For 14 months, Jeff Metcalf woke up carrying the same weight. Every morning began with anxiety, dread, and the memory of the phone call that changed his family forever.
That call came after his son, Austin Metcalf, was stabbed at Kuykendall Stadium. From that moment on, Jeff said the heaviness never truly left him.
But the morning after Karmelo Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison, something changed. Jeff said he woke up for the first time without the same overwhelming fear and darkness waiting for him.
He was clear that it was not happiness. It was not the kind of closure people talk about from the outside. It was simply the first morning in more than a year when he felt like getting out of bed.
Jeff was at home when he first learned something had happened to Austin. He rushed to the stadium in minutes and arrived as his son was being taken away on a gurney.
As a father, he did not want to believe what he was seeing. But deep down, he said he knew his son was gone before anyone officially told him.
Inside the locker room, Jeff found Austin’s twin brother, Hunter, overwhelmed by grief. He held him, prayed with him, and tried to stay strong while carrying a truth he could barely say out loud.
The drive to the hospital was filled with panic, silence, and heartbreak. When doctors finally came in to speak with the family, Jeff said he already knew what they were going to say.
Hunter’s pain in that moment was almost unbearable. He had witnessed something no brother should ever have to see, and the trauma of losing his twin left the family shattered.
At sentencing, Hunter stood in court and delivered a victim impact statement that left a lasting impression on his father. Jeff said he watched his son walk up as a boy and step down as a man.
Hunter asked Karmelo Anthony to look at him, and for a few seconds, their eyes met before Anthony looked away. For Jeff, that moment showed the strength Hunter had found in the middle of impossible pain.
Jeff said he had spent years teaching his sons how to express themselves with honesty and clarity. In court, he saw those lessons come through in a way that made him deeply proud.
Still, grief has not disappeared. Jeff said it comes back in quiet moments, while sitting outside at night, hunting alone in the woods, or seeing an old memory appear unexpectedly on his phone.
One memory that broke him came after Christmas, when a video surfaced of Austin’s first buck during a hunting trip. Jeff remembered laughing with his son in that moment, then realizing he could no longer even see clearly enough to continue hunting.
Now, Jeff holds onto signs that make him feel Austin is still near. One evening, a cardinal landed on his fence and stayed there, looking at him, and Jeff took it as a reminder that his son’s presence has not fully left him.
He still visits Austin’s grave and spends time there as a father trying to stay close to his child. The pain remains, but so does the love, and Jeff says every sign, memory, and quiet moment reminds him that Austin is still part of his life.
