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Those who knew Michael Semkus will remember him as a man who loved to encourage kids to follow their dreams.Mr. Semkus, 28, who was an elementary school teacher and soccer coach in the Sag Harbor School District, died on Monday of a drug overdose, according to Southampton Town Police.
Funeral services have not yet been set, but they will take place at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor.
“Mike is a beautiful man and he inspired a lot of kids and he inspired a lot of athletes,” said Benito Vila, the director of the Sag Harbor Coalition—a community group dedicated to preventing drug use by young people—who coached Mr. Semkus in baseball and also played softball and surfed with him. “It is a huge loss for us in the water. It’s just a huge loss.”
Mr. Vila added that Mr. Semkus even inspired those who saw him just “doing dips” to work his triceps at the beach.
The coalition will meet next week to figure out a proper way to respond to Mr. Semkus’s death, Mr. Vila said. “The problems that we read about in the paper in terms of our youth using drugs and alcohol are real,” he said. “They are real. It is not just that they exist in the rest of the world—they also exist here.”
The Sag Harbor School District administration sent out a letter to families on Tuesday mourning the loss of Mr. Semkus and informing them that counseling services are available to students if needed. “We will always remember Michael’s kind and generous spirit,” the letter states. “Michael worked closely with many of our students, as a teacher and coach, so we understand many may be struggling with this loss.”
It continues, “Sag Harbor is a strong and close-knit community that stands together during difficult times. Listening, understanding and supporting our school family and the Semkus family are our priority. Please let us know if we can be of help to you as we work together to comfort each other and the students.”
“No matter what Mike did, it was 100 percent, all the time,” said Eric Bramoff, the athletic director at the Sag Harbor schools, who was also his teacher, lifeguarded with Mr. Semkus, and considered him his favorite beach volleyball partner. “He became a mentor to young lifeguards,” Mr. Bramoff said of Mr. Semkus. “He would perform feats of strength and endurance that you didn’t know if they were real or a myth.”
He recalled a specific instance: “One time my lifeguard friend ran from Montauk to Main Beach, East Hampton, on the beach. The next day, Mike ran from Montauk to Sagg Main, six miles farther—because that was Mike.”
Alyx Tortorice, a Southampton resident who also lifeguarded with Mr. Semkus during the summers, remembered him as a “machine” in the water. “I loved watching whenever he would compete at a lifeguard tournament,” she said. “He would just win stuff all the time, and then walk away like it was nothing.”
She added, “All the kids loved him on the beach—he had a gang. The moms loved him, too.”
Alisha Steindecker on Mar 23, 2016