{"id":71,"date":"2004-12-15T21:50:33","date_gmt":"2004-12-16T03:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/?p=71"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T05:00:00","slug":"ny-hs-wrestler-killed-in-two-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/w71\/ny-hs-wrestler-killed-in-two-car-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"NY HS Wrestler Killed in Two-Car Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/www.thejournalnews.com\/newsroom\/121404\/b04w14zeller.html<\/p>\n<p>Teen crash victim mourned<\/p>\n<p>Services<br \/>Calling hours for Matthew Zeller will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. <br \/>today at the Clark Funeral Home in Katonah. A funeral Mass is scheduled <br \/>for 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Joseph&#8217;s Roman Catholic Church in Croton <br \/>Falls.<\/p>\n<p>By TERRY CORCORAN<br \/>  THE JOURNAL NEWS<br \/>(Original publication: December 14, 2004)<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Zeller was slightly overweight when, as a 10-year-old, he began <br \/>taking tae kwon do at Yoo&#8217;s Martial Arts in Tarrytown, owner Sung Yoo <br \/>said yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>  In time, Yoo said, Zeller earned a second-degree black belt and became <br \/>so well-versed in the Korean martial art that he began teaching others.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;What he accomplished was done through a great demonstration of <br \/>perseverance, &#8220;Yoo said. &#8220;He always put his best effort forward to <br \/>overcome his physical limits. He always had a great heart, and he <br \/>always shared his love and showed compassion toward all students.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  From Yoo&#8217;s studio in Tarrytown to John Jay High School in Cross River, <br \/>many people yesterday mourned Zeller, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout and <br \/>high school senior who died in a two-car crash Friday afternoon in <br \/>Somers.<\/p>\n<p>  Wet pavement and excessive speed contributed to the incident, state <br \/>police said yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>  Zeller, who lived in Goldens Bridge, was heading east on Route 202 in <br \/>a 2000 Mazda about 4:15 p.m. when he apparently lost control of his car <br \/>on the wet pavement and drove into the path of a 2001 Dodge pickup <br \/>truck driven by Michael Ercole of Putnam Lake, 31.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;The cause was wet pavement with speed as a contributing factor, &#8220;said <br \/>Senior Investigator Patrick Bosley of the Somers state police barracks. <br \/>Bosley said no charges were expected.<\/p>\n<p>  Ercole is the former chief of the Putnam Lake Fire Department and an <br \/>active firefighter who has responded to his share of serious car <br \/>accidents over the years. He said yesterday that, while he was still <br \/>sore from bumps and bruises sustained in the crash, he felt terrible <br \/>for Zeller and his family.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;I&#8217;m feeling all right, but I&#8217;m upset with what happened, &#8220;Ercole <br \/>said. &#8220;I did everything I could to get out of the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  Zeller was a member of the varsity wrestling team at John Jay and vice <br \/>president of John Jay Safe Rides. At school yesterday, counselors were <br \/>made available to students, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;We have a community where close relationships are valued, &#8220;said John <br \/>Jay Principal Richard Leprine. &#8220;In a situation like this, as tragic as <br \/>it is, you end up seeing the positives of people supporting each other: <br \/>of students supporting students, and teachers supporting students and <br \/>each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  In postings on a Web site associated with the Clark Funeral Home, <br \/>www.Legacy.com, classmates and friends described a young man with a <br \/>gentle soul who went out of his way to cheer people up and make <br \/>strangers feel welcome. Friends told of how customers at the A&#038;P <br \/>supermarket in Goldens Bridge purposely would get in Zeller&#8217;s checkout <br \/>line because he was so friendly.<\/p>\n<p>  In one posting, the Starr family of North Salem said that while they <br \/>didn&#8217;t know Zeller well, they could tell from their experience at the <br \/>A&#038;P that &#8220;it was obvious he was a very special young man.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/www.thejournalnews.com\/newsroom\/121404\/b04w14zeller.html Teen crash victim mourned ServicesCalling hours for Matthew Zeller will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today at the Clark Funeral Home in Katonah. A funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Joseph&#8217;s Roman Catholic Church in Croton Falls. By TERRY CORCORAN THE JOURNAL NEWS(Original publication: December [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-19","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}