Sean Kyle always smiled.

"He could be dripping with sweat, and he'd be smiling," linebacker Brett Shamblin said. "Working construction in the summer, he'd be working about 12-hour days. I'd come in about 7 in the weight room, and he'd still be in there smiling. The other guys would be dragging, but you could always get a smile out of him."

"He was on the scout team last year, so a lot of us offensive linemen got to know him pretty well because we practiced with him every day," center Drew Brown said. "The way our offense works, we're on the field about 30 minutes past the defense every day, running plays over and over and over. We didn't always enjoy it ... but I'm sure the scout team enjoyed it even less."

"Most of the scout team guys were kicking the dirt or whatever, but Sean was one of those guys who was always smiling. You couldn't help but look at him and think it's not that bad. If he's smiling, I guess I could smile. It takes a special person to do that. I think he would have been a great ballplayer here."

Kyle, a defensive lineman on the Pittsburg State football team, died Tuesday in a Construction Accident in Moore, Okla.

Working for Crossland Construction, Inc., Kyle reportedly fell approximately 35 feet off some scaffolding while helping build a movie theater.

Doug Westervelt, the safety director for Crossland Construction, told The Edmond Sun, "We are still investigating the accident, trying to figure out what went wrong."

Kyle was a standout football player and wrestler at Edmond (Okla.) Memorial High School. A member of the Gorillas' 2006 recruiting class, he was redshirted last season.

Approximately 90 PSU students and football coaches gathered for a candlelight vigil Wednesday night beside the lake in Gorilla Village. The display table included pictures of Kyle and his college and high school football helmets.

"I think we're in the perfect place," offensive tackle Zac Robinson said. "Sean liked to hunt and fish. He loved to play football, and we're right in between.

"To his parents, all these people loved Sean. We'll all miss him. Thank you for giving us the gift, for the short amount of time we got to spend with him."

"Last year at The Big Event (a community service initiative by PSU students), I was trying to get all the football players to chip in and help out," said wide receiver Taner Neighbors. "It was raining, everything was a mess, and no one wanted to help out. And I don't blame you guys.

"The first guy who came up to me was Sean. (Some football players) went out and raked leaves for hours, tons and tons of leaves. That's my memory of Sean. He was out there, no questions asked, first one to volunteer, not a complaint of him. He was a hard worker and just the nicest guy you could ever ask for. We're going to miss him."

Kyle and defensive lineman Derrik Jones were partners in the weight room, and Kyle was so much more to Jones.

"I needed a pair of shoes, and he told me where to get them and the price," Jones said. "He had a lot of good advice."

"Sean was big, strong, pleasant to be around," Gorillas head coach Chuck Broyles said. "He bought into everything you asked him to do. A redshirt freshman, somebody who would have been a big part of our defensive line this year. He was a hard worker.

"When Tim (Beck) and Carl (Roth, assistant coaches) go spring recruiting down in Oklahoma, they would go to the high schools in Edmond, and those coaches would say 'Hey, Sean is your best recruiter. He's telling everybody how great it is up at Pittsburg."

Broyles talked to Kyle's father Wednesday night.

"His dad said we were a good fit for Sean, and he was really happy up here," Broyles said. "What a tragedy ... 19 years old, it's hard to believe."

"Sean was a great kid, an excellent student also," PSU defensive line coach Anton Stewart said. "He was a hard-working kid, had built himself up ... bigger, stronger, faster. He had put himself into position to possibly get some playing time this year.

"The last talk that I had with Sean after spring football ... we talked about the opportunities that he had, and he was excited and ready to go home and work hard and come back and be part of something that hopefully will be good. But that opportunity is not going to happen now."

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