Pryor pays tribute to Straeter at Hokum Karem

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Rochester hung the middle school cross-country jersey of the late Mason Straeter at the Rochester Hokum Karem at Rochester City Park Saturday. Straeter had run on the Rochester Middle School cross-country team for current Rochester High School coach Troy Pryor. Straeter died in a dirtbiking accident July 31. He was 12. The bib number 502 was to honor Straeter’s dirtbiking team number. 

Troy Pryor made his debut as Rochester cross-country coach at the inaugural Rochester Hokum Karem at Rochester City Park Saturday.

At the forefront of his mind was someone who was not there to witness it – Mason Straeter. Straeter was killed in a dirtbike accident July 31. He was 12 and would have been a seventh-grader at Rochester Middle School this fall.

Straeter had run cross-country for two years when Pryor was the coach of the middle school team.

Pryor kept a middle school cross-country jersey – he said it was the exact jersey that Straeter had worn during his races – on a hanger near a cooler. The jersey had the number 502 on the bib. That was the number of Straeter’s race team.

“I knew him really well,” Pryor said. “When he didn’t have basketball practice or baseball or dirtbike racing or anything else going on, he would participate in summer conditioning programs and in winter conditioning programs with me at the middle school as well as the high schoolers, and his presence was really well felt with the high school as well as the middle school.

“He was just a kid who had a very infectious joy and faith about him. It’s going to leave a hole in the entire program, sadly his passing. We’ll feel it at the high school level, and I know the middle schoolers, when they get to racing, I think they’re really going to feel it. I knew him really well. It’s been a rough start to the season as a result, but I think we’re doing what Mason would want, and we’re moving forward, and we’re just trying to get better and try to honor him with our work ethic and our commitment to this sport.” 

Pryor said the jersey will travel to all the middle school meets this season.

Pryor also wore a blue and yellow rubber wristband that said “Live Like Mason” on it.

“I think the impact’s going to be felt very heavily down there with some of those kids,” Pryor said. “They were incredibly close to him. Both the Smith and Straeter families are very intertwined within the cross-country program. I know that that presence will still be felt and missed. But yeah, it’s his jersey, and it will be with us as well as these Straeter Strong bracelets will be on our wrists all season.”