HOMER, N.Y. — Jeff Charles, a former high school football coach, had tried to come to the football field here twice in recent years but could not bring himself to go farther than the parking lot. One day last week he made his way down the winding ramp from the parking lot and onto the turf.
He stopped just short of the 10-yard line: “It happened down here,” Charles said, pointing toward midfield at the five-yard line. Then he burst into tears.
Charles, 49, the former head varsity football coach at John C. Birdlebough High School in Phoenix, N.