CAMERON — Cameron Yoe High School is mourning for Brian Reinders, 17, and Travis Mueck, 16, of Yoe High School who were killed Tuesday when a train collided with their pickup at South Houston Avenue and East Gillis Street railroad crossings.

“The day is not a normal day,” Cameron superintendent Clint McMahon said. “We’re just giving the students time to be with each other and grieve.”

He said in a school of their size everybody knows each other and many are even related, so the deaths of the two boys were felt deeply at the school. They were active in Ag, FFA and athletics. They were on the 2003 varsity football team.

“Eighty percent of our student body is involved in athletics,” he said. All the student athletes were gathered in the gym Wednesday morning and talked to by the coaches.

“Both of these young men were good students, well-respected,” McMahon said. “Everyone liked them; they were exceptional kids.”

The boys were driving with the sun in their eyes, Cameron police officer Terry Drummond said.

“Witnesses say they don’t think they ever saw the train,” Drummond said.

There are no crossing lights or guards at the location of the collision. They were hit by a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad special passenger train bound for the Super Bowl in Houston.