. "It just seemed like it was the right thing to do, to name a baseball facility after Matt."

Since Buriak's death, thousands of dollars have been raised for a scholarship in his name. On Saturday, a cook-off that pitted two high school coaches against one another raised $1,060. Wednesday night, the junior class is holding a dodgeball tournament at the high school and is donating half its proceeds to the scholarship fund.

Other events include a golf tournament scheduled for May 19.

"I think a lot of people have said to us 'Is it too much?'" said Roberta Buriak. "And I said 'It's not just us healing, it's everybody else too.' So I think all these things help everybody else heal, make everybody else healed too."

m.collette@theday.com