By BUTCH HARMON
When it came to playing football for the Corunna Cavaliers, Shane Cantu was a leader who always put the team first. It should have come as no surprise that after high school, the 2010 graduate of Corunna High School put his country first, as he joined the U. S. Army and became a paratrooper.
Cantu gave the ultimate sacrifice to his country. He lost his life August 28 when he was struck by shrapnel during an attack at his base in Charkh, Afghanistan.
Cantu was laid to rest September 10 at Greenwood Cemetary in Vernon after hundreds of friends, family, classmates, teammates, and residents of the community turned out at Nick Annese Athletic Field at Corunna High School to honor a true hometown hero.
Throughout his time as a student in Corunna and during his service in the military, Cantu was a young man who was a positive role model both on the athletic field and in the classroom.
“Shane was an outstanding citizen,” Corunna athletic director Nicole Norris said. “He was also very proud to be a Cavalier. He was always very helpful and upbeat. He was a good role model for all students, as well as a standout athlete. He was dedicated to the team concept and was a selfless type of person. He was just a wonderful all-around person.”
For his high school football coach, Mike Sullivan, he was even more than that.
“Shane was like a son to me,” Sullivan said. “I have five kids, but Shane was like a sixth child to me. Shane has a phenomenal family. His mom and dad and aunts, uncles, and cousins. They are just great people who raised one heck of a son, and I was just fortunate enough to have Shane as a part of my life.”
Shane’s impact on the football program at Corunna was a lasting one. A linebacker for three years, Shane established a linebacker tradition within the football team.
“Shane started it in the 2007 season,” Sullivan said. “He called it LBC4L. It stood for “Linebacker Crew For Life”. Before every practice and every game, the linebackers would chant it. After high school, every letter or e-mail I received from Shane would end with LBC4L. It was a linebacker brotherhood that he started here at Corunna.”
Lining up next to Cantu at linebacker was one of his best friends, Trevor Ganssley.
“The LBC4L was like a fraternity,” Ganssley said. “The Corunna linebacker crew, with coach Sullivan, we were linebackers for life. It was an extra-special bond between the linebackers at Corunna from the past, present, and future. We really took it to heart.”
Ganssley spent many a day with his friend, both on and off the football field, while growing up.
“We played football from the third grade until the end of high school,” Ganssley said. “Since I was nine or ten years old, he has always been my best friend. In football he was the hardest hitter on the team. He was also a team leader. He would always make sure that guys would do the right thing and try to be perfect all the time. We also spent a lot of time together away from football. I remember a lot of special times, like the time we spent in junior high school just talking and joking around and playing in basketball tournaments on the weekend. We had a lot of great times together.”
Cantu was not just a team leader with what he said but was an even more effective leader by his actions.
During his senior year, Cantu suffered a major leg injury when he broke both his fibula and his tibula.
“It was a nasty break,” Sullivan said. “It was the fourth game of the season against Lansing Catholic Central, and he refused to be carted off the field. He stayed on the opposing sideline and refused to be carted off. He wanted to stay and support his teammates. We finally got him in an ambulance, but he was a team captain and a rock who refused to leave his teammates.”
After extensive surgery that included plates and screws, Cantu vowed to make it back on the field before the end of the season.
“In our final game against Fowlerville, Shane wanted to get on the field and catch a pass,” Sullivan said. “I talked to the Fowlerville coach before the game if he would let us throw a pass to Shane near the sidelines, and he agreed. There was no way Shane wasn’t going to catch that football, and after he caught it you couldn’t get it away from him. There was no way he was not going to make it back on the field and take one more snap.”
For Sullivan, his relationship with Cantu was more than just football, although Shane loved the game with a deep passion.
“Shane was very, very special to my 10-year old son Brendan,” Sullivan said. “He would always take Brendan under his wing. He would come and take Brendan to lunch before a game and when I’d coach at a JV game, Shane would watch him for me at the game and take him to the concession stand. This past summer when he was home, he would come and visit Brendan. He was that neat of a kid.”
While Cantu also played basketball and ran track at Corunna, it was football that was his passion.
“Shane just loved football,” Sullivan said. “He loved the game and loved teaching it. The kids in Shane’s class were all close and loved football. Shane would also work my camp every year. He loved teaching football and loved to be around it.”
Shane and his fellow seniors had many memories during their high school careers but maybe none more important then the rivalry with Owosso.
“Shane was 3-0 against Owosso,” Sullivan said. “We had our struggles as a team at times, but those three wins against Owosso were pretty special.”
Sullivan was not surprised that Cantu carried over his enthusiasm for football into the Army.
“Shane’s mom read a letter from his commanding officer in Afghanistan,” Sullivan said. “He said that as an officer, he was not supposed to have favorites, but that right from the first day Shane was his favorite. He always gave 100 percent all the time. That he was the kind of soldier who would help everyone and do anything that was asked of him. I always knew that Shane would make a great soldier, because that was just the kind of person he was. He was a selfless person who would help anyone at anytime.”
That selflessness and willingness to serve others was not lost on the community.
“After the news about Shane, every billboard in town and message board had something about Shane,” Sullivan said. “The outpouring of support from the community was amazing. When they brought Shane’s body back to Corunna from the airport, he got a hero’s welcome. That was what Shane deserved. That was what Shane earned. He is a hero for this town.”