Police in Florida are desperately searching for a youth basketball coach who went for a run four days ago and vanished seemingly without a trace.
Makuach Yak, 30, coaches a seventh-grade travel basketball team in Boca Raton and runs a non-profit organization that builds basketball courts for children in East Africa.
His roommate and business partner, Tate VanRoekel, told the station WPBF that he had dropped Yak off at their home on SW 10th Avenue in Delray Beach Friday night.
VanRoekel was supposed to pick up Yak the next day at 8 a.m. and take him to a basketball tournament. But when he arrived at the house at the agreed upon time, he said Yak was nowhere to be found.
The missing man was last seen on security video in his yard, dressed as if to go for a run.
“His wallet and keys and cellphone, Apple Watch, were all on the counter, just sitting there,” VanRoekel said.
The roommate said by Saturday afternoon he knew something was awry because Yak had missed the basketball tournament without any explanation, which was very unlike him.
“He’s very responsible,” VanRoekel said. “If he says he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it.”
VanRoekel and about a dozen friends, family members and parents whose children play on Yak’s basketball team spent Monday scouring Delray Beach in search of the coach and hanging “missing” posters.
“I felt it in my heart to find him because he’s a really good guy,” Michale Krumholz, whose son plays for coach Yak, told the station WPTV. “He’s done a lot for our kids to help them grow as players as well as kids.”
Yak’s family immigrated to the US from South Sudan when he was 8 years old.
While attending Augustana University in South Dakota, Yak became an All-American cross country star, according to his roommate.
“He’s very scheduled, very detailed, very smart and thinks things through, and is trying to be a step ahead usually,” VanRoekel said.
Yak was last seen wearing a purple Nike T-shirt, black running shorts, long white Nike socks and black Nike running shoes. He is described as 6’4″ and weighing 160 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes, and a small scar on the forehead.
A Facebook group has been created to share updates on the search for Yak. A $20,000 reward is being offered for the coach’s safe return.
Anyone with information on Yak’s whereabouts is asked to call the Delray Beach Police Department at 561-243-7800.