DELAWARE, Ohio (WCMH) — The Ohio Wesleyan community is remembering sophomore Charley Morris who has been missing with his father for a week after a kayaking accident in Arkansas on spring break.

Morris’ track and field coaches said the entire campus is in shock after authorities said they have recovered the kayaks but not the bodies. The coaches have known Morris since he was a senior in high school and they recruited him from Denver, Colorado to the university. They said, without Morris, there will be a big hole left on this team.

“He was a joy to coach, we’re going to miss him very much,” said Kris Boey, the head track and field coach.

Boey said this kind of news is not something you can prepare for. A friend of the Morris family informed him 24 hours after the pair had gone missing.

“As a coach, you pray you can go your whole career without having to experience something like this,” said Boey. “But more importantly, you hope and pray your team members never have to experience something like this.”

Boey said Morris is the kind of athlete every coach wants on their team.

“He was the kind of guy in a sport that has some individual qualities to it; he really was able to gather people together,” Boey said.

Head cross country coach Ben Carlson said he watched the Morris come out of his shell into a great athlete, student and friend.

“He was super quiet and serious and then he could turn on a dime and have this big personality,” Carlson said.

NBC4 asked Carlson what three words he would use to describe Morris’s best qualities and, with a smile, he knew exactly how to answer.

“We have our student athletes fill out a pre-college survey and one of the questions we ask are what are three qualities they look for in somebody else,” Carlson said. “I love that question because to me it gets at who somebody aspires to be. And in Charley’s case I think it was actually who he was, it’s right on. He said kindness, determination and emotional awareness and I think all of those things encapsulate the perfect teammate.”

The coaches said the entire Ohio Wesleyan community has really been leaning on each other for support over the last few days. They said everyone is processing this news in a different way. Some teammates are clinging to their athletics, while others are talking it out.

The university is planning to hold a memorial for Morris next month.