Donations to the family of Frank Enriquez can be made to "Jayme Delamore for the benefit of victims and families of the Las Vegas Elite Boxing Team," c/o Bank of The West, Account 265028159
Few who knew him were surprised when Frank Enriquez decided to drive 1,300 miles to see his sons compete in a national boxing tournament -- least of all his children.
In fact, once Enriquez decided to travel with his three teenage sons to the Ringside World Championship in Kansas City, Mo., his family knew there was no convincing him otherwise.
For the hard-working single father, traveling was a way to connect with his sons, the youngest of whom, 11-year-old Jamie, was to box Wednesday, Enriquez's 13-year-old son, Jeremy, said Wednesday night.
"It was kind of hard for him to take time off" from his job imprinting T-shirts, Jeremy said. "Sometimes he couldn't spend time with us because he worked so hard. He tried so hard."
Jeremy was riding with his father Monday morning when a blown rear tire caused the rented van they were riding in to spin out of control on Interstate 70 near Moab, Utah. The van flipped several times before coming to rest in the landscaped median, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.
Frank Enriquez and another passenger, 64-year-old Hevertina Bahena, the grandmother of three other teens riding in the van, died after being transported to Moab Memorial Hospital, according to the highway patrol.
Four of the five teenagers inside the van, including Frank's 14-year-old son Joseph, were transported to a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., where they remained Wednesday night in critical condition.
Jeremy suffered minor injuries in the crash and was staying with an aunt, Victoria Campe, in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Enriquez last talked to his sister Sunday, the day before he and his sons were to head to Kansas City, she said. Like countless other conversations the siblings had shared, the last one centered on an upcoming tournament.
Some might call Frank's dedication to his children stubborn. Campe had another word for it.
"He was very high-spirited," Campe said. "If he believed in something, he went for it."
And he believed in boxing. A 46-year-old divorced father of three, Enriquez was drawn to boxing about two years ago as a way to introduce his sons to competitive sports, Gil Martinez, head boxing coach at the Las Vegas Elite boxing gym, where Enriquez's sons trained, said.
Even as Enriquez's health began to fade because of liver disease, boxing became a more integral part of his life, Campe said. His new-found love of the sport pushed him to raise money for his sons' boxing team to travel to events throughout the country, she said. When he died, he was working with his sister to develop a nonprofit boxing association for children, which earlier this month received its corporate charter.
Happiness hadn't always come easy for Enriquez, who went through a bitter divorce and fought for custody of his children about 10 years ago, Campe said.
"He wasn't perfect but he was devoted to his children," she said. "He was a mother, a father and a best friend to them."
Boxing was part of the boys' routines. Enriquez would often shift his work schedule to make time to bring his sons to the gym, where they would practice three hours a day, six days a week, Martinez said.
"He was a very, very dedicated father," Martinez said. "He cared a lot for his children. I don't think those kids could have asked for a better parent."
This week's competition in Missouri would have been the latest in a string of more than a dozen out-of-town competitions for Enriquez's youngest son, 11-year-old Jamie, who was riding in another van at the time of the crash, Martinez said.
Instead, tournament organizers held a moment of silence for the family Wednesday morning, when the boys would have taken the ring, Albert Guardado, a spokesman for Ringside Boxing, said.
"People continue to ask questions," Guardado said. "It's definitely on the hearts and minds of everyone here."
Martinez was riding in another van ahead of Enriquez when the accident occurred. He stayed with family members at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., Wednesday night.
Investigators in Utah have not determined whether faulty tires were to blame for the accident.
According to the UHP, the team was riding in a rented Ford Econoline van, a model that has been at the center of several lawsuits claiming the vehicles -- popular with school and church groups because they can seat up to 15 passengers -- are unstable when loaded at full capacity. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2002 issued a consumer advisory for the vans, saying the vehicles' high center of gravity makes them more prone to rollover accidents.
The agency estimated that at least 70 similar vans, including models by Chevrolet and Dodge, were involved in rollover accidents since the mid-1990s, killing more than 120 passengers.
Traveling to the tournaments, usually by van, had become a kind of ritual for the family, as the combination of team and family fostered a unique camaraderie between Enriquez and his sons, Jeremy said.
"Those (the trips) were straight-out fun because, we weren't just with our dad, we were with our team," Jeremy said. "I enjoyed doing everything with him."
Although Enriquez had been involved in the local boxing scene for only a couple of years, he walked, talked and acted like a man who had been around the sport his entire life, Campe said.
"His whole life changed around" after he became involved with boxing, Campe said. "It was the happiest I remember seeing him."
Enriquez was the fourth-youngest child in a family of eight children, said Campe, his older sister. He had lived in Las Vegas since 1988.
Enriquez is survived by his three sons and 18-year-old daughter Jessica Enriquez.
archive