Hundreds gathered Friday to remember a Niles teen who drowned in Evanston on Wednesday night.
Family, community members and Niles North High School varsity basketball teammates of 17-year-old Sameer Quadri attended a memorial service for him at the Muslim Community Center in Irving Park on Friday afternoon.
Sameer slipped under water around 8:50 p.m. at Evanston’s Lighthouse Beach in the 2600 block of Sheridan Road, along the north side of the beach’s break wall, according to the Evanston Fire Department and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
He was located about 30 yards offshore around 9:30 p.m. and rushed to Evanston Hospital, where he later died.
Habeeb Quadri, Sameer’s cousin, said he had been proficient in math and was considering pursuing engineering as he looked at options for college, with the Big Ten schools as well as Loyola University Chicago and University of Illinois Chicago topping his list.
The family, along with the high school senior’s friends, is planning to fund a water well in a country that needs it to honor Sameer.
“We never know when life ends,” Habeeb Quadri told the Sun-Times on Friday. “[But] a person who passes away can still do good deeds.”
In the more than three years Glenn Olson, the head boys basketball coach at Niles North, had known the teen, the only trouble his star guard got into was sneaking into the school gyms to practice more.
Olson commended Sameer’s shooting ability on the court — which was on display on the path to a regional championship earlier this year — but even more so his dedication to the team.
“He came in every morning at 6 a.m.,” Olson told the Sun-Times outside the memorial service. “He was just a kid who worked tirelessly to become better. His greatest contribution was his work ethic, commitment and willingness to put the team before himself.”
In a 2024 interview with the Niles North’s student news outlet, North Star News, Sameer said he had started playing basketball as a child with his siblings and being on the team was his favorite part of going to school.
“I love the sense of community and the feeling of being a part of something bigger than yourself,” he said then. “It’s about winning, and you have to love the process of winning, which includes taking those losses in stride because eventually it’ll work out.”
The teen’s cousin said he was also a star at the annual family basketball tournament, where he “played with passion.”
The basketball season starts in November, and while the team hasn’t decided on a specific tribute, they know there will be one.
Olson said the way Sameer’s teammates carry themselves on and off the court will be an even more enduring tribute.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I don’t know how many guys are that universally liked and respected,” Olson said. “All the guys looked to him as an inspiration. They want to bring that part of Sameer, they want to keep that alive. … [But] it’ll be tough knowing he won’t be there.”