As the years had passed, they had all scattered to some degree. They owned restaurants, they ran companies and small businesses, they sold products, marketed products, produced products, and one in particular - whom Calvert Hall's class of 1992 will never forget - served as a paramedic for the state police.
But there they were, drawn together by unexpected phone calls, jarring e-mails and news reports that just didn't make sense.
Did you hear?
They were coming home from vacations. Enjoying the weekend. Watching football.
Turn on your TV. A helicopter crashed. You'll never believe.
They would later say it wasn't really sadness that initially swept over them. It was shock, disbelief, numbness. Who could imagine?
Mickey's dead.
One of their teammates was gone.
No one was surprised Mickey Lippy became a paramedic. As a child, he would bandage his stuffed animals and move them from room to room with a gurney he fashioned out of an old TV stand. And it was also no surprise that he joined the fire department and later the state police. Mickey was always the consummate team player. Growing up around sports, it was tough for him not to be.
Bruce Lippy taught physical education for 40 years in Baltimore County schools. He remembers coming home and spotting his son - named after Mickey Mantle - waiting on the porch.
"He'd have a basketball or lacrosse stick or whatever," Lippy says. "He was just waiting for me to get home to practice or play with him."
Mickey was a year-round athlete, rotating among baseball, football, basketball and lacrosse. His father remembers Mickey's first year playing Little League. Mickey hit a home run to win the game. The bleachers were filled with cheering parents, and all their attention was suddenly focused on the small boy with the bat.
"He didn't want to run around the bases," Lippy says. "He was not one that needed the limelight. He was a team guy all the way. That's why he was so well-liked."
That became quickly apparent when Mickey transferred as a sophomore to Calvert Hall from Loch Raven High in 1989.
If there was any doubt that Mickey was embraced as part the Cardinals team, it disappeared quickly. Just two weeks into the school year, Mickey's grandmother died. Mickey walked in the locker room one afternoon before practice and saw his teammates already seated. He thought he was late. He was certain he would be forced to run after practice.
