Zack Golditch lost his identity in the mayhem of July 20, 2012. At 6-foot-6 and a rock-solid 270-plus pounds, Golditch’s reputation as a star two-way lineman on the Gateway High School football team and Class 5A state discus champion preceded him across Aurora.
But then came the violence of July 20, and Golditch gained attention for very different reasons.
A bullet ripped through the Colorado State University football recruit’s neck in the chaos of the mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater that left 12 people dead and 58 others injured. It missed his vertebrae by mere millimeters and left a large exit wound beneath his left ear and two smaller ones at his hairline. Golditch escaped the theater with his life, but not all that he was. He’d gone from being an aggressor on the football field to an unwilling victim.
When the eyes of the world turned to Aurora in the weeks following the shooting, Golditch’s new role stood out. The news stories told of the football player who’d escaped the hell inside the theater. They detailed the resolve and spirit of the high school student who showed up at football practice mere hours after the gunshots rang out in a darkened theater. He even showed up in a news segment that aired during the Super Bowl.
A year after the tragedy, those stories are still part of Golditch’s everyday life. He can’t avoid it. But he’s also worked hard to reclaim his other persona.
“The identity of being that kid who got shot is going to stick with me, but it’s nice to be known as a football player because that’s where your hard work has got you,” Golditch said. “Getting shot wasn’t something I did or wanted to have happen to me. There are a lot of people who don’t know who I am, but a lot of them say, ‘Hey, I saw you on the news,’ or, ‘You’re that guy who got shot.’
“That’s how my identity is in the area to most, but to a lot of people, I’m still a football player.”
That football player relishes setting new school records in the weight room — he owns nearly all of them. He prides himself on the fact that he beat a double team to sack the quarterback, that he threw a pancake block to spring a Gateway running back. His accomplishments include leading coach Justin Hoffman’s Olympians to victory in Aurora’s annual Hog Wars prep linemen contest.
All of these victories came after that night that added a different dimension to his identity for the rest of the world.
Golditch and a number of friends and teammates had just settled in to watch the midnight premiere of the “Dark Knight Rises” at a movie theater just up the street from their school when Golditch heard a “pop-pop-pop” during a shootout scene in the movie.
Golditch thought somebody had set off small firecrackers. There was searing pain on the left side of his neck. Something was wrong. Hours later in the hospital, the toll of the attack finally sunk in.
Then came interviews, reporters, cameras. It was an adjustment for the soft-spoken Golditch, who seemed slightly uncomfortable in a spotlight that didn’t come from competing. Amid the chaotic fallout, he just wanted to get back to one of the most rock-solid things in his life: the football field.
He had already built up a perfect streak of attendance at workouts, and he didn’t want to let the attack derail his record. Golditch vowed to make football practice the next day so he wouldn’t miss learning one new play.
But his attendance at that practice also had a different purpose. He wanted to show his team he was still a fighter; that he wasn’t simply the shooting victim who was showing up on the news.
“I wasn’t there to participate, it was just to let everybody know that I was OK,” he said. “We had guys who don’t come to practice because they are a little bit sick or have a runny nose or a cold. They just don’t feel like it. So I thought it would be good to show them that no matter what, if you can get to practice, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t come. You may not be able to participate, but you can come.”
Three weeks later, Golditch got cleared medically for light workouts and on Aug. 20, he strapped on his shoulder pads for the first time since the shooting. Two weeks later, Golditch stood triumphantly over Smoky Hill quarterback Trent Clay twice after sacks in Gateway’s cathartic 26-0 season-opening victory. He also forced a fumble and blocked ferociously in the Olys’ 250-yard rushing attack, looking every bit the part of a Division I prospect.
His recovery was rapid, but Golditch still looks back with regret on the time he lost. His momentum. His security. That’s the football player in him. A few short weeks spent on the sidelines were a serious loss; his amazing story of survival and healing was a roadblock in his important training regimen.
“The biggest thing I’ve lost is time,” Golditch said. “The time from the recovery to when I was able to come back.”
But that time couldn’t spoil a football season that saw him rack up 62 tackles and 11 sacks on his way to league defensive player of the year honors.
The team finished the regular season with a 7-2 record. The wins helped galvanize the school and yielded the program’s first home playoff game in nearly 10 years.
Gateway’s season ended with a one-point playoff loss to nearby Regis Jesuit, but Golditch handled it in stride. His football career was back on track and a few months later, he signed his letter of intent with Colorado State University. He capped off his prep athletic career with his second state championship in the discus.
Golditch is back to being a football player. He’s looking forward to making his mark at Colorado State, and he’s thought further ahead to a possible run at the NFL. His dedication to the game hasn’t stopped him from being a normal teenager. He doesn’t shy away from movie theaters and typically doesn’t turn down a chance to have fun with friends if he has the money.
The gunman who stole precious time from Golditch hasn’t taken away his life as a normal kid.
“I don’t let him disrupt my life; I’m a teenager, I want to go out to movies,” he said. “I don’t want to let it change me.”
Even so, the role of victim hasn’t disappeared completely. Golditch knows he will never fully shed the story of survival and determination, but he’s looking to make it a mere footnote in comparison to the story he writes on the field.
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: The personal toll
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: The physical toll
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: The emotional toll
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: Our identity
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: Our city
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: Our children
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: Our community
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: Ourselves
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: Message triggers a new attitude toward guns
7.20.2012 THE PRICE WE PAID: Q&A with Gov. John Hickenlooper
Comments are closed.