A Farewell For A Sixteen-Year-Old

"To-day, the road all runners come,

Shoulder-high we bring you home,

And set you at your threshold door,

Townsman of a stiller town" 

- "To An Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman

Friends and family had a chance to say goodbye Monday to Central Regional sophomore Abraham Hogan at his funeral at St. Barnabas R.C. Church in Bayville.

, 16, was a popular member of the Central Regional High School football team and track team. The young man who threw the discus and the shotput, the young man who loved to play the drums, took his own life last Monday at his Bayville home.

"Rest in peace, Abe. May God ease your pain. You left us too soon," one person wrote on the Facebook page "R.I.P. ."

The family received relatives and friends yesterday at two wakes at the Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals in Bayville.  A Mass of Christian Burial was held at 9:30 a.m. Monday at St. Barnabas R.C. Church on Woodland Road in Bayville, according to his obituary on Legacy.com.

In lieu of flowers the family has requested donations be made in Abe's memory to the Central Regional Athletic Department, 703 Pinewald-Keswick Road, Bayville, NJ 08721.

The boy's death shocked many in the close-knit Central Regional community. Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides quickly activated the crisis intervention team and mobilized teachers and coaches to counsel students who needed to talk.

"He was a great kid," Parlapanides said the day after Hogan's death. "He was a member of the football team, the track team. He was involved in the school. He seemed like a happy kid. It was just shocking. It's tragic."

Abe Hogan was preceded in death by his grandmother, Rebecca Simonson. He is survived by his grandfather, Martin Catapane; great-grandmother, Thereza Campolo; sister, Sarah Guerrera and a niece, Elaina. Abe is also survived by his Aunt Connie and her husband Tony Fechenda; his cousins, Jacob and Anthony; Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Kenny, according to his obituary.