Copperas Cove — Just 12 days before graduation, an accident that left a graduating senior dead shocked a Copperas Cove high school.
While first glance, the race looked like just another installment of the Cove House Classic Bike Tour in Copperas Cove, for this community it was anything but.
"She was really interactive with the students on our campus," Sean Royal, a math teacher at Copperas Cove Junior High School, said.
When he heard the news from a student, he said he was speechless.
It was Sunday, May 20, 2018. Sihyeon Ryu Stephans, known by her Christian name, Sarah, was driving through Copperas Cove when she was in the car accident that took her life.
However, the legacy she built during her short life lives on.
Royal said she worked as a student nurse's aid at the Junior High and took sincere interest in her work. He said her passion was most evident through a presentation she gave on suicide prevention with three other students.
"Sarah was the most enthusiastic one in the group," Royal said. "You could tell she truly cared about it. The kids talked about it for weeks and some of them even said that they knew people who were having bad thoughts and that they were going to use the information that she gave to help them out."
As the sun was rising over the Central Texas sky Aug. 11, that legacy was shared across Copperas Cove.
Royal, alongside her adopted dad, honored her memory by dedicating their run in the tour to Sarah's memory.
"There's no person who's touched the community so much, like Sarah," Royal said.
Royal, a former Marine who worked funeral details, said the ride was rewarding, as he took Sarah through the town they both called home one last time.
"I might not have been wearing my dress blues for this," Royal said. "But it's even more important. This is a person I knew, who made such an impact and touched the community and I feel honored to be able to honor her in this way."
Sarah's dad said she had been planning to attend the University of Texas at Austin to study nursing upon graduation.