Everyone who got to know Gerrard Flores loved him — and Flores knew everyone.
The Brush, Colorado, native died doing what he loved — officiating youth wrestling — on Jan. 7. Flores was a father of two boys, grandfather of one, Brush High School homecoming king, three-sport athlete, five-sport official, coach, ordained minister and karaoke aficionado.
He was 55 years old.
Flores was born into a big family — he was one of 13 children. His experiences with sports began at a young age and continued throughout his life, as did his love of his hometown, Brush.
A Beetdigger through and through, even when Flores moved to Colorado Springs, he kept Brush close to his heart, forming a youth baseball organization named after his high school’s mascot.
Flores met his fiancé Rene McElhany in an unlikely place — on the wrestling mat. She joined Flores in his officiating pursuits and encouraged him to try new sports like softball and volleyball. On off nights, the couple would go to youth matches and support other officials
“From the beginning, we met on the wrestling mat, and that is where he loved to be,” McElhany said. “But as we got to know each other and started building our relationship, he encouraged me to step on the mat in a different way, and to officiate with him.
“I traveled with him everywhere,” McElhany continued. “(Officiating) was our fun. It was our opportunity to go on a new adventure and do things together. It was how we lived and loved and spent our free time.”
Flores officiated football for 32 years, wrestling for 25 years, baseball for 18 years, softball for 5 years and started officiating volleyball last year.
One of Flores’ six sisters, Malessa Hernandez, said he worked to make the young people he was officiating feel special and was always a positive presence in life.
“When he would officiate wrestling, he would hold the winners’ arm up and ask them, ‘Where are your parents?’ and he would turn them to their parents to represent the winner — but in his eyes every kid was a winner to him,” Hernandez said. “He was not ever in a bad mood, he was just one happy, happy guy.
“This is such a huge hit not only to our family but numerous communities,” Hernandez continued. “He was just huge to everyone in the world.”
Flores shared his love of sports with his two sons, Trea and Tristin, supporting their athletic endeavors and sharing his love of the Denver Broncos with them. He was able to meet his grandson, Hendrix — Tristin’s son — before he passed.
Trea said the last time he saw his dad was for a trip to a Broncos game.
“I will never watch a Bronco game the same without my dad,” Trea Flores said. “We enjoyed watching football together and the Broncos were our thing. Our last trip together was going to the Bronco game, and that’s the last time I saw him. It was a great trip. And he’s a good man.
“You just felt loved by him,” Trea Flores continued. “He loved everyone, literally. So, I’ll just miss him greatly. He just had a big impact in life.”
Stephen Dabelko met Flores on the wrestling mat and said that the relationship Colorado wrestlers had with Flores differed from other officials.
“You couldn’t help but love him,” Dabelko said. “The news of his passing completely broke my son and I. Normally, wrestlers don’t have a relationship with refs but Gerrard was different. He made everyone feel special. The wrestling community lost one of its favorite people. He made every kid feel important. He found joy in making everyone feel special.”
Flores’ longtime friend JJ Pursely said that Flores enjoyed being involved in every level of the sport and watching those in the community grow up and move through the ranks.
“You could tell that he really enjoyed refereeing; he enjoyed watching your wrestling,” Pursley said. “He especially enjoyed watching Brush wrestling. And then the coaches that he got to ref when they were in their careers, he loved watching them coach.”
Another of Flores’ sisters, Shaire Chavez, attributed divine intervention to Flores’ ability to impact so many people around the state and country.
“We were all just wondering, ‘How did Gerard impact so many people throughout the United States?’” Chavez said. “And I came to the conclusion at 3 a.m. this morning that he was literally an angel on earth because how else could someone be loved all over?
“And if this world would live like Gerard did, it’d be a much better place because he was never ever mad,” Chavez said. “He was always so happy.”
Outside of the athletic community, Flores was known as a “jokester, a prankster” who “made everyone laugh and made everyone feel loved,” according to McElhany.
He loved to dance and sing karaoke; his favorite karaoke songs were “Summer Nights,” “Neon Moon,” and “Friends in Low Places.”
McElhany said Flores’ joy in life was to support those around him and keep up long-lasting relationships. An ordained minister, Flores would marry anyone who asked him to, including former players he had coached or refereed.
“His priorities in life were his family, his friends and sports,” McElhany said. “Those are the things he loved the most. He loved getting together with all of his brothers and sisters, all of his nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews. He delighted in things like going to their sporting events, supporting them and in all the things they were involved in.
“It was his great pleasure to encourage and to lift up those that he loved,” McElhany continued. “He had a wealth of friends from all different areas of life, all the way back to his school days that he still kept in contact, to probably just the person he met on the street yesterday. And he valued all of them very deeply.”
Flores’ friend Chad Cox echoed McElhany’s sentiments, saying that he brightened the lives of those around him.
“He was always a guy that just loved to have fun, no matter what he was doing,” Cox said. “It was rare to find him without a smile on his face, without him putting smiles on people’s faces.”
A funeral for Flores is scheduled for Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. at Brush High School. It is open to the public. Donations to the Flores family to help with funeral costs can be sent here.