Huntingdon Mourns James Owens Jr: A Rising Defender Gone Too Soon
A beloved 20-year-old lineman’s life ends on a dark Alabama highway, leaving a team, a college and two communities searching for footing.
Trenton, November 19 EST: There’s no playbook for weeks like this. Coaches pretend there is because that’s how the job works, but when a kid like James E. Owens Jr. dies on a lonely Alabama highway, every script gets tossed out. Suddenly the season feels smaller. The locker room feels older. And a bunch of young men who thought they had time realize they don’t have nearly as much as they believed.
Owens was 20, which still counts as “a kid” in football years. He played like someone just starting to figure out where his talent could take him. The staff at Huntingdon College thought he had another gear coming, maybe this spring, maybe next fall nobody knows now. He was big enough to get attention (6-foot-2, 235 pounds), but he carried himself like someone who didn’t want anyone fussing over him.
Then came the early morning of November 10 on U.S. 82, a stretch of road most of us drive without thinking. Owens’ 2019 Camaro collided head-on with a Toyota Tundra driven by 42-year-old Justin E. Carlee of Maplesville, and both died there on the spot. According to what People reported, there wasn’t much time for anything. Just sudden stillness on a dark highway that has seen more than its share of grief.
A Crash That Took More Than A Life
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is digging through the usual evidence angles, distances, impact points but that’s not the kind of clarity his teammates need. They’ve been wandering in and out of the football facility all week, not quite sure what to do with their hands or their thoughts. You can lift, you can run drills, you can sit in a film room, but there’s no rep that prepares you for losing the guy who always did things the right way.
Owens wasn’t a star yet, at least not the statistical type. Ten tackles this season, twenty over three seasons. But anyone who ever spent time inside a defensive meeting room knows numbers don’t measure the whole thing. Some guys stabilize a line simply by not making mistakes. Some guys hold the energy in check. Owens was one of those guys. Quiet, but not distant. Focused, but not grim.
A Faith Moment That Meant More Than People Knew
He’d been baptized during the season, something Tuscaloosa Thread mentioned, and that detail keeps floating around campus because it’s the kind of thing teammates remember only after they’ve lost someone. It wasn’t performative. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone. According to Chaplain Rhett Butler, he approached the moment with an assurance that surprised people. It fits the way everyone describes him: grounded, thoughtful, not in a hurry to talk but always listening.
Coach Turk Trying To Steady A Shaken Team
When Coach Mike Turk talked to WSFA, his voice carried that tired tone coaches get when they’re trying to be both leaders and human beings at the same time. He said it had been one of those weeks where everybody needed everybody. No bravado. No “next man up.” Just a coach trying to pull his team inward instead of letting them scatter into their own grief.
Turk also said they would prep for the next game the way Owens would expect them to. And that’s the thing: everyone knew exactly what that meant without needing the words. Owens wasn’t flashy. He wasn’t moody. He came to work, did the job, didn’t make more of it than necessary.
The People Who Knew Him Keep Talking, And They Don’t Sound Scripted
Tributes came rolling in from Northridge High folks, from Huntingdon players, from people who had only a couple of interactions with him but remembered something kind or steady. The New York Post noted how broad the reaction was, which says something. Not all players leave that wide of a wake.
Scroll through the posts and the stories start sounding like a pattern: Owens showing up early without being asked. Owens holding a door. Owens making a joke that cut the tension. Owens taking younger guys aside and telling them the game slows down if you breathe. Those tiny, ordinary things that don’t make highlight reels but somehow stick in people’s memories when he’s gone.
Waiting For Answers That May Not Change Anything
The investigation is ongoing, and some people cling to that because it gives them something to focus on. Maybe road conditions played a part. Maybe visibility dipped. Maybe fate just lined two vehicles up in the wrong second of the wrong minute. None of it makes the absence easier to live with.
Funeral arrangements weren’t finalized when Tuscaloosa Thread last checked, but you can already feel the pull. The turnout will be big not because he was a star, but because kindness tends to fill rooms faster than celebrity ever does.
What A Team Loses When It Loses Someone Like This
Football is built on routines. Show up. Lift. Run. Watch film. Repeat. And when someone breaks that rhythm not by choice but by tragedy everything around the sport feels thin for a while. Teammates look at the field differently. Coaches second-guess their tone. Even the locker room feels heavier, like the air doesn’t quite move the same way.
Owens won’t finish what he started, and everyone feels the weight of that. But funny enough, nobody keeps talking about the snaps he didn’t get to play. They’re talking about how he treated people. How he carried himself. How he made hard days easier for the guys around him.
And that’s what sticks. Not the stats. Not the depth chart. Not the highlight clips.
The person.
Always the person.
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A former college-level cricketer and lifelong sports enthusiast, Arun Upadhayay brings the heart of an athlete to the sharp eye of a journalist. With firsthand experience in competitive sports and a deep understanding of team dynamics, Arun covers everything from grassroots tournaments to high-stakes international showdowns. His reporting blends field-level grit with analytical precision, making him a trusted voice for sports fans across New Jersey and beyond.
